作者peter694 (盍各言爾志)
看板NBA
標題[外絮] 洛杉磯湖人：當荒謬成為笑話
時間Sat Jan 12 22:36:25 2013
When the absurd becomes amusing
With injuries to Howard, Gasol only their latest obstacles, all Lakers can do
is laugh
http://ppt.cc/B4uA
By Ramona Shelburne | ESPNLosAngeles.com
Getty Image/AP Photo
A season that started with so much promise has spiraled down to basic
questions about whether the Lakers will even be able to get through the next
three games without losing any more key players.
Well, at least they tried.
At the very least, you have to say that for the Los Angeles Lakers.
All the dysfunction, drama and debilitating injuries that came after their
landscape-altering trades for Steve Nash and Dwight Howard this summer, all
that came after they did everything a franchise that measures itself by
championships and nothing else should do.
After getting knocked out of the playoffs in the second round two years in a
row, the Lakers went out and landed two future Hall of Famers with every
reason to check their egos and assumptions at the door and do what was
necessary to win each of their first titles.
They got younger and more athletic with Howard. They got the elite point
guard they haven't had in decades in Nash. Lakers ownership green-lighted a
record $99.2 million payroll. They spent the extra money to keep key role
players such as Jordan Hill. They filled out the roster with savvy veterans
such as Antawn Jamison and specialists such as Jodie Meeks. They even managed
to rid themselves of Andrew Bynum before his body completely betrayed him.
It was all set up so perfectly.
And then perfect became the enemy of anything good.
Monday's news that Howard has a torn labrum in his right shoulder and is out
a minimum of a week, Pau Gasol will miss at least two games with a concussion
and Hill is out with a hip injury are just the latest, loudest thuds in a
season that's basically been played in a relentless thunderstorm.
"When it rains, it pours, man," Kobe Bryant said Monday before the Lakers
boarded a charter to Houston. "It's like the old 'Mr. Magoo' thing. You just
try to get through it.
"You just feel like at some point you hit rock bottom, and then it's time
when the only place you can go is up."
You hope, at least.
So is this it? Is this the bottom?
That's impossible to say yet. But the Lakers were laughing, not crying Monday
when they got this latest news.
Laughing because, well, what else can you do when things go this wrong?
Before boarding a flight for Houston, Bryant tweeted out a picture of himself
and Howard pretending to fight in the Lakers training room with coach Mike
D'Antoni lying on a training table between them, amusingly terrified at the
scene.
Bryant is smiling as he sets up in a southpaw stance. Howard is serious as he
raises his injured right shoulder as high as it can go with what looks to be
five bags of ice taped on it.
It was the perfect response to a report in the New York Daily News late
Sunday night that asserted the two stars had almost come to blows after a
loss to Philadelphia on New Year's Day.
To a man, every Laker who was asked Monday denied any such altercation
occurred. But in a sign of the way things have gone for the Lakers this
season, that story already felt old by the time the subject came up after
Monday's walk-through.
Who can worry about chemistry when three key players' anatomies are working
against them?
Who can worry about winning a title in June when it's going to be tough to
find a credible NBA frontcourt for the rest of January?
The playoffs? How about just getting through the next three games without
losing any more key players?
The first reaction to all this news is to grab a shovel and start filling in
the plot.
The next is to gawk at that $99.2 million payroll and start figuring out if
there are any personnel changes that can whip it into shape if this Lakers
season really is kaput.
But in the next breath, you look at the roster and realize it still has Steve
Nash and Kobe Bryant on it.
"No one is going to feel sorry for us," said Nash. "We have to take the
challenge, embrace it. No matter how many lumps we take, we can't give up.
You can't feel sorry for yourself, you got to keep battling, and if you keep
battling, you give yourself a chance for good things to happen. But if you
feel sorry for yourself, if you complain, if you make excuses, that's when,
frankly, I think you delay the turnaround or prohibit the turnaround."
That, of course, is what a future Hall of Famer is supposed to say when times
are grim.
But there's a deeper point Nash is making. One that applied even before
everyone taller than 6-foot-10 on the Lakers roster was lost to an injury
Monday.
This Lakers team was constructed to win now and win it all. Nothing less was
acceptable. It's why Mike Brown was fired after losing all eight preseason
games and going 1-4 to start the season. And it's why the rest of the NBA
cares so deeply about a team with a 15-18 record that sits 11th place in the
Western Conference.
But perhaps it's also why this team has underachieved so badly, even when
everyone was healthy.
The strain, the pressure of it all has just been too much.
In happier times Sunday night, following a demoralizing loss to the Denver
Nuggets, (yes, in the wake of Monday's injury news, Sunday qualifies as a
happier time), Dwight Howard explained the situation perfectly.
It was late and his shoulder was throbbing, but he did not rush off into the
luxury car that was waiting to chauffeur him home. He had a point to make and
he needed both hands to make it -- pain be damned.
"You know when you're at the beach?" Howard said. "And you bend down to grab
some sand. What happens when you grab it too tightly? It all falls out,
right. And what happens when you don't grab it tight enough? It all blows
away, right? You have to hold it just tight enough. Just right.
"That's what we're trying to figure out. That's what we're still trying to
figure out."
