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Kyrie Irving's Burden由NoDoubt76 发表在虎扑篮球·翻译团招工部http://bbs.hupu.co m/fyt-store

Kyrie Irving's Burden

Cleveland's latest would-be savior is an unassuming point guard who is doing th e impossible: making the city forget about that guy who took his talents to Sout h Beach

LEE JENKINS

On opening night a 39-year-old Cavaliers season-ticket holder named Jason Herro n walked into the team shop at Quicken Loans Arena, fished out his debit card an d paid $25 for the last available Kyrie Irving jersey T-shirt. This one, he figured, h e'll never have to burn.

Herron holds an incendiary place in Cleveland history. Nearly seven months ear lier, on July 8, 2010, he drove to Harry Buffalo bar and restaurant in Lakewood, Ohio, to celebrate the re-signing of LeBron James. But like any longtime Cleveland spor ts fan, he allowed for the possibility that something might go wrong. So he pulled over at a gas station and bought a bottle of lighter fluid, just in case. When Jame s announced he was heading to Miami, Herron marched into the parking lot, where he convinced another customer to peel off his wine-red number 23 jersey. "Are yo u really going to wear that again?" Herron asked. A cameraman from Channel 5, t he ABC affiliate in Cleveland, scrambled into position. The jersey went up in flame s, followed by Herron's PLEASE STAY LBJ T-shirt, and dozens like it. One patron tossed his LeBron sneakers into the bonfire. Judging from news reports that night, you'd have thought souvenir stores were ablaze across the city, but most of those reports were based on one jersey in one clip at one suburban bar. "It was just us, " Herron says. "I saw on YouTube that someone else burned a jersey, but that wa s later."

Herron was back at Harry Buffalo on Jan. 29 of this year, sipping a Bud Light alo ngside a few of his partners in pyrotechnics. The television at the bar was again t uned to Channel 5. The Cavaliers were in Boston, the city where James played hi s last game in wine red, and Irving was running figure eights around the Celtics. With 22.2 seconds left and the Cavs down a point, coach Byron Scott called a pla y for Irving. He instructed the rookie point guard, picked first in the 2011 draft, to hold the ball for exactly 15 seconds and then attack. Scott's assistants thought Irvi ng should initiate sooner, given that he had played only 18 NBA games and might not be ready for a last-second shot against Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. "Let t he young man have it," Scott said.

Irving glanced at his father, Drederick, in a courtside seat. Herron rose from his ba rstool. The Boston crowd chanted for defense. Irving dribbled down the clock, rush ed around a screen at the three-point line and found himself isolated against Celtic

s forward Brandon Bass. Irving froze him with a slithery crossover between the leg s before splitting Bass and point guard Avery Bradley with a cyclone of a spin mo ve at the right elbow. The Celtics crashed the paint, but Irving was too fast, and w ith a flick of his left wrist he laid in the game-winner.

Irving pointed at his dad, who was sprinting down the sideline. Herron was twirling a brunette through the air. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert tweeted gleefully, "I th ink I am pretty pleased with the 1st pick, how about you?!" Anger and disgust over James' s departure had been smoldering in Cleveland for a year and half. Fans couldn't le t go. Now the Age of LeBron was over. The Irving Era was underway. "This is a new beginning," Herron says. "A lot of the hate here has subsided. There is hope now. And it's because of Kyrie."

Cleveland is falling in love with another basketball player.

Irving is as close as you'll find nowadays to a high schooler in the NBA, a 19-yea r-old from New Jersey who played just 11 college games at Duke and three month s ago was on campus taking classes in psychology, theater and African-American history. The lockout robbed him of summer league and a full training camp, and o n opening night he felt comfortable calling only one play, which is why he kept jutti ng his right thumb in the air. "His breath smells like Similac," said Scott, familiar w ith brands of baby formula, having weaned Chris Paul in New Orleans. In his seco nd game Irving forced himself to call different plays and found that he could run th em just fine. In his next he took a last-second shot and accepted responsibility for the loss when it missed.

Today's NBA is full of enthralling point guards, but none more precocious than Irvin g. At 6' 3", 191 pounds, he is not as strong as Derrick Rose, as explosive as Rus sell Westbrook or as flashy as Ricky Rubio. Irving is defined by the sum of his ski lls, a driver who can shoot, a scorer who can pass. Like a young Steve Nash, he constantly changes speeds and directions, finishes with either hand and spins layup s high off the backboard as if he's hitting feathery flop wedges. "He comes to com pete," says Celtics coach Doc Rivers. "He doesn't come to put on a show." No on e in Cleveland will replace James, and no one is asking Irving to try, but his 21.1 points per 36 minutes are more than James scored as a rookie, with a higher field goal percentage. His efficiency rating of 20.7 is better than Magic Johnson's when he was a rookie. Last Friday night at All-Star weekend in Orlando, Irving won MV P of the Rising Stars exhibition, with 34 points on 12 of 13 shooting.

The Cavaliers will take the garish numbers, but they also appreciate Irving's modes t gestures. He showed up to his introductory press conference with an entourage o f one, his dad. He moved into a downtown apartment instead of a suburban mansi on. The first thing he bought with his new contract was a pair of dress socks. "Th ey were kind of expensive," Irving says. "Big-boy purchase." He goes out for dinne r with rookie forward Tristan Thompson, drafted three spots after him, but they avoi

d VIP rooms. "W

e don't feel entitled," Thompson says. The day after the Cavs bea t Boston, the fourth-grade class at Center Elementary School in Mayfield Heights st opped by the team's practice facility for a fitness program, and Irving joined in with a pink jump rope. When the event was over, he stuck around and played one-on-eight with the kids, exchanging G-rated trash talk. A club official finally had to remi nd him the Celtics were back in town the next day. "You wouldn't know he's the N umber 1 pick," says guard Anthony Parker. "I think that's what this organization like s most."

