[外電] Iguodala keeping lid on his emotions

[willyt (ㄌㄔ2015 世界一流)]

按：
身為一個七六人迷，看完這篇只會更愛Iggy
但是推薦經過的路人，想知道為什麼他是個大哥，看這篇就對了。


(有空再翻，有人要翻也歡迎)




Posted: Mon, May. 7, 2012, 8:07 PM
Bob Ford: Sixers' Iguodala keeping lid on his emotions
Bob Ford, Inquirer Sports Columnist
http://tinyurl.com/7dh5vm7


In Andre Iguodala's first seven seasons in the NBA, the Sixers
won exactly six playoff games - no more than two wins in any
of the four brief postseason appearances - and it was fair to
wonder if it would become Iguodala's fate to be remembered as
nothing more than the best player on some very disappointing
teams here.

Forget leading his teammates to the promised land. Iguodala
couldn't even lead them to the second round of the playoffs.

Well, here we are, doubters, and the Sixers are within one win
of taking a playoff series for the first time since 2003. In
what could be seen as a season of redemption for Iguodala that
included an All-Star Game appearance and his selection as a
finalist for the U.S. Olympic team, winning a postseason round
might represent the biggest slice of that redemption.

Iguodala was on the phone with a friend Sunday night after the
Sixers took command of the opening round series against
Chicago with an 89-82 win in Game 4, and the friend said, "You
don't sound excited."

No kidding. Iguodala has built a monument to not sounding
excited, both publicly and privately. In fact, Philadelphia
would embrace him more warmly if local sports fans even knew
what it sounds like when Iguodala sounds excited.

"I'm not really excited," Iguodala said Monday after the
Sixers finished a film session before flying to Chicago. "I
try to keep focused. It's not over yet."

That much is true, although the Bulls have been rent by the
loss of superstar Derrick Rose and the absence of Joakim Noah.
Chicago does not look capable of playing three good quarters,
let alone three good games.

For the Sixers, being excited about the possibility of
advancing is not the same as taking advancement for granted.
Iguodala's teammates are excited, in a good way, and that's
fine. They should be. Iguodala, perhaps from experience,
doesn't seem to trust that good fortune will continue.

He has played this series despite a sore Achilles tendon that
has limited his mobility, and he has taken on the draining
role of defending Chicago's Luol Deng, holding him 10 points
below his season scoring average. Iguodala's own offense has
been spotty, partly as a result of those two factors, and
partly because he's a spotty offensive player.

In the four games against Chicago, Iguodala has taken 43 shots
from the field and scored a total of 41 points, which isn't
very good at all. He has tried 14 three-point shots and made
two of those. Some of those misses were forced by a dwindling
shot clock, but most were just bad decisions.

Iguoldala's biggest moment in Game 4 came with 26.6 seconds to
play and the Sixers holding a four-point lead. Chicago's Omer
Asik committed a foul on a drive to the basket and put
Iguodala on the line, carrying not just the responsibility of
the game, but the reality of his own poor free-throw shooting.

In the fourth quarter of games this season, Iguodala was among
the worst free-throw shooters in the league, making just 23 of
51 attempts (45 percent). In the final three minutes of
regulation, he was even worse, 6 for 18 (33.3 percent).

Had Iguodala missed those free throws and the Sixers lost the
game to Chicago, and the series fell as a result, that might
have torn things so badly with the fans and the organization
that Iguodala would never have been able to recover. You could
take the all-star selection and the Olympic team invitation
and ball it up along with seven years of not ever sounding
excited and chuck it somewhere else in the wide world of the
National Basketball Association. He would have been done for
good here.

If any of that weighed on Iguodala as he took the ball at the
line, if there was any recognition of this possible turning
point - both for good and bad - he didn't show it. (Again, no
kidding.) What he did was swish both shots.

"He holds his cards pretty close to his vest," Doug Collins
said. "I don't know the percentages during the course of the
year, but it hasn't been great. Here you are with a chance to
go up 3-to-1 and he's your marquee player and he walks to the
line and makes them both. I don't know if Dre would say
anything about what it meant to him, but deep down I know how
important that was for him."

One more win and perhaps he will feel comfortable with
happiness, and can get enthused about a season in which he has
reached some goals that previously eluded him, including the
one he seems likely to reach soon.

"Personally, it's not that big a year for me. I'm more happy
for my teammates than anything," Iguodala said. "Some things
that occurred for me personally, I think [I had] done enough
to have accomplished before. Just now, I'm getting recognized
for it, finally.

"When I go home, I'm really not happy for Andre, but when I
get to practice and I see Jody Meeks smiling, Jrue Holiday
learning, Evan Turner maturing each and every day, that's what
I'm happy to see."

Sigh. He's a tough one to crack, particularly if he thinks he
was jobbed out of making the All-Star Game in the past. He's
even a tougher one for fans to fully accept, and that hasn't
happened, just as they still don't know what Andre Iguodala
sounds like when he sounds excited. He'll let us know when
he's ready.

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