Word: scola
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Argentina was the model. Ginboli, Scola, Oberto, Nocioni. NBA-caliber players, meshed together from the time they were toddlers, playing for national pride. In Athens in 2004, it was basketball that became the beautiful game for the Argentines, as they whipped passes no D could disrupt, and stroked threes with frightening ease. They flattened the U.S. with precision, and won gold. Maradona and Messi would be proud...
...rough. But international hoops is actually much more physical than the NBA. The refs let more go; in the NBA, every hand check is a federal offense. So Argentina's strategy was clear: knock the Americans to the floor early and often. In the first quarter, Argentina's Luis Scola, a 6-ft, 9-in. 230 lb. center, gave America's Dwight Howard a good tug. The 6-ft,. 11-in., 265 lb. Howard makes Mr. Universe look bony, so he didn't fall. But the refs swallowed the whistle, inviting more contact...
...Later in the first quarter, Scola hip-checked Kobe Bryant like a hockey goon. Bryant whaled, to no avail. Play on. "They tried to rattle us up out there," says Carmelo Anthony, who scored 21 points on a perfect 13-13 from the free throw line. "We did a hell of a job keeping our composure. I'm glad - it could have gotten ugly...
...what can Spain, which knocked off Lithuania in the other semi, possibly do to at least make the gold medal game interesting? Scola thinks they should ape Argentina and wrestle. "You gotta play ugly," Scola says, referring to his team's rugby tactics. "If you try to play 'Showtime,' the way [the U.S.] plays, you try to throw the ball up, they're going to be better. They jump higher, they run faster, they're stronger . . .You've got make them feel uncomfortable. That's the only...
...regional conflicts. "It's easy to say, 'Go Benedict! Hit the Muslims!'" says Gibson. "But that's not who he is. He is not a Crusader." Shortly before Regensburg, Benedict had endured Western criticism for repeatedly demanding a cease-fire after Israel's invasion of Lebanon. Angelo Cardinal Scola, a protégé of the Pope's who edits Oasis, a Church quarterly on dialogue with Islam, says the fact "that radical Islam can turn to violence does not mean we must respond with a crusade...