當Howard和Gasol的傷病成為近期唯一應該克服的困難，湖人隊能做的就是一笑了之。
賽季初，湖人眾將士滿懷憧憬，目標直指總冠軍，可是現在，他們要關心的卻是如何確保
在接下來的三場比賽中不再損失任何關鍵球員。
他們努力了。
對於湖人隊，至少我們應該承認這一點。
去年夏天，湖人隊完成了足以改變聯盟格局的交易，他們迎來了Nash和Howard，但是他們
得到了什麼：糟糕的化學反應、戲劇般的戰績以及不斷的傷病潮。一直志在奪冠的球隊高
層做了他們該做的一切，人們也不能再向他們苛求更多了。
連續兩年止步季后賽第二輪，湖人隊本賽季大手筆引進了兩名未來名人堂球員，而對於
Nash和Howard，就單從自身的角度考慮，他們也一定會為了自己生涯的第一枚總冠軍戒指
拼盡全力的。
Howard的加盟使球隊變得年輕，Nash的到來結束了球隊十年無頂級控衛的歷史。球隊默許
了高達9920萬美元的工資單，這其中包括留下關鍵的角色球員Hill，簽下經驗豐富的老將
Jamison以及三分球專家Meeks，球隊還在Bynum的膝蓋““出賣”他之前成功地甩掉了這
一包袱。
這一切的一切都近乎完美。
但是這樣的完美卻沒給湖人隊帶來成功，甚至成了他們最大的絆腳石。
週一的比賽中，Howard肩關節盂唇撕裂，至少要缺席一周的比賽；Gasol由於腦震盪至少
缺席兩場比賽；Hill也因右臀的肌肉撕裂無法繼續比賽，而這一消息也僅僅是湖人隊本賽
季經歷的一系列狂風暴雨中的一記驚雷罷了。
“哪有大雨不傾盆的，老兄，”Kobe在登上前往休斯頓的包機前說道，”我們現在像極了
'脫線先生'，你要做的就是經受住風雨的考驗，堅持等到彩虹出來的那天。”
“你會有這種感覺，球隊某天終會跌倒最低點，到那時，我們唯一該做的就是不斷往上爬
。”
是的，至少希望還是有的。
那現在呢？現在湖人隊到底“觸底”了麼？
答案不應該是否定的。
但是當最新一輪傷病襲來之際，湖人隊並沒有沮喪，他們反而笑了。
關鍵時刻遭受傷病的困擾，當情況糟糕到如此境地，除了笑，還能做什麼呢？
在飛往休斯頓之前，Kobe在推特上發了一張照片，照片裡，自己和Howard在訓練室內似乎
要幹架，D'Antoni 教練躺在他倆中間的訓練桌上，表情既滑稽又害怕。
照片裡，Kobe面帶笑容，架起自己的左拳，Howard表情相對嚴肅，盡可能高地揚起受傷的
右肩，其上厚厚地包裹著五個冰袋。
紐約每日新聞不久前曾爆料在新年第一天輸給費城後，這兩位湖人隊的當家巨星差點拳腳
相加，而這張照片則是對該新聞的完美回擊。
被問及Kobe和Howard之間所謂的“矛盾”時，湖人隊每名球員都予以否認。但是鑑於湖人
本賽季至今的情形，再加上新出現的傷病潮，兩大巨星之間的矛盾似乎早已化為陳年舊事
。
當隊中三名關鍵球員因傷缺席比賽時，誰還會關心化學反應的事兒？
當球隊在本月剩餘的比賽前場球員吃緊的情況下，誰還會關心六月份總決賽的事兒？
季后賽？現在球隊真正應該關心是怎麼在接下來的三場比賽中避免損失更多的關鍵球員。
對於至今所發生的一切，人們的第一反應就是湖人隊到底怎麼了。
接下來人們又會想如果湖人本賽季真的沒能成功，面對9920萬的薪金總額，球隊會做出怎
樣的人員變動才能使之重新走上正軌？
但是轉念再想一想，看看湖人的名單，你發現隊中仍有Kobe和Nash坐鎮。
“沒有人會對我們報以憐憫之情，”Nash說道，"我們應該勇敢的面對並接受挑戰。不管
前面有多少攔路虎，我們都不能放棄。這時候我們不能自暴自棄，我們該做的就是繼續戰
鬥，只有堅持戰鬥，才有可能爭取通向成功的機會。但是如果我們自怨自艾，不斷為自己
找各種藉口，那就等於拒絕了幫助球隊變好的轉機。“
這理應是一名未來名人堂球員在球隊處於困境時說的話。
但是Nash話中有話，這其中的深意和湖人隊的大個子們是否受傷沒關係。
組建這支湖人豪華之師的目的就是為了贏球，其他任何結果都是不能接受的。這就是為什
麼Mike Brown在季前賽八連敗，常規賽1勝4負後就早早地離開洛杉磯，同樣也是為什麼聯
盟如此關注僅取得15勝18負，位列西部第11的湖人隊了。
但是也許這也是為什麼湖人隊在全隊健康的情況下依然離目標漸行漸遠。
也許來自各方面的壓力真的太大了，重壓之下的紫金軍團步履維艱。
在輸給金塊的那個“幸福”的晚上，（是的，和第二天檢查結果出來相比，當天晚上是相
對幸福的）Howard很好地描述了湖人隊現在的狀況。當時已經很晚了，但是Howard並沒有
急忙坐車回家，他需要形像地表達他的觀點，這樣做需要同時用到兩隻手，儘管他的肩膀
還很疼--去死吧該死的疼痛。
“你在沙灘上抓起一把沙子，如果你握得太緊會發生什麼？毫無疑問，沙子會從手中滑落
。那如果握得過鬆呢？結果是一樣的。你應該適度地掌握鬆緊度才能保證沙子不掉落。”
Howard說道。
“這就是我們現在應該解決卻還沒有解決的問題。”
--
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推 serendipity :湖人隊並沒有沮喪，他們反而笑了。 01/12 22:39
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推 katanakiller:BOSH先知 話說我打得2K13湖人沒進季後賽XD 01/12 22:42
推 flybow :灰熊最近又要清倉大拍賣了 這是