Pau Gasol and Luis Scola. /
The Games bring together two 40-year-olds who show the new generations of Spain and Argentina the way, the truth and the life
The mere appointment of Pau Gasol Sáez and Luis Alberto Scola Balvoa encourages us to follow the path of religious genuflection or civil recognition, depending on whoever reads this as a believer in transcendence or a mere admirer of human virtues is credited. It is about two characters that cannot be kept in sporting indifference. With 41 years already completed and about to be measured over the areas of Tokyo, Barcelona and Buenos Aires, they embody the leadership of those who have earned the hierarchy for two long decades on the path of fait accompli. That aside from the convincing speeches, especially from the side that handles the credible verb of Gasol I ‘The Emperor’. No mouthpiece. Convincing through action. For consistency, integrity and love of basketball both could validate -and with VAT- several school classes to students in need of appreciating strong values, apart from deceptive sweeteners.
How much they are or are not this Thursday depends on the ideas about their respective uses that ‘El Oveja’ and Sergio Scariolo, respectively, handle. But it would be strange if the one with the gray hair and the one with the whitish beard do not coincide at some point to pay tribute to the eternal basketball that both love so much. The Italian coach of the Spanish team has found in the Garuba-Pau duo that almost ideal combo between youthful strength and mature knowledge as components of the second unit. While Scola, until he announces his retirement, indicates the prow of the albiceleste boat to types who admire him the same as a saint is contemplated. It is what it has, in the cases of Catalan and Buenos Aires, to become still living fruits of an exemplary harvest. That of the eighty or great reserve in the cases that concern us with the basket.
The signer of this report still remembers the first interview with a very tall boy in the old sports center of Mendizorroza, in Vitoria. And that phrase by Luifa with an immediate magnet to rise to the head of the headline. “The ACB is ‘recontragrande’ for me,” said one of the best ‘fours’ that have populated the European courts before flying to Houston. His orders of merit include leading by youth (19 years) the quota of foreigners who debuted in the Spanish League. It is difficult to find a better plunger for zonal defenses than the Buenos Aires man, stationed on the free throw line to attack through the grinder tactic or reverse the hoop or distribute the ball from the high post. A precise violinist in that gap that rival rearguards leave like a clearing in the forest. And almost unheard of to find some guy outside the greatest of the Sant Boi saga with the ability to read the game and solve offensive situations through hooks with both hands.
Both one and the other embody the way, the truth and the life for the new vintages of basketball players in both countries. It is true that Argentina and Spain display other highly valuable and expert elements in the shop window, but none with the moral ascendancy of those who have marked a modern, and at the same time, permanent era of the interior domains. Even admitting that the combustion times distinguish one from the other. So similar, on the other hand, scoring their currencies in the teams (Baskonia and Memphis or Lakers, respectively) and national teams. Luis matured to the rhythm of the seasons in Vitoria before launching the rocket in Houston.
Sudden incense
Lo de Pau represents an almost paranormal example. For the skinny and longitudinal center to whom Aíto opened the door in 2000 due to the Seikaly fiasco, a triumphant exercise was enough. A kind of Mediterranean fireworks that left the smell of burning gunpowder in the atmosphere for life. A sudden and permanent incense. At the age of 21, he dominated the ACB and, above all, the Cup in Malaga in such a way that those real fireworks propelled him to number 3 in the NBA draft. Since then, his determination to put Memphis on the real map and the certainty that without him the handsome Los Angeles club would not have lifted the 2009 and 2010 trophies. Kobe Bryant, him and Lamar Odom as third man.
And with their national teams? Well, Scola’s historic Argentine Olympic gold in 2004 and the three major European medals, two world medals and as many silver in the Gasol I Games. Apart from palpable trophies to show, this Thursday’s appointment will unite two components of a harvest privileged, guardians of the essences that pay tribute to a wonderful sport.
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