At 13--18, Cleveland is in ninth place in the East, but it's far removed from the 26-game losing streak that stained nearly two months of last season. Needing to build, the Cavaliers traded point guard Mo Williams to the Clippers for Baron Davis, his burdensome contract and a first-round pick. The Clippers ended up in the lottery, b ut just barely. The Cavs had a 19.9% chance of winning the lucky Ping-Pong ball with their own pick, a 2.8% chance of winning it with the Clippers'. Gilbert treated t he lottery like a road game in the playoffs, taking a private plane to New Jersey w ith his family, staff, and good-luck charms Joe Haden and Josh Cribbs, who play f or the Browns but were outfitted in Cavs jerseys. Gilbert's 14-year-old son, Nick, w ho suffers from a neurological disorder, represented the team on the stage, sportin g a bow tie. When Wizards point guard John Wall, the No. 1 pick in 2010, saw th e Cavs' colorful contingent, he approached Irving in the audience and whispered, " Cleveland."

Over the years the lottery has produced story lines so poetic that they can seem c ontrived. Cleveland won in 2003, when the top prospect was a wunderkind from Ak ron, and they prevailed again the year after he left, on the Hail Mary from the Clip pers. "It was like winning the actual lottery," says Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant. Nick threw his fist in the air. Haden and Cribbs rushed the stage. Gilbert h ugged Irving. "Shocking events took place last summer, and it was a slow, long, p ainful haul to get through it," Gilbert said that night. "Maybe this will be the final st raw in getting over the hump, getting to the other side."

Irving never thought much about James's move, beyond the effect it would have o n NBA video games, but his father was sensitive to it. "I think Cleveland has the g reatest fans in the world," Drederick says. "They're human. What happened to the m was devastating. It's natural to want some kind of replacement. I told Kyrie to u nderstand that people are going be apprehensive at first because they don't know much about you. But they will."

Kyrie's mother,Elizabeth, died of a blood infection when he was four, leaving Dre derick to raise him and his older sister, Asia. Dred, as he's known, grew up playin g basketball at the Mitchel Houses in the Bronx, was MVP at Rucker Park and the second-leading scorer in school history at Boston University. He played profession ally in Australia, where Kyrie was born, and during pro-am games he parked the st roller at the end of the bench. If Kyrie was fussy, Dred called timeout and fed him

a bottle. "He watched everything," Dred says. The family settled in West Orange, N.J., where Dred ran Kyrie through Mikan drills in the backyard and showed him h ow to spin layups off the cracked backboard. On weekends Dred took him to the Mitchel Houses for a taste of the blacktop.

A senior bond analyst at Thomson Reuters, Dred insisted on a broad education an

d sent Kyri

e every summer to Elizabeth's parents in Port Orchard, Wash., where th

e boy paddled canoes and picked blackberries. In fourth grade Kyrie learned to pla y the baritone sax, hauling the five-foot instrument home on the bus. Entering high school, he spurned the local basketball hothouses for $33,000-a-year Montclair (N. J.) Kimberley Academy, and he made the honor roll.

Strange as it sounds, Irving was no prodigy. In one of his first games at MKA he shot a jumper off the side of the backboard, and from then on he spent free perio ds studying film in the athletic department. He came off the bench for his AAU tea m, the New Jersey Roadrunners. As a sophomore at MKA, Irving scored 47 points in one game and 48 in another, prompting athletic director Todd Smith to nominat e him for SI's FACES IN THE CROWD. He was rejected. When Irving transferred as a junior to powerful St. Patrick in Elizabeth, N.J., where he would be promised more exposure, Smith didn't worry much about the effect on the team. "It was the school that really missed him," Smith says.

The St. Patrick coach, Kevin Boyle, had never seen Irving when he applied. The p rincipal, Joe Picaro, didn't know his name. Irving worked out every day at the You ng Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association, in a windowless basement gym that could reach 120°, where he played full-court games of one-on-one to 100 wit h his AAU coach, Sandy Pyonin. At St. Pat he added late-night one-on-one games against a Panamanian priest who lived across the street. "Kyrie was a mystery m an," says Tristan Thompson, who played for rival St. Benedict's. "You heard about him, but you didn't know what he could do." Irving often stood on the perimeter an d passed. Coaches begged him to score.

In the summer of 2009, St. Patrick flew to Orlando for the annual Super Showcase tournament, but star forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist chose to play with his AAU tea m instead. The onus was on Irving. In a span of six hours he scored 59 points an d orchestrated upsets of the two best club squads in the nation, one led by Kidd-Gilchrist (now at Kentucky) and the other by future Ohio State phenom Jared Sullin ger. Between games Irving sat on the bench with his friends from the Roadrunners and passed out cups of water. "Everything changed for Kyrie that day," says Duk e assistant coach Chris Collins. "It was the day he figured out how good he was."

Irving committed to Duke for the 2010--11 season even though Kentucky was cran king out lottery picks and his godfather, former NBA point guard Rod Strickland, is on the staff there. And Irving was among the best players in the country through the first seven games of last season. In the eighth he returned to New Jersey to f

ace Butler. The game was at Izod Center, on the Nets' home court, where Irving p layed as a fourth-grader and then rushed home to write behind his closet door, "I' m going to the NBA!!" Against the Bulldogs, Irving made an awkward move on the baseline and thought he stubbed the big toe on his right foot. Tests revealed lig a ment damage. He cried with Collins in the coach's office. Irving healed by the NCA A tournament, scoring 28 points in a Sweet 16 loss to Arizona, but most of his se ason was spent studying Duke senior Nolan Smith from the bench. When Irving de clared for the NBA draft, he promised Dred he would get his degree within five ye ars.

