[閒聊] 'Del Negro' and San Antonio

[Alfred (Keine Ahnung)]

#在篇末補充一篇回顧VDN與馬刺間關係的文章，
 算是為當年VDN離開馬刺的疑雲作個結尾。

老波的冷笑話經常都帶著三分殘酷……
以下選擇性的我流翻譯。

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/clippers/post/_/id/2098/del-negros-name-still-used-in-san-antonio

'Del Negro' and San Antonio
By Arash Markazi | ESPNLosAngeles.com

It has been almost 15 years since Los Angeles Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro
last played for the San Antonio Spurs, but he’s still far more synonymous
with the Silver and Black than any of the other eight teams he has either
played or coached for during his basketball career.

VDN已經離開馬刺15年了，不過，他的名字還是經常與馬刺同在。

In fact, when the Spurs played the Clippers earlier this season, Spurs coach
Gregg Popovich admitted that Del Negro’s name is still uttered in practices
all the time, but maybe not for reasons Del Negro would like to hear.

在例行賽某場對快艇的比賽中，
波波承認VDN的名字在馬刺的練習中還會被提起，
但可惜不是因為VDN會想聽到的原因。

“Some of the stuff we do on defense, we actually have one thing we call on
the pin downs, we say we’re going to ‘Del Negro it’ and that’s in his
honor and we’ve done that for 15 years,” Popovich said. “We have a Del
Negro defense out there because he couldn’t play a lick of D. At times we
had to invent something just to hide him, so we call it ‘Del Negro’ and you
do certain things on the court and everybody has to make up for that guy who’
s the ‘Del Negro.’”

老波的解釋：
「在這十五年來，我們練習防守的時候會說『Del Negro it』。
  這是因為他不會防守，所以我們必須要發明一些方法來把他藏起來，
  所以我們就稱這個為『Del Negro』，你在場上做某些事情，
  好讓其他所有人能幫那位『Del Negro先生』擦屁股。」

Popovich doesn’t really consider Del Negro a protégé the same way he does
former Spurs assistant coach and current Lakers head coach Mike Brown. “He’
s not a protégé,” Popovich said. “We never coached together but I was
able to coach him.”

老波不會說Del Negro是他的門生，至少不是像Mike Brown那種意義的門生。
老波說：「他不是我的門生，我們從來沒有一起當過教練（教練/助理教練的關係），
          不過我曾經教過他（教練/球員的關係）。」

Del Negro spent his best six years as a player in the NBA in San Antonio but
left the team after the 1997-98 season and missed the Spurs’ first NBA title
in 1999. He still talks to Popovich regularly and watches the Spurs' games as
often as possible. After San Antonio beat the Lakers 121-97 last month, Del
Negro smiled at a group of reporters after the game and said, “Did you watch
the Spurs?! Whooo!”

VDN在離隊後還是經常與老波通話而且會看馬刺的比賽。
上個月馬刺大勝湖人的比賽賽後VDN對著一群記者微笑，
說：「你們看到馬刺的比賽了嗎？Whooo！」

“We’ve always kept in touch with each other,” Popovich said. “We’ll
share things and try to support each other and everything because he’s a
wonderful guy. He understood the game, he wasn’t very quick but he really
knew how to play the game, especially pick-and-roll and that kind of thing.
He knew what was going on out there on the floor. When you’re around guys
like that or Avery Johnson or Steve Kerr, you know if they want to they can
coach someday because they really understand what’s going on.”

老波說：
「我們一直都保持聯絡，我們分享資訊並互相支持對方，他是個很棒的人。
  他懂得比賽，他的速度並不快但他懂得怎麼打比賽，特別是對擋拆很拿手，
  他知道場上是怎麼回事。
  當你跟像是Avery Johnson或Steve Kerr這種人在一起的時候，
  你知道他們能夠當教練因為他們了解比賽。」

Popovich couldn’t remember if he talked about coaching with Del Negro at the
end of Del Negro’s career in San Antonio, but figured it probably came up in
conversation at some point.

