Luis Scola, Argentina forward: The first time I played against [Team USA] was in '99 in Puerto Rico. We were trying to qualify to the Olympics in 2000. We were very young -- I was 19, Manu [Ginobili] was 21, [Andres] Nocioni was 19 -- nobody was above 25. I was guarding Vin Baker, and I remember thinking this is just impossible. There's nobody in the world who could compete with these guys. They're taller than me, he weighs like 20 more pounds than I do but he runs faster and he shoots from farther and he can play in the post and he can guard. How can I compete? There's no one area I can take advantage of him. I felt miles away, like it was another sport for us. We didn't qualify to Sydney, but we start playing really well and things start to change after that tournament. The second time we play them, we still lost by 30 but we play a lot better. And the year after we start growing, and by 2002 things are completely different for us.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27462338/what-did-just-watch-bronze-broke-usa-basketball