Scola to form his heir

BUENOS AIRES (Martín Seldes' Brave New World) – Something less than a year ago, Luis Scola was already sitting in the hotel’s hall, when I entered to interview another player.

He asked me what time was it and after my answer –ten to four, I told him- his face became something like Hulk’s body.

-I can’t believe it –he said. In ten minutes, the bus is leaving for the training session and there’s no one here. Not even one.

Less than two minutes later, most of his national teammates were sitting with him and his face became normal again.

Five minutes before four, he was already sitting in the front seat of the bus, with his eyes on his watch. Nobody arrived late and the bus left on time.

Luis Scola is not only the captain of one of the best teams of Argentina’s sports history. He’s the best at what he does.

In the last days, the Houston Rockets centre –who must be really angry for not having made it to the NBA playoffs- did one of those things that made him the captain.

According to a sports newspaper in Argentina, Scola invited Marcos D’Elia, a promising young Argentinian player, to share some training sessions with him in Houston.

Not with the team, with him.

D’Elia is the best promise in Argentina and may currently be the only one that appears with real chances of becoming a top, top player. And who knows, even a NBA player some day.
 
A couple of years ago, Scola created a plan in which he helps young players to develop their talent both inside and, especially, outside the court. That’s how he met D’Elia and how they started to build a relationship.
 
The 20-year old player will be in the United States for six days to learn who knows how many things from an experienced and skilful Scola, whose idea is probably form his own heir to his throne.

The kid was also called up by the national team’s coach Julio Lamas to play the South American Championship next June, a warm up tournament for the Olympic Games. And he will be fighting for a position for London.
 
D’Elia will share that group with Fabricio Oberto, the player he was compared to since the 2,09m centre made it to the national league.

Scola is someone special. He loves basketball as much as he loves his country and that’s why he has never missed a summer with the national team since 1999.

He has played every year, except in 2000, when Argentina didn’t qualify to Sydney, and in 2005, when Argentina played the FIBA Americas Championship with the certainty of having won a spot for the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Athens 2004.

With his presence every year and his commitment to the national team, together with his amazing ability to score, Scola has become the leader of a team that has big names such as Manu Ginóbili, Oberto and Andrés Nocioni.
However, he doesn’t take the credit for himself.

“I can be the captain but in the team there are many leaders”, he said when everyone was comparing his role to Manu’s.

But his life is not only basketball. It’s amazing how he speaks about politics when you ask him, even if he doesn’t live in his own country most of the year.

Scola is one of the two best players of Argentina’s history, the captain, a father –or an older brother, he would prefer- to the youngsters, an intelligent and very interested guy. He’s all that, but mainly Luis Scola is an example to everyone.

With D'Elia he demonstrated it once again.

Martín Seldes

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