By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Luis Scola led Argentina to silver at the 2019 FIBA World Cup and, at 39 years of age, looked as good as any other player in the tournament. However, Scola has been aware of being at the end of his career and if the national team hadn’t qualified for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, he would’ve retired:
“Yes, the Olympics make a big difference about me playing right now. I decided to play the World Cup and if we hadn’t qualified for the Olympics, I would’ve stopped playing,” he said and explained the process of the decision he made with his wife.
“That was the decision I made before the World Cup but we qualified and I left a little window open that if we qualify then we see what kind of options I have. We see how it feels on the court during the tournament and sit down with my wife to talk about what we’ll do. After the World Cup, she actually came to me, which was kind of surprising and said: ‘Now you can’t stop playing, now you have to play one more year, you have to play in the Olympics.’ We just had to figure out where. I talked to her about some options including Olimpia Milano and that’s how we started taking shape of the decision,” Scola explained.