[外電] The Inevitable End Of The Nash-Suns E

[augopf50123 (史提)]

             April 25, 2012 in by Andrew Lynch

On one level, last night’s 100-88 loss to the Utah Jazz marked this season
as no different from the last for the Phoenix Suns. If anything, it was a
slight improvement, given the right (read: properly distorted) frame of
reference; the 2010-11 Suns finished six games out of the playoffs. The
2011-12 edition will finish no worse than three games behind the eighth seed

In every other way — every way that actually matters — this season is
completely different. It is, in every conceivable scenario, the end of Steve
Nash’s career in Phoenix. That strikes two powerful blows. The Suns,
assuming Nash leaves, are about to get really bad. And they’re about to lose
one of the most important players in franchise history.

They only have one player outside of Nash who would start for most teams, in
Marcin Gortat, and a solid role player in Jared Dudley. Nash and assistant
coach Elston Turner have done magicians’ work in making the rest of the
pieces look passable on offense and defense, respectively. Shannon Brown’s
play has improved since the All-Star Break, particularly when he joined Nash
in the starting backcourt due to the loss of Grant Hill to an injured knee.
Sebastian Telfair went from awful to “actually decent looking, you know, in
the right kind of light and depending on how strong the well drinks are,”
 and he credits his improvement to the examples set by Nash in the locker
room and on the floor.

But all of that is going to collapse the instant Nash decides to sign
elsewhere this summer. Phoenix will have a decent amount of cap space once
that happens, but the free agency market doesn’t appear to be quite as
strong as we all assumed. Which player or players on that list can the Suns
reasonably expect to make a run at?* Deron Williams? Not happening. Chris
Kaman? …that’s actually a pretty Suns thing to do. Goran Dragic? Also a
pretty Suns thing to do.

*If you say Jamal Crawford, I swear…

Barring a miracle, the Suns are going into “Get Bobcats bad”-rebuild mode,
and that’s something that hasn’t really happened in Phoenix before. The
longest postseason drought in franchise history is five seasons, and that
came in the third through seventh seasons of the team’s existence. Since
1977, and including this season, Phoenix has only missed the playoffs eight
times. The Suns have never won the championship, but they have the fourth
highest overall winning percentage of current NBA teams. Phoenix consistently
put together enjoyable teams who won a fair amount of games and,
occasionally, made a deep run or two to the Western Conference or NBA Finals
on the back of outstanding offense and average defense.

Nash was the epitome of that since he signed in the Valley. Even in the
relatively lean recent years, he kept the team entertaining almost by force
of will. His departure is about more than just an incoming lull in basketball
in Phoenix, then. It’s about the death of an identity — one that gave rise
to books and a style exemplified by an acronym, SSOL, and always entertaining
games of basketball , one that adapted when coaches came and went — which
always revolved around the player for whom it seemed designed, and who seemed
designed to run it. Nash, for almost a decade, has been the Phoenix Suns.
Until they are good again, he will remain the Phoenix Suns, an ever-looming
shadow that colors and shades the perception of everything Suns-related. He
is their victories over the Kobe Bryant-led Lakers and their losses to Ron
Artest offensive rebounds. He is his own bloody noses and the black eye of
Tim Duncan 3-pointers.

He will fittingly play his final game tonight, at home, against the San
Antonio Spurs. Could it have been any other way?

The time Nash spent as a Sun always had a Moirai feel to it. Many besides
Mark Cuban felt that Nash’s back ailments meant his playing days were
numbered. Yet through personal dedication to fitness and health, his skillset
and the by now well-documented methods and successes of the Warlocks on the
Suns training staff, the threads of life for Nash as an elite player kept
spinning. He said he wants to play for another three years, at which point
Clotho is bound to get bored and potentially fall asleep at the spindle,
rendering Nash some sort of basketball demigod capable of one day, in the
year 2043*, vanquishing the unassailable records of John Stockton.

*Math not accurate.

While the thread kept on spinning into the future, the Spurs were always
there to determine precisely what Nash’s Suns would do with his time on this
basketball-playing plane for his journey to the Elysian Fields.* Phoenix and
San Antonio met four times with Nash in purple and orange, and the Spurs
three times decided that they’d seen enough of the Suns in the playoffs.
Forget questioning David Stern’s allotment of suspensions for the aftermath
of the Robert Horry hipcheck heard ’round the world; Gregg Popovich was the
true arbiter of Phoenix’s fate, measuring their legacy to his liking.