老波不記得他是否與VDN談過成為教練這件事，
但認為在他離開馬刺或許這曾是他們對話的一環。

“I assume I did. It was so long ago,” Popovich said. “I do that with a lot
of my players to see what they want to do when they’re done. Some guys want
to do [it] and other guys are smart enough to realize they [don’t] want to
do it because there’s more to life than coaching.”

老波說：
「我想應該有談過吧，這是很久以前的事了。
  我跟很多我手下的球員談過類似話題，有些人想成為教練，
  而有些人則足夠聰明懂得這世上有比當教練更好的人生可活。」XD

以下是比賽分析以及與快艇有關的部分省略不翻。
===================================================================

FORGET HISTORY

Normally when two teams meet in the playoffs, especially for the first time,
the easy thing to do is go back to the season series between the teams to get
an indication of how the playoff series might play out. Doing so for this
series would be a complete waste of time.

The Clippers and Spurs first met this season in San Antonio on Dec. 28 in a
game the Spurs would win 115-90. How long ago was that? Well, you know the
Clippers’ much-talked about second unit of Kenyon Martin, Reggie Evans, Nick
Young, Mo Williams and Eric Bledsoe? Only Williams played in that game and
Martin and Young were months from even joining the Clippers at that point.

Both teams would meet again at Staples Center on Feb. 18 in a game the Spurs
won 103-100 in overtime. This was the game in which the Clippers held a 95-92
lead with 9.5 seconds left and were in-bounding the ball. Ryan Gomes made a
bad pass to Chris Paul, who made an even worse pass to San Antonio’s Gary
Neal, who tied the game and won it in overtime. Gomes hasn’t left the bench
since.

The Clippers finally won the last meeting of the season in San Antonio,
120-108, on March 9. Tony Parker did not play in that game but Williams did
hit seven three-pointers and scored 33 points for the Clippers. It was the
Clippers' first victory in San Antonio in a decade, ending a stretch of
futility that spanned 18 games. The game, however, took place before the
trade deadline deals that would bring Young to the Clippers and Stephen
Jackson to the Spurs.

Not only are the rosters different than when these two teams last met, but
they’re both playing at different levels than when they last met. The Spurs
have won their last 14 games, winning by an average margin of more than 17
points per game. Meanwhile, the Clippers, coming off their first ever Game 7
playoff win, on the road no less, are playing with more confidence than at
any point this season. Needless to say, results of games in December will
mean little when these two teams begin their playoff series on Tuesday.

SWITCHING GEARS

The Clippers didn’t waste any time getting ready for their series against
the Spurs, landing in San Antonio about four hours after beating Memphis on
Sunday.

Even after winning their first playoff series in six years, the Clippers didn
’t have much time to celebrate. Not only were they preparing for the
top-seeded Spurs but they needed to continue to rehabilitate the injuries
Paul and Blake Griffin suffered in Game 5 of that series against Memphis.
Paul suffered a strained right hip flexor that limited him in Game 6 and
Griffin suffered a sprained left knee that made it hard for him to stay on
the floor in the fourth quarter of Game 6 and again in Game 7, where he
played just 1:39 of the final period.

While the Clippers will try to heal up and refocus for the Spurs in 48 hours,
the Spurs have had the past eight days to rest and recuperate before the
second round.

“That series was tough, it was a slugfest,” Griffin said. “You were just
kind of out there, hitting people and hoping you wouldn’t get a foul called.
We get a day and a half of rest, which should be good for us. ... We have
some guys that are a little beat up, but that’s just how it is. A lot of
teams have that right now. We can’t use being tired as an excuse. We have to
come out and play like we haven’t played in a week like the Spurs.”



===============================================================

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2012/05/17/buck-harvey-del-negro-as-a-career-spur-%E2%80%94-what-he-missed/

Buck Harvey: Del Negro as a career Spur — what he missed
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:23 am by Buck Harvey

In the hours after the 1999 championship, David Robinson and Avery Johnson
talked about everything.

Their path together. Their joy. Maybe even the Knicks.

And at some point, they wished someone else was there, someone who had played
with them the previous six seasons. Someone they liked.

Far away from Manhattan that night, Vinny Del Negro likely missed them even
more.

