http://tinyurl.com/y96erfo
The classic form of the tragic hero always has one flaw that ultimately
brings about his downfall. For Othello it’s his unyielding jealousy, Macbeth
succumbed to his blinding ambition and King Lear struggled with his egotism.
For Josh Howard, it is his propensity for full disclosure. While these
character faults may have led to an eventual tragic ending for the literary
lead men mentioned above, the jury is still somewhat out on the Mavericks
swingman.
While Howard’s numbers have always been good at every turn of his career, he
hasn’t always gotten his due and it’s hard not to think that the off the
court issues haven’t had something to do with that. As an elite player
coming out of Wake Forest, the former Demon Deacon slipped to the bottom of
the first round in 2003 where Dallas was waiting with open arms. Since
joining the League, there have been some questionable comments, such as the
remarks he made in 2008 in regards to his recreational use of marijuana and
the national anthem debacle later that same year. All this has served to do
is mask a remarkable basketball player behind the regrettable facade of a
troublemaker.
Howard’s constant hustle and effort belie his physical giftedness as an
athlete. He offers everything a GM could want in a perimeter player: size,
length and quickness. Yet, there he is, just as likely to dive on the floor
for a loose ball as he is to sky for a thunderous dunk in transition. Perhaps
in that way Howard is less like the tragic heroes of Shakespearian lore, but
draws more parallels with the most polarizing of characters from Homer’s The
Iliad, the legendary Achilles.
The greatest warrior of his time (we’re told) and said to be the bravest of
all men, rarely do Achilles actions reflect his reputation, at least when not
fighting away on the field of battle. The reverse would be true for the “
reputation” that Howard has earned in the public eye: a tremendously gifted,
weed-smoking athlete, who hustles like he’s the 12th man on the bench
getting his compensatory two minutes of playing time in a 30-point blowout.
Then there is the inherent value of the mere presence of these individuals.
The Greeks believed they would be unsuccessful in their attempts to sack Troy
without the help of Achilles, even though their army featured some of the
greatest warriors in literary history. The same can be said for the
Mavericks, who despite boasting a collection of talented players, including
one of the premier offensive weapons the NBA features in Dirk Nowitzki, were
only given a strong chance of beating the Spurs in last year’s playoffs with
the understanding that Howard would be healthy and ready to perform.
Notice I’m not drawing parallels between Achilles dying as a result of an
arrow to his heal and Howard dealing with ankle issues - that would be too
easy. But it should be noted that having their sixth year swingman in the
lineup did provide Dallas with a tremendous psychological boost against San
Antonio. Is it a coincidence that the Mavs won 64 percent off their games
with Howard during the regular season versus only 56 percent without? No, not
at all, but the difficult thing about Howard is that his intrinsic value can’
t necessarily be quantified by looking at the numbers.
Yes he can score in a variety of ways, yes he can rebound well from the
perimeter and yes he is a solid defender, but Howard’s place on this list is
due more to what Dallas lacks when he isn’t on the floor. Howard helps keep
the heat off Dirk by being another scoring threat on the floor. Howard allows
Dallas to keep Jason Kidd on the floor even though the aging veteran can’t
cover a broomstick, because he can cover the opposition’s elite perimeter
player night in and night out. Perhaps most importantly for this year, given
the offseason acquisition of Shawn Marion, he presents the necessary
versatility to move around in the starting rotation.
他有很多種得分手段，他可以抓籃板然後他是位好的防守者。但是最重要的是他在場上
與不在場場的差別。Howard可以幫忙Dirk分擔得分，即使Kidd這位漸漸老去的老將在場上
時防守會出現問題，Howard在場上時能守對方的明星球員以解決此問題。在增加了Marion
後，Howard將調整他打的位置。
Having lined up as the small forward for the majority of his time in Big D,
Howard will almost assuredly be relegated to playing the off-guard spot for a
significant amount of the time he is on the floor. That doesn’t mean he won’
t shift back to the three when Marion is cooling his jets, but The Matrix
will have first dibs on that spot. So therein lays one of the potential
reasons why it is Howard drops 12 spots in this year’s list. Maybe we’re
anticipating some growing pains playing at a new position (even though there
isn’t much between the two and the three), maybe there are concerns about
how well Howard will recover from offseason ankle surgery. Maybe his simple
absence from a good part of last season has made us forget how good he can be.
在達拉斯這段時間Howard幾乎都是打3號位置，接下來的時間他主要會打後衛。這不代表
Marion不在場上時Howard沒機會打3號，但Marion將是小牛3號的首要人選。也許在休季
期間Howard腳踝恢復情形仍有所顧慮，也許他上季缺的場數讓人忘記他是多麼好的球員。
Regardless of how or why Howard slipped this year, the mere fact of the
matter is he belongs on this list because of how much his team’s success is
tied to him. There are a plethora of great “secondary” players in the
League, but few carry the x-factor label like he does and few have sparked as
much controversy. Is Dallas’s most controversial star destined to succumb to
his own shortcomings and be remembered for what could have been rather than
what was? Hopefully no, but there’s little question that with training camp
on the horizon this protagonist will likely be serving another lead role in
his own literary drama.
不論為何Howard本季下滑的原因為何，小牛的成功與Howard關聯很大的。聯盟中有許多
好的”老二”球員，但是很少人像Howard一樣被認為是X因子。
非常有深度的文章....
作者前面引用的很多典故
包含希臘神話
有興趣的可以自行查閱看看
slam的top 50好像還沒全出來
他排名是根據０８０９季表現排的
有空再慢慢貼
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