*Potential locations for the Elysian Fields, as reported by a recent special
on History (formerly known as The History Channel, so you can definitely see
why this was a necessary name change): “Miami, New York, Dallas, Orlando,
Utah, Indiana [...] pretty much anywhere that isn’t Phoenix.”

I’m probably not alone in having several years ago assumed that the severer
of Nash’s ties with the NBA, and with the Suns, would be an injury or old
age. For him to continue to play at this level, this consistently and for
this many games even in an abbreviated season, is spectacular. It also
affords Nash a unique opportunity; he gets to cut himself loose of his own
accord and determine his own destiny for the rest of his career. He will get
the Ray Bourque treatment, only better, as he won’t even have to demand a
trade. He’s both thrilled NBA fans and served his obligation to Suns fans.
Few, if any, will begrudge his inevitable decision to play Atropos and untie
his binds to the Suns. He’s (likely) going to a better place, where
championship dreams can become reality, and Jared Dudley — Shammgod bless
him — isn’t the third best player on the team.

After last night, Suns fans began to brace themselves from the upcoming fall
from grace. Awful basketball is the outlook for the future. It will be a kind
of culture shock for Phoenix, which is accustomed to at least being
entertained by the basketball team. It will have nothing, though, on the
emptiness that comes from losing a basketball icon. We’ll still watch him,
wherever he signs. We’ll cheer for him, too, hoping that he gets that ring.

And we’ll be a little jealous, too. After all, not many get to choose their
own fate. It’s probably pretty nice.


外電來源：http://tinyurl.com/7osmy7d


心得：還是換老闆比較實際....


誰來幫忙翻譯阿....我看得懂不分但是翻不出來阿QQ


跪求翻譯~"~

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→ otld:他在想啥...                                                04/24 00:17
推 organ63521:五樓都拿電極棒 肛四樓                                04/24 00:17
→ piercepaul:蓋                                                   04/24 00:18
推 ts00854768:蓋                                                   04/24 00:18
→ ts00854768:幹                                                   04/24 00:18
→ organ63521:樓上拿電極棒 剛自己.....                             04/24 00:18

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※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) 
◆ From: 123.193.6.99
推 whiteluna   :我今天早上好像聽到主播說 太陽已表示不會留NASH?
→ augopf50123 :那他今天要大三元給老闆看...老闆就會續簽=   =
→ augopf50123 :也許兩老一起不留...唉
推 eiriyuki    :不留NASH...真假?  不知道該高興還難過..
推 vlckcy      :真的假的  好難過 Q Q
推 ivanpisces  :(嘆)
推 lenta       :當然是不要留....
推 Chisa       :有說嗎 我怎麼聽主播說這場有可能是他最後一場比賽
→ Chisa       :但不表示太陽不續留阿
推 whiteluna   :大家先別激動啊 我也是來確認的= = 後來上來爬推文還
→ whiteluna   :有查國外新聞 也沒看到什麼具體消息(我是在尼克那場
→ whiteluna   :電視轉播廳到主播提到NASH 那時他正穿西裝進場吧
推 DragicGoran :老闆的行為真的很難讓人有動力支持
推 georgewesley:下雨天留客天留我不留
推 illustravi  :     ,      ,     ?
推 toddchen    :    ,     ,   ,     !
→ madduxH     :太陽老闆如果不留nash,為何這球季不擺濫搶狀元呢?
推 bll135      :擺爛要怎麼賣票呢^_< 而且有Nash在的球隊怎麼樣都不
→ bll135      :至於太爛的......
→ jlcsn       :因為擺爛就沒$$$$$$$$$$$賺了 $arver怎麼可能這樣做
→ darrenyo    :上兩樓都太中肯了T T 中肯到我想哭 ....
→ all035      :不....其實季初我們可是爐主大熱門....
→ all035      :老大不離不棄 外加其他隊球員出清大拍賣 才有今天
推 shadowydark :......也好,別拖了
推 jerrys0580  :                ?   ?