Del Negro moved on. He’s been associated with five other NBA franchises
since leaving San Antonio. And when he was introduced Tuesday night with his
fifth at the AT&T Center, the crowd responded as if he were just another
faceless, opposing coach.

But all of it could have been different, and this begins with 1999. By then,
Del Negro had secured a place with the franchise, starting on a series of
teams that won a lot of regular-season games. Waiting for the lockout to end,
Del Negro played in Italy while his agent tried to work out a new contract
with the Spurs.

Gregg Popovich was scrambling in the days after the lockout to rebuild his
roster, and not everyone was happy with his decisions. Monty Williams, now a
rising star as the New Orleans coach, left in disgust when Popovich tried to
put him into a sign-and-trade.

Popovich had an agenda. He wanted to get tougher and find shooters who could
stretch the floor. That’s why he planned to go after Mario Elie.

This speaks to what Popovich thought of Del Negro. He was never exactly
Popovich’s kind of player; he was closer to being Bob Hill’s.

But Del Negro would have been a handy backup. He could have played with
either Johnson or Elie, and he had a touch with the pick-and-roll.

“He was one of the best at it,” Popovich said this week. “He knew how the
spatial relationships worked.”

Del Negro struggled with the spatial relationship between his toes and the
3-point line. Still, if he wasn’t the ideal spread-the-floor candidate, he
was a solid shooter.

（這段是在講VDN當年一個被很多人罵的缺點：很愛踩在三分線「上」投籃。XD）

But Popovich backed off when Del Negro’s agent, a former player named Jack
Marin, asked for a pricey deal. When that news leaked, Del Negro was
initially furious with Popovich.

“Hurt … angry,” Del Negro told an Express-News columnist. “There has been
maliciousness. I hated the way I was made out to look greedy.”

Marin’s version of what happened: Popovich had told him to come in high with
his offer and, according to the columnist, “Make an offer that makes you
look like an idiot and me look like a hero.”

That didn’t make sense then, and it makes less now. After all, how many
times in the past decade has Popovich been accused of playing these kinds of
games?

Del Negro doesn’t want to talk about that now. But those close to him say
once he understood the facts, he blamed Marin, not Popovich.

（紅色這段是在回顧當時VDN離開馬刺時某個當地記者的爆料是否為真）

His current relationship with Popovich supports as much. As it is with
Williams, Del Negro considers Popovich a friend and mentor.

No matter the details, Del Negro was left behind in 1999. Popovich traded for
Steve Kerr instead, and Kerr’s championship credentials made him a
locker-room anchor. Several Spurs later thought he was invaluable this way.

Still, Kerr didn’t do much on the floor until his second tour with the team.
It’s logical to think Del Negro would have been more of a factor.

Del Negro likely thought the same. He knew how close the Spurs were and, as
if it were a cruel tease, he was out just when they broke through.

But what if the contract issues had been resolved? What if Del Negro had
played eight or nine seasons with the Spurs? What if he had been part of the
first title, celebrating in the aftermath with Robinson and Johnson, and he
had retired here?

He wouldn’t be just another faceless, opposing coach tonight.

Del Negro would be a career Spur.

[e-mail]

Twitter: @Buck_SA


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◆ From: 99.125.165.60
→ keepstudying:不幫任何一方說話>///<不過Popo的Del Negro先生應該
→ keepstudying:是笑當Del Negro還在馬刺的時候，但那時候的Popo也是
→ keepstudying:眾人罵的對象阿 >///<
→ Alfred:我覺得應該是笑話，不然就是Pop真的對VDN的防守怨念很深XD
→ keepstudying:應該是笑話拉，這我能接受，但就是當我想起Del Negro
→ keepstudying:還在的那一段，也會同時想起那個一直被罵的Popo XDD
推 gotohikaru:因為一直有在聯絡才能開這種玩笑吧
→ iIvan:Del Negro it在場上喊也太長了XD
推 blackdevil:突然想到上頁有篇文章形容Del Negro防守佳XDDDD
→ iIvan:那位仁兄如果不是來亂的就是真的不懂裝懂
※ 編輯: Alfred          來自: 99.125.165.60        (05/18 09:15)