Agents recruited Irving as hard as colleges, but their global-icon pitches resonated no better than Kentucky's had. He signed with Jeff Wechsler, who represents only three NBA players and met Irving for the first time during their interview shortly aft er the tournament. "But it was different than any other interview," Irving says. It inc luded an appearance by the chairman of a publicly traded company, who instructed Irving to save half his earnings from every paycheck, and another by the founder of a nonprofit group, who pushed him toward philanthropy. "I told him, 'There are s o many distractions in the NBA with money and fame and women, it's hard to kee p your head screwed on straight,'" says Anthony Shriver, the founder of Best Buddi es, which fosters friendship and employment opportunities for people with intellectua l and developmental disabilities. "This is a way to keep you grounded."

Irving promptly moved in with Wechsler's family in South Florida, volunteered at Be st Buddies in Miami and set up a savings account he is not allowed to touch, call ed Kyrie's Bucket. He is now talking with Shriver about building the first Best Budd ies office in Cleveland.

Kyrie means Lord in Greek, but the Cavaliers are not pitching him as a savior, no t after their experience with the King. When he appears on a billboard, he is not a lone, the message being that the Cavs will build with him, not around him. Irving d escribes every win as a team win, and in front of cameras he comes across as p olite but dry. Away from them he is animated and theatrical, what you might expec t from a drama student at Duke who starred in the St. Patrick production of High School Musical. Irving sings Broadway show tunes in the car, with a buttery voice he inherited from his mother.

He prays to his mom before every game and takes a Bible on every road trip, his name embroidered on the front. The Bible was a gift from Jackie Green, mother of Jeremiah Green, who collapsed during a practice at St. Patrick because of an e nlarged heart. Irving carried Green to the sideline, accompanied him on hospital vis its and kept a room in Green's house during his senior year. (Green, who had to give up basketball, is Irving's best friend to this day.) Given whom he has lost, an d almost lost, it's really no big deal to succeed the most famous free agent in the history of sports. "I just love the game," Irving says. "Being in Cleveland adds to it. "

He believes in astrology and mentions that he shares a birthday with Jason Kidd, who has spent his career making teammates look better than they are. Irving can do the same, but the Cavaliers are still in the first phase of their rebuilding proces s, so he has to score. They will eventually need to find a complementary wing, an d oddly enough the best one in the world keeps expressing his affection for them. James has sent nostalgic tweets recently about everything from Cavs fans to broad casters. He expressed regret about his televised departure and said "it would be gr eat" to return. "If I decide to come back, hopefully the fans will accept me," he sai d. James has known Irving and Thompson since they were in high school, and he calls to check in. "The King returns?" Thompson muses with a laugh. "Anything c an happen. I wouldn't be surprised. To hate someone you have to love him. Peopl e kiss and make up."

Of course, it's far more likely that the Cavaliers will find their small forward through another high pick in this year's draft, but James can opt out of his contr act in 20 14, and Irving has made every pipe dream seem possible. "If LeBron did it the rig ht way," says Jason Herron, "I'd lead the parade back into town for him." Keep in mind, this is the guy who bought the lighter fluid.

Back in the real world, the Cavaliers are trying to sniff .500, and Irving is fulfilling his rookie obligations, driving 25 minutes with Thompson before every shootaround to fetch Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Scott still believes his breath smells like baby for mula, to which Irving dramatically rubs the whiskers on his chin and challenges his coach to another shooting contest. Irving is sinking the long threes and tough two s against Scott and everyone else, lifting Clevelanders from barstools and courtside seats, and guiding them back to souvenir shops, where articles of faith are once again for sale.

翻译团]凯里·欧文：任重而道远由AllenSea 发表在虎扑篮球·骑士专区http://bbs.hupu.co m/cavaliers

凯里-欧文：任重而道远

克里夫兰的新救世主是一个谦逊的组织后卫，他在做一件不可能完成的事情：让这座城市忘记那个把其天赋带走到南方的沙滩上去的人。

LEE JENKINS

在开幕战那晚一个叫作杰森-赫龙的39岁的克里夫兰季票持有者走进了速贷球场的球队商店，掏出了他的借贷卡买下了最后一件凯里-欧文的球衣T-shirt。这一件球衣，他想，他永远也不会烧掉。

赫尔隆在克里夫兰曾有过纵火的前科。差不多七个月前，在2010年的七月8号，他开车去俄亥俄州伍登湖的哈里-布法罗酒吧餐厅，来庆祝勒布朗-詹姆斯的续约。但就像是任何一个克里夫兰的长期支持者一样，他也保留了事情往不好的方向发展的可能性。所以他停靠向一个路边的加油站，买了一桶打火机油以防万一。当詹姆斯宣布他要前往迈阿密时，赫尔隆直冲进停车场，他说服了另一顾客在那儿撕毁他的那件酒红色23号球衣。“你真的还想再穿那件球衣吗？”赫尔隆问。一个第五频道的摄影师迅速抢好了位置，那是ABC电视台在克利夫兰的分属机构。那件球衣在火光中飘了起来，后面跟着赫尔隆的印着“PLEASE STAY LBJ”的T-shirt和几十件类似的衣服。有个老主顾把他的勒布朗球鞋扔进了火堆中。从当晚的新闻报道来判断，你会以为全城的纪念品商店都着火了，但大多数报道都是基于一间郊区酒吧里，从一件球衣上撕剪下来的一块碎布之上的。“这就是我们，”赫尔隆说。“我在YouTube上看到有其他人在烧球衣，但那是之后的事了。”

