Luis Scola: It’ll be an emotional game
Luis Scola’s life was turned upside down this past summer.
The Houston Rockets used their amnesty provision and waived the 32-year-old power forward, ending what had been a five-year relationship between team and player.
“I moved on,” Scola said a day before his return to Houston.
“I never said it bothered me. That’s not the way I like to speak about Houston. They just did something that they thought it was good for them. I understand it. I know how the business is. I just feel a little sad. I thought it was — let’s say it this way, it wasn’t the end that I was expecting to be. I thought it was a great five years. It just didn’t finish the way I thought it was going to finish. That’s it. I move on. I’m a basketball player. I’m in a great place now. I’m happy to be here. It’s just emotional to come back there.”
Scola and the Suns visit Houston Wednesday to start a three-game road trip.
It’ll be the second time in five days the Suns and Rockets share the same floor. They met Saturday, with the Suns winning 107-105 at US Airways Center.
Though about the only thing familiar looking to Scola were the uniform colors, and even those had been tweaked since he joined the Suns.
“There’s only one player left, Chandler (Parsons), so it wasn’t really emotional playing against my former teammates because there weren’t any,” Scola said smiling.
“I saw the guys that were around us, which I had great relationship with and that was emotional a little bit. But I think going back there is going to be the real problem — not a problem. Everybody goes through that. It’ll be an emotional game. I just want to be focused there to have a good game.”
Scola admitted it has been difficult to not think about what it’s going to be like, being a visitor in his former home.
“The whole process — coming to arena in a bus, staying in Houston in a hotel,” he said. “The whole process is a little weird, seeing the guys in the valet parking, the security guards, just people that I interacted with for five years. All of them were great with me.”
