{"id":44901,"date":"2019-10-09T09:47:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T07:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.demo.olimpia.iquii.info\/luis-scola-el-capitan-flag-bearer-olympics-hero-and-a-legend-too-2\/"},"modified":"2019-10-09T09:47:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T07:47:51","slug":"luis-scola-el-capitan-flag-bearer-olympics-hero-and-a-legend-too-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olimpiamilano.com\/en\/luis-scola-el-capitan-flag-bearer-olympics-hero-and-a-legend-too-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Luis Scola, “El Capitan”, flag-bearer, Olympics hero and a legend too"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Argentina they call him “El Capitan”, t<\/strong>he Captain, he\u2019s a symbol, an icon, a little bit of everything, but above all, he\u2019s the link between the “Golden Generation” that made Argentine basketball a world powerhouse and the new era represented by the players who won the silver medal at the last World Championships in China, clinching a berth for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, too. \u00a0In Europe, Luis Alberto Scola is a legendary figure, the superstar who as a young man brought Baskonia among the EuroLeague contenders, by postponing his inevitable landing in the NBA, where he eventually stayed eight seasons, succeeding in doing the same things he did on this side of the ocean.<\/p>\n

Now he is 39, he no longer wears his bobbed hair behind a thin black band,<\/strong> his temples are white, his wrinkles dug into his face. But on the court, he is always the King of the pivot foot, of the fakes, of the low-post game to which he added over time the three-point shot as well as the innate ability to read the defense and hurt it with a crispy pass.<\/p>\n

Where to start with Luis Scola, with El Capitan?<\/strong> Perhaps from Buenos Aires, the football capital of the world, the place where he decided to do something else, to play basketball, instead. Strange choice? No, he explains: “Italy is also a football country, but good basketball is played here. Argentina is a football country, as there are many others, but there is also room for other sports. Basketball is doing well in our country, obviously it does not have the popularity of football, but we are doing well, we have room for improvement and we can do even better.\u201d After all, there is a reason if Luis Scola, a basketball player, in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro was chosen as the flag-bearer during the opening ceremony. “It was the highlight of my career – he says – The picture of me, with the flag and the whole Argentine delegation behind it, sums up my whole career. Whatever I did on the court should be mentioned after the honor of carrying the flag in Rio. It was the most important thing that I have achieved.\u201d Four years earlier, in Beijing, it was Ginobili who did the job, who had the honor.<\/p>\n

Scola began playing in Buenos Aires, played for the Ferro Carril Oeste,<\/strong> a team which won three Argentine championships in the 1980s and also won the South American club championship. It is a historical basketball club, but Luis Scola is clearly the most famous player to have ever been part of it. Only, he left to play in Spain when he was a teen-ager. The next step was Vitoria, Basque Country. “My connection with Vitoria is special. I had the chance to stay there for so many years, and without a doubt it was fundamental to make me grow as a person. Even as a player, but above all as a person. My first kids were born while I was playing in Vitoria. The things I did in my career, and I didn’t even think I could do it, make Vitoria a place that will always be special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Vitoria, he won the Spanish title and played three consecutive EuroLeague Final Fours,<\/strong> on top of a championship series against – of all the teams – Ettore Messina’s Virtus in 2001. Scola was 21, but he was already one of the team’s key players along with another Argentine\u2019s big man, Fabricio Oberto. Virtus was led by Manu Ginobili. “We have had some great EuroLeague seasons, we achieved the goals, made the Final Four three years in a row. I think it didn\u2019t mean to be for us, and at some point we had to look ahead, I went to the NBA. It wasn’t meant to be, but I don’t think about it much, it doesn’t bother me, many of the things we did are the same as winning the EuroLeague,\u201d he says.\u00a0When he decided to go to the NBA, in Houston, he was already 27 years old. And he was already an Olympic champion. “We had a great group of players, who happened to play well together and to get along well together. We made a lot of noise in the basketball world. That team will always be remembered, but we also have many other things too, new players to show, goals to achieve in the future,\u201d Scola says. In Athens, in 2004, when Argentina won the title, Italy finished second. Scola scored 25 points in the final game. He was the top scorer. The MVP as a fact. The \u201calbiceleste\u201d was also the team that eliminated the United States in the semifinal games. Scola is the third Olympic gold medalist to play in Milan after Bill Bradley, who won in Tokyo in 1964 and played in Milan in 1966, and Hugo Sconochini, who played in Olimpia before winning the gold, again in Athens.<\/p>\n