赫尔隆在今年的一月29日回到了哈里-布法罗酒吧，和几个他的合伙人一起在烟火中呷着百威清啤酒吧的电视又调到了第五频道。骑士队正在波士顿，詹姆斯曾在那个城市打完了他最后一场身着酒红色球衣的比赛。欧文此时正在与凯尔特人周旋。只剩22.2秒，骑士落后一分，教练拜伦-斯科特为欧文布置了一个战术。他教导这名2011年选秀的状元新秀控卫先持球15秒后再进攻。考虑到他才打了18场比赛，而且可能还没做好在凯文-加内特和保罗-皮尔斯面前投出

致命一击的准备，斯科特的助教认为欧文应该再晚点开始行动。“就让那个年轻人来吧，”斯科特说。

欧文看了看坐在场边席的父亲德雷德里克。赫尔隆从他的酒吧高脚凳上站了起来。波士顿的球迷们反复有节奏地叫着防守的号子。欧文运球花完了时间，冲过一个三分线附近的掩护，然后发现他和凯尔特人的大前锋布兰顿-巴斯形成了一对一。他用一个流畅的胯下交叉步运球让巴斯木在原地，然后用一个旋风似的右转身动作过掉了巴斯和控卫艾弗里-布拉德利。凯尔特人球员撞向油漆区，但欧文实在是太快了，左腕轻挑完成了一个绝杀。

欧文指向他的父亲，后者全力跑向边线。赫尔隆抱着一个棕发女郎旋转着。骑士的老板丹-吉尔伯特乐得直叫，“我想我对状元秀非常满意，你觉得呢？！”詹姆斯离队带来的愤怒和恶心在克里夫兰弥漫了有一年半。球迷们没法若无其事不再想。现在勒布朗的时代已经结束了。欧文时代正在开启。“这是一个新的开始，”赫尔隆说。“这儿的许多仇恨都褪去了。现在这儿充满了希望。而这正是因为凯里。”

克里夫兰正在爱上另一位篮球运动员。

欧文，一个只在杜克打过11场大学比赛，在三个月前还在校园里上心理学，戏剧和美国黑人历史的19岁小伙，如今已经和任何一个你能找出来的NBA老兵相差无几了。停摆剥夺了他的夏季联赛和一整个训练营，因此在揭幕战他只能舒服地组织出一个战术来，因此他总是朝空中竖起他的右手拇指。“他的气息很像Similac（美国奶粉品牌），”斯科特说，他对于婴幼儿复方奶粉的品牌很熟悉，他曾在新奥尔良帮助克里斯-保罗断了奶。在他的第二场比赛里欧文强迫自己指挥不同的战术，然后发现他其实打得还不错。在下一场比赛中他投了一个关键球，在投丢后承担起了输球的责任。

如今的NBA遍地都是迷人的好控卫，但没有谁比欧文更加珍贵。身高六尺三，体重191磅的他不如德里克-罗斯强壮，不如拉塞尔-威斯布鲁克有爆发力，也不如里奇-卢比奥迅捷。欧文是各种技巧的集大成者，他是一个能投篮的突破

者，一个能传球的得分手。就像是年轻的史蒂夫-纳什，他能持续变速和变向，用任意一只手完成高角度打板转身上篮，就好像他是在用挖起杆噗地一声击出一个柔软似羽毛的球一样。“他是来竞技的，”凯尔特人主教练道格-里弗斯说，“他不是来作秀的。”在克里夫兰没有人能取代詹姆斯，也没有人要求欧文去尝试取代他，但他平均每场在36分钟内拿下21.1分，这比詹姆斯新秀时的得分要高，而且命中率也更高。他的20.7的效率值比新秀时期的魔术师约翰逊还要好。上周五晚在奥兰多的全明星周末，欧文13投12中以34分赢得了新星表演赛的MVP。

骑士会喜欢这些华丽耀眼的数据，但他们也更欣赏欧文谦逊的态度。他出席他的见面新闻发布会时只带了一个随行者，那就是他的父亲。他搬进了市中心的

一套公寓而不是郊区的别墅。他用他的新合同买的第一个东西是一双休闲袜。“它们有点儿贵，”欧文说。“大男孩的购物。”他和在其之后三个顺位被选中的新秀前锋特里斯坦·汤普森一起出去吃晚餐，但他们避开了VIP房间。“我们觉得我们还没有资格，”汤普森说。在骑士对阵波士顿的比赛后一天，梅菲尔德海茨中心小学的四年级班在停留在球队的训练场馆做健康节目，欧文带着一根粉红色的跳绳加入了他们。

当活动结束时，欧文留了下来，和孩子们玩起了一对八，互喷着小学级别的垃圾话。最后一名俱乐部官员不得不提醒他凯尔特人第二天就要回来了。“你看不出来他是状元秀，”后卫安东尼-帕克说。“我觉得这就是这个组织真实的样子。”

13胜18负的克里夫兰现在在东部排名第九，但这也很难消除上赛季那持续了近两个月的26连败之耻辱。为了重建，克里夫兰把控球后卫莫-威廉姆斯交易到了快船，换来了带着一身沉重的大合同的巴朗-戴维斯和一个第一轮选秀权。快船最后得到了乐透区的成绩，但也仅仅是乐透区而已。克里夫兰有一个19.9%的机会用他们自己的选秀权赢得那个幸运的乒乓球，还有一个2.8%的机会用快船的选秀权来赢得它。吉尔伯特对待这次乐透就像对待一场季后赛客场一样严肃，特意和他的家人，员工，还有效力于布朗队（克利夫兰当地的NBL橄榄球队，译注），却身着着骑士球衣的福将乔-海登与约什-克里布斯一起乘私人飞机飞到了新泽西。吉尔伯特那患有神经紊乱症的14岁儿子尼克，打着领结代表球队站上了讲台。当奇才队的控球后卫，2010年状元约翰-沃尔看到了骑士那五花八门的小队人马，他靠向观众中的欧文轻声说，“克利夫兰。”

