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KoriEllis
09-03-2004, 06:36 AM
Luis Scola The Golden Boy

www.woai.com/spurs/story....BA6A27D61F (http://www.woai.com/spurs/story.aspx?content_id=A69D47EB-8659-453C-8ED2-56BA6A27D61F)

By LJ Ellis
SpursZONE.com

It was always his dream, since he was a six year old playing basketball in Buenos Aires. Bringing home an Olympic gold medal for his country would be the ultimate achievement, more so than individual glory or the riches of the NBA.

With an 84-69 victory over Italy, it was mission accomplished for Luis Scola. For his soccer crazed nation, the gold medal was its first ever medal in basketball.

For as much well-deserved credit that Manu Ginobili has received, Scola was arguably as much of a hero as his famous teammate. After coming off the bench for the entire tournament, Scola filled in for an injured Fabricio Oberto at power forward in the gold medal game.

Argentina didn’t skip a beat. The 6-foot-8 Scola battered the smaller Italian team down low, amassing 25 points and 11 rebounds. Playing all but three minutes of the contest, Scola finished 10-for-13 from the field and hit all five of his free throw attempts.

Though it was his best game of the Olympics, Scola was a star throughout the competition. He was the tournament’s seventh leading scorer (17.6 points per game), fifth leading offensive rebounder (2.5 per game) and had the highest field goal percentage (65.5%).

Drafted with the 56th choice of the 2002 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs, general manager RC Buford and head coach Gregg Popovich have indicated that they want to see Scola in a Spurs’ uniform. Popovich was quoted as saying that Scola will be the top priority going into next year’s offseason.

The most difficult hurdle in getting Scola to San Antonio has been his contract buyout with his current Spanish league team Tau Ceramica. A source closed to Scola indicated that the buyout after the 2004-05 season will be approximately $2 million, an amount that the Spurs can only pay $350,000 towards.

To make up the difference, the Spurs will likely need to offer Scola a relatively lucrative contract. Whereas the Spurs gave Ginobili a two-year contract worth less than $3 million to make the jump to the NBA, Scola’s initial contract would theoretically have to be much larger.

Though there have been some observers who have doubted whether Scola can make the transition to the NBA game, Buford remains positive.

"He's definitely a contributor,” he told ESPN. “People that have evaluated him have spent too much time worrying about his limitations and not appreciating what he does bring to a team. He's a little bit undersized. He's not the world's greatest athlete, but he knows how to play and he gets things done.''

Having already conquered gold for his homeland, the Spurs are hoping Scola can soon team with Ginobili again to bring diamond-studded rings to San Antonio.

fonzy16
09-03-2004, 06:59 AM
There is a mistake in the article. Tau Ceramica, the team where Scola plays, is not in Italian league, but Spanish league (spanish team). And also Euro-league of course.

:wacko
go spurs!

KoriEllis
09-03-2004, 07:06 AM
Yeah you are right, it was a typo and corrected online.

Thanks.

RobinsontoDuncan
09-03-2004, 11:38 AM
hey jori, LJ said his buyout is 2 mil next year, my question is when does his contract expire? i mean he cant have signed there for life but weve been talking about bringing him over for a long time now