体坛英语新闻：Argentina's Scola joins Toronto Raptors

BUENOS AIRES, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Argentinean basketball player Luis Scola confirmed on Thursday he will be playing with the Toronto Raptors in the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) from this season.

"I'm going to the north. I hope that what happened to Dady (Brieva)'s cousin doesn't happen to me," wrote the player on his Twitter account in reference to a story that an Argentinean actor tells about a family member's experience with the cold and snow in Canada.

The 35-year-old, 2.06-meter-tall power forward comes to the Canadian team after two seasons with NBA franchise Indiana Pacers where in the last season he averaged 20.5 minutes on the court with 9.4 points and 6.5 rebounds.

Scola made his debut in the NBA in 2007 with Houston Rockets after winning various titles in Spain's ABC league with Tau Ceramica.

In the Rockets Scola was teammates with Chinese star Yao Ming who played for eight seasons with the U.S. team until his retirement in 2011. Yao was also chosen to compete in the All Star Game contest seven times.

Scola stayed with Houston until he transferred to Phoenix Suns in 2012 and the year after he joined Indiana. With Indiana, he lost the 2014 Eastern Conference final against Miami Heats.

Apart from his NBA career and awards in Spain, Scola won the gold medal with the Argentinean national team at the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens and the bronze in Beijing 2008.

The Argentina captain also was part of the silver medal-winning team at the Basketball World Cup in Indianapolis 2002 and in 2014 he became the third highest scoring player in the history of the World Cup with 573 points.