这麽多年来选秀乐透产生了许多诗意得都看起来像是认为制造的故事。克里夫兰在2003年赢得了头号潜力股，那个来自阿克隆城的有为少年，然后在他离开一年之后他们又托快船的万福成功拔得头筹。“这就像是中了真的乐透一样，”克里夫兰的总经理克里斯-格兰特说。尼克朝空中挥舞着拳头。哈登和克里比斯

冲向讲台。吉尔伯特紧抱住欧文。“上个夏天发生了令人震惊的事情，我们经历了一段非常漫长而痛苦的时期，”吉尔伯特那晚说。“也许这将是帮助我们翻过眼前的山峰，走到另外一边的最后一根救命稻草。”

欧文从未对詹姆斯的举动表现出太多关心，除了他的那些NBA比赛录像，但他的父亲却对之非常敏感。“我认为克里夫兰拥有世界上最棒的球迷，”德雷德里克说。“他们都是凡人。在他们身上发生了令人极度震惊的事情。他们会想要某种替代，这是很自然的。我告诉凯里，要理解人们在最开始会很忧虑，因为他们还不怎麽了解你。但他们慢慢就会的。”

凯里的母亲，伊丽莎白，在他四岁的时候死于血液感染，留下了德雷德里克独自抚养他和他的姐姐亚细亚。如他所知，德尔年少时在布朗克斯的Mitchel H ouses打篮球，曾是洛克公园的MVP，在波士顿大学队史得分榜上名列第二。他在凯里的出身地澳大利亚打过职业篮球，在半职业的比赛中他会把婴儿车停在板凳的末席处。如果凯里开始哭闹，德尔就会请求暂停来给喂他瓶奶。“他观察着身边的一切，”德尔说。他们的家庭在新泽西州的West Orange定居，在后院里德尔给凯里进行麦肯训练并向他展示如何转身后打板上篮。在周末德尔会带他到Mitchel Houses来体验一下街头篮球。

作为一名汤森路透集团的资深证卷分析员，德尔主张广泛的教育，他每个夏天都把凯里送到在华盛顿州奥查德港的伊丽莎白父母家，在这儿这孩子可以泛舟涉水采黑莓。凯里在四年级学习了演奏低音萨克斯，每天在大巴上背着这个五英尺的乐器回家。他拒绝了当地的篮球温床，而加入了学费33000$一年的蒙特克莱（新泽西）金伯利私立高中，然后他进入了优秀学生名单。

虽然听起来很不可思议，但欧文并不是神童。在他在蒙塔克莱金伯利学院的最初几场比赛中，有那麽一场里他把一个球投到了篮板边沿，而从那开始他利用他的自由时间研究比赛录像。他在业余体育联合会（AAU）的新泽西走鹃队里打替补。在蒙塔克莱金伯利学院的第二年，欧文在一场比赛中砍下了47分，然后又在另一场中得到了48分，这鼓舞着体育主管托德·史密斯提名他为SI评选的“人群中的脸”。他落选了。当欧文在三年级他转学到新泽西州伊丽莎白市的强大的圣帕特里克学校，在这儿他们承诺给他更多亮相的机会，然而史密斯并不太担心这对于球队的影响。“球队会非常想念他的，”史密斯只是说。

当欧文提出申请的时候，圣帕特里克学校的教练，凯文-博伊尔从未见过他。校长乔-皮卡尔不知道他的名字。欧文每天都在希伯来男女青年会锻炼，在一个没有窗户的能达到120华氏度的地下健身房。他在这里，他和AAU的教练桑迪-皮诺里一起打100分制的全场一对一比赛。在圣帕特里克，他还常常在深更半夜与住在街对面的巴拿马神父打一对一比赛。“凯里是个神秘的人，”特里斯坦-汤普森说，他曾为凯里的对手圣贝尼迪克特效力。“你可能听说过他，但你不知道他会做甚麽。”欧文总是在外线站着然后传球。教练给跪了求他得分。

在2009年的夏天，圣帕特里克队飞到了奥兰多参加一年一度的超级表演锦标赛，但明星前锋基德-吉尔克里斯特相反却选择了去为他的AAU球队打球。重任落在欧文身上。他在六小时内打了两场比赛共射下了59分，挫败了全国最好的两支俱乐部队，其一是由基德-吉尔克里斯特带领，而另一支则是由未来的俄亥俄州之星贾里德·萨林杰领衔。在比赛中间欧文和他在走鹃队的老队员一起

做在板凳上，为他们端茶送水。“在那一天对凯里来说一切都改变了，”杜克助教克里斯·柯林斯说。“他到那天才发现他到底有多好。”

虽然肯塔基大学出品了大量乐透球员，这其中还包括他的教父，前NBA组织后卫罗德-斯特里克兰，欧文还是在2010-11赛季加盟了杜克。在上赛季的头七场比赛中，欧文是全美最棒的球员之一。在第七场比赛他回到了新泽西来面对巴特勒大学。比赛在篮网的主场Izod中心开打，四年级时欧文曾在这里打过球，然后冲回了家在他的壁橱门上写上，“我要进NBA！！”对阵斗牛犬队，欧文在底线做了一个笨拙的动作，撞伤了他的右脚大脚趾。测试显示韧带受伤。他在柯林斯的办公室里放声大哭。欧文在NCAA锦标赛前痊愈了，他在甜蜜16强对阵亚利桑那大学的失利中砍下了28分，但他赛季的大部分时间都在板凳上向杜克的大四生诺兰-史密斯学习。当欧文宣布参加NBA选秀，他向父亲保证说他会在五年内拿到他的学位。

经纪人们就像大学一样努力地招徕欧文，但他们的全球偶像推销策略并不比肯塔基大学的好。他与杰夫-韦克斯勒签约了，此君旗下仅仅有三名NBA球员，他和欧文是在锦标赛后的短暂会面里初识的。“但那比任何其他的采访都不一样，”欧文说。那包括了一家上市贸易公司主席的露面，他教导欧文从每一笔薪水中省下一半，还有另一位某非营利组织的创建者，他把欧文带进了慈善事业。“我告诉他，在NBA有很多来自金钱，名望和女人的让你分心的事情，很难保持你的头笔直超前，”安东尼-施赖弗说，他是Best Buddies的创始人，这是一个为有着智力和发展残疾的人们促进友谊、增加就业机会的组织。“这（公益事业）不失为一个让你保持沉稳的好办法。”

欧文很快就和韦克斯勒的家庭一起搬来了南佛罗里达，在迈阿密为Best B uddies做志愿工作，并建立了一个他不被允许接触的储蓄存款账户，叫作凯里的存钱桶。他现在正在与施赖弗商讨在克利夫兰建造Best Buddies的第一个办公室。

在希腊语中凯里的意思是上帝，但在克利夫兰人经历了勒布朗-King-詹姆斯的事儿后，他们可没有把凯里定位为一个救世主。当他出现在广告宣传牌上，他并不孤独，那所传达的信息是骑士队会与他一起重建，而非围绕着他。凯里把每一场胜利都描述为团队的胜利，而在镜头前他显得文雅而不喜形于色。远离镜头的他其实像个戏剧演员一样活跃，就如你可以在一个曾主演过圣帕特里克高中的音乐剧的杜克大学戏剧专业学生身上所期待的那样。欧文时常会在汽车里用他从他母亲那继承来的圆润的嗓音哼唱百老汇的曲调。

他每场比赛前都会向他的母亲祷告，而且他在每一次客场旅途中都要带上一本在前面绣着他的名字的圣经。这本圣经是来自于杰克-格林的礼物，她是杰里迈亚-格林的母亲，后者在圣帕特里克的一次练习中因心肌肥大症倒下了。欧文把格林背到了场边，在医院看护室里陪伴他，而且在他高四那年与格林成了室友。（不得不放弃了篮球的格林，是欧文到现在为止最好的朋友。）考虑到那些他已经失去了，和差不多要失去的人事物，对他来说继承体育史上最有名的自由球员（留下的空缺）真的算不了甚麽。“我只不过是热爱比赛，”欧文说。“在克利夫兰打球增加了我的热爱。”

他相信占星学，他提到了他和杰森-基德的生日是同一天，基德的整个职业生涯都在让他的队友们看起来比他们原本要好。欧文也能做到同样的事情，但骑士仍在他们重建进程的第一个阶段，因此他必须要得分。他们最终还是会需要补充一个前锋球员，很奇妙的是本星球最好的前锋球员一直在向他们示好。詹姆斯

最近发表了两条从骑士的球迷到播音员的怀旧推特。他为他的离队电视转播表示了悔意，并说如果能回归“那真是太好了”。“如果我决定回来，希望球迷们能够接受我，”他说。在欧文和汤普森还在高中的时候詹姆斯就知道他们了，他和他们通过电话。“詹皇要回归？”汤普森若有所思地笑了。“任何事情都有可能发生。我不会很吃惊。恨一个你爱过的人。人们亲吻又和好了。”

当然，骑士更有可能在近年的选秀中通过另一个高顺位得到他们的小前锋，但詹姆斯可以在2014年选择跳出合同，而欧文使得每一个白日梦都看起来有可能了。“如果勒布朗现在马上这麽做，”杰森-赫龙说，“我会带一个*河蟹*大队进城迎接他。”要记住，这可是那个买打火机油的家伙啊。

回到现实的世界，克利夫兰在努力达到.500的胜率，而欧文正在履行他新秀的义务，在每次投篮训练前和汤普森一起驾车25分钟买回卡卡圈坊（Krispy Kr eme）的炸面包圈。斯科特仍然认为他的气息闻起来像是婴幼儿复方奶粉，而欧文戏剧性地剃掉了他下巴上的胡子，挑战他的教练再来一场投篮比赛。欧文在斯科特和其他所有人的防守下射入了一粒粒远距离三分和高难度两分，让克利夫兰人从酒吧的高脚凳和球场的座位上纷纷站起，然后把他们带回到了球迷纪念品商店，关于忠诚和信念的物品终于又开始大卖了。

[ESPN]Dwight Howard lucky to be a Laker由rosaxiezhen 发表在虎扑篮球·湖人后花园https://www.360docs.net/doc/7110137093.html,/stgarden

Commentary

Dwight Howard lucky to be a Laker

Brooklyn might have been D12's top choice, but he'll be thankful he landed i n L.A.

Updated:August 10, 2012, 8:50 PM ET

LONDON -- The Los Angeles Lakers know their formula is tried and true. No matt er which style of play is in vogue, no matter which ball handlers and shooters are being celebrated at the moment, when they see a great big man who can sustain the club's greatness into another generation, they make him a Laker. They did it in the summer of 1968 when they traded for Wilt. They did it again in June 1975 w hen they traded four front-line players to get Kareem. Twenty-one years later, on t he first day of the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, after dumping every salary imagin able to make room for him, the Lakers gave free agent Shaq $121 million, and he ultimately helped them end a championship drought of 12 years.

Once it became apparent that Dwight Howard wasn't going to commit to staying in Orlando, no matter his flirtation with the Nets and the Rockets' interest in him, Ho ward was more or less destined to wind up with the Lakers. They've been doing t his slow dance for a while, the Magic and Lakers. They've talked about Howard-to-the-Lakers deals at various times over the past two-plus seasons. They could have, probably should have, had him all of last season. And in short time, Howard, who has been somewhere between indecisive and utterly clueless, will understand why he's damn lucky to be following George Mikan, Wilt, Kareem, Shaq and, yes, eve n Andrew Bynum.

Kobe Bryant, as he'd done on his Facebook page earlier, said after Friday night's U.S. Olympic victory over Argentina, that he called Howard and told him, "'Los Ang eles is the perfect place'" for him. Clearly what thrilled Bryant the most was being able to acquire Howard and keep Gasol. It was Kobe who called Gasol Thursday night and told him what was about to happen, that he and Howard would be team mates. "The consensus earlier was, 'No way we can get Dwight and still keep Pau, '" Kobe said. "The first thing I did was call Pau and let him know what was going on."

What Kobe understands that Howard presumably will someday is the big picture of what the Lakers mean to Southern California, to the well-being of the NBA. Kobe' s Facebook page post said, in part, "The Lakers landed a piece that will hopefully carry the franchise long after I'm gone." That was even more important in that bigg er context than something else Kobe said, which showed just how excited he is ab out the upcoming season. "Locked and loaded to bring back the title," is the phras

e Kobe used. Miami and Oklahoma City might be the only teams with resources e nough to do something about that.

You can overthink this if you want, but teams with four players who are as great a s Bryant, Gasol, Steve Nash and Howard are right now usually play for the champi onship in the NBA. This isn't the NHL, where a goaltender you never heard of at t he start of the playoffs can own the postseason. It's not baseball, where two domi nant pitchers on one staff can mow through October. It's not pro football, where te ams finish in last place one year, tinker over the winter and spring, then become g reat the next fall. You can say the Lakers need to be more athletic on the wing. (They do.) You can say they need a capable backup to Nash, preferably one who' s big and can play defense against Russell Westbrook. (And they do.) But boy, th e Lakers right now have a roster that's going to cause Southern California to hyper ventilate and the NBA to go into a third straight season with a magnetic, overarchi ng storyline sure to pull in marginal fans and lather up the regulars.

[+] Enlarge

Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard have their sights set on a new era for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Is this good for the NBA? Hell yeah, it is. It's great for any league when it has a cornerstone team that plays for keeps every single season. I'd argue that the Laker s matter to Southern California more than any team in the NBA matters to the city in which it plays, save Oklahoma City, whose size of community makes that an e ntirely different discussion.

If the Howard deal flies in the face of everything the owners sought to secure duri ng last summer's lockout, that's on them. The Lakers do exactly what they should try to do; they try to win. Other franchises should be as conscientious. I'm just gla d David Stern's not working as some team's GM this summer; imagine how upset he'd be if he were still running the Hornets that they didn't have a last chance to

get Dwight Howard. The Lakers didn't have to take back any hideous contracts to make this deal. Essentially, they turned Bynum into Howard and Steve Nash th is o ffseason. Can't they just give the 2012-13 NBA Executive of the Year Award to Mit ch Kupchak now?

It's not as if only the Lakers got better, though. The 76ers got the low-post threat t hey desperately needed in Bynum, whose presence around the basket sho uld dram atically help all those perimeter players, starting with Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner. Andre Iguodala's style is tailor-made for what Denver does. Orlando is getting cru shed for getting no star player, not even Bynum, in return for Howard. But Rob He nnigan, Orlando's new GM, is from the OKC school and may want to go about bui lding a team just this way, which is to say with draft picks. We won't be able to fa irly judge Orlando's yield for years and years, which is about the same amount of time it'll take for the Magic to be worth watching again.

The Lakers, as always, are in it for now, particularly with Kobe and Nash entering their 17th seasons. It's worth pointing out that none of the previous three big-splas h acquisitions the Lakers made (Wilt, Kareem, Shaq) produced championship seaso ns right off the bat. In fact, all three men were involved in some massively disapp ointing seasons after joining the Lakers. Wilt, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor blew a 2-0 series lead and lost to the Celtics in the 1969 Finals. Kareem couldn't get the Lakers to the playoffs his first season in Los Angeles and didn't get to the Finals until Magic arrived. And Shaq's teams didn't amount to much of anything until Phil Jackson rode to the rescue.

This time ought to be different, largely because Howard isn't the centerpiece in a way Shaq and Kareem were. The Lakers won't have to depend on Howard, not as a go-to man on the court and certainly not for leadership, two areas Howard's be en deficient in up until now. Don't get me wrong: Nash and Howard will be able to play a lethal pick-and-roll game, so will Nash and Gasol, and the mere existence of that threat will prevent defenses from being able to load up on Kobe. Isn't Gaso l the best fourth option ever? Or is Nash the best fourth option ever?

Who will coordinate the offense? Well, presuming the Lakers' hiring of Eddie Jorda n comes to fruition, Jordan will. His version of the Princeton offense has a whole l ot of flexibility, and it's been damn successful in the NBA when being run by Jaso n Kidd(twice to the NBA Finals) and Gilbert Arenas(before guns and injuries). If Brown does the wise thing and lets Jordan-Kobe-Nash figure out and independently coordinate the offense, the Lakers should find a comfort zone by, say, early Janu ary. That'll free up Brown to concentrate on what he does best: coach defense.

During all this, the person who should grow the most is Howard. He comes to Los Angeles not having to take a team on his shoulders; Kobe already does that. Ho ward doesn't have to try to lead for the first time in his career; Kobe and Nash wil l do that and hopefully Howard will learn from watching, up close, how it's done. A

nd by the time Kobe and Nash retire, Howard will have learned how a leader com ports himself, when it's time to get serious, how and when to make demands on hi mself and others.

If Howard is the player he professes to be and becomes the person he can beco me, then there's zero chance he'll be talking about free agency at the end of the season. He's not going to go anywhere else where he can make more money, or be more famous, or play for a team that matters more to the league or the basket ball world. When Wilt and Kareem left the Lakers, it was to retire. Shaq's best yea rs, by far, were in Los Angeles, and it's the reputation, wealth and fame he built t here that he'll ride the rest of his life.

Dwight Howard is going to wake up sometime in the middle of the winter and thank the basketball gods he's a Laker and not playing somewhere else, anywhere else. And if he has both greatness in him and a decisive bone in his body, he'll know that being a Laker for the long haul is the best thing that will ever happen to him.

ST翻译组]最美的年华邂逅最美的湖人，兽兽你很幸运由吾湖似海发表在虎扑篮球·湖人专区https://www.360docs.net/doc/7110137093.html,/lakers

洛杉矶湖人有个屡试不爽的公式。无论当下流行何种球风，无论当下有多少著名的控球者与得分手，一旦他们看到能延续球队伟大历史的大个球员，他们都会把他招揽进湖人。1968年的夏天，他们交易到张伯伦。1975年的六月，他们故技重施，用4名前场球员换来贾巴尔。21年之后，亚特兰大老鹰队夏季奥运会揭幕日时，他们尽可能地清理薪金空间，以1. 21亿美元的薪金签来奥尼尔，这也让他们终结了12年的冠军荒。

在霍华德离队日渐明朗之后，无论篮网如何与他眉目传情，或是火箭如何落花有意，霍华德命中注定要落户洛杉矶。魔术湖人交涉良久，在过去两年多详谈多次。湖人本可以，或是应该可以，在上个赛季就得到他了。而霍华德在不断地犹豫徘徊之后，会很快了解到能在这里追随巨人们的脚步是有多么幸运：乔治麦肯，张伯伦，贾巴尔，奥尼尔，哦对，甚至是拜纳姆。（家嫂内牛满面）

科比在周五美国队战胜阿根廷之后说，他曾给霍华德打电话，告诉他“洛杉矶对他而言是理想的归宿”。关于这点，他也曾在Facebook上这么写过。很明显，能在留下家嫂的情况下得到兽兽，这让科比激动不已。周四科比曾打电话给家嫂，告诉他自己和霍华德可能成为队友。科比如是说，“之前的舆论是，’我们不可能在留下家嫂的情况下还得到霍华德’ 。（当我知道消息）我做的头一件事就是告诉嫂子，让他知道正发生的事情。”

科比知道，正如湖人象征着南加州，霍华德有朝一日会成为NBA的象征。科比在Faceboo k部分言论如下：“湖人引援了一块拼图，他很有希望在我离开之后的很长时期里带领这支球队。”这比起科比展望新赛季所说“整装待发，夺回冠军”云云，有更深的含义。也只有迈阿密和雷霆有足够的天赋去争冠了。

你大可以过虑。但这可是一直拥有科比、家嫂、纳什、霍华德这样4位伟大球星的球队，他们正为冠军拼搏。这可不是NHL，一个季后赛前闻所未闻的守门员能统治季后赛。这也不是棒球，两个统治级的投手就能在十月（冠军排名战）收获冠军。这也不是职业足球，吊车尾的球队经过冬春的修修补补就能一跃成为伟大的球队。你可以指出，湖人需要更有运动

力的锋翼球员（确实是）。你可以指出湖人需要纳什的好替补，最好是个子够大，能防一防西布的球员（确实还是）。但是，孩子啊，现在湖人的阵容足以在南加州卷起风暴，能连续三年以强烈的吸引力与统治力吸引大批边缘球迷成为自身铁杆。

科比和霍华德都专注于为洛杉矶湖人建立新纪元

这对NBA有好处吗？我勒个擦，不能更是了。对于任何一个联盟来说，有这样一支常青藤般的基石球队堪称伟大。我甚至敢说，湖人对于南加州的意义比其他任何球队对于其所属城市的意义都大——除了俄克拉荷马城，地方略小不在讨论范围之内（XD）

如果说，去年停摆时有一支球队把霍华德交易当做当务之急，那便是湖人了。湖人做的都是应该做的事；他们试着赢球。其他球队也应如此尽职尽责。我很高兴斯大妈今年夏天不再是某支球队的总经理了；想想吧，如果他仍运营着黄蜂，他却没能把握最后的机会追到霍华德，他该有多心烦？湖人还不必接受垃圾合同就达成看这笔交易。本质上，他们休赛期用拜纳姆换来了霍华德和纳什。难道不能现在就把12-13赛季NBA最佳经理人的奖项颁发给米奇吗？

变得更好的可不止是湖人。76人得到了梦寐以求的低位大杀器——拜纳姆，他在篮下的风采想必能大大地帮助外线球员，尤其是霍乐迪和特纳。伊戈达拉的球风堪称为掘金定制。魔术换走火花却没能得到年轻的球星，甚至没得到拜纳姆，这让他们支离破碎。然而，魔术新总经理亨尼根（译者吐槽下，Rob Hennigan却被人rob了。。取名很重要啊lol）来自俄城学派，可能想用雷霆重建的方式，即换来选秀权来重建球队。不经年累月，我们无以评判奥兰多的所作所为，也许在那么些年过后魔术才能再次值得观赏。

湖人呢，科比和纳什都步入自己第17个赛季。值得一提的是，湖人此前得到三个大个球员（张伯伦、贾巴尔、奥尼尔）后，都未能立即得到总冠军。实际上，他们加入湖人后都有些不如人意的赛季。张伯伦、韦斯特、贝勒在1969年总决赛2-0领先凯尔特人后逆转输球。贾巴尔在湖人的处子赛季未能进季后赛，在魔术师横空出世之前也未能进入总决赛。而奥尼尔的球队在菲尔赶来救赎前都没怎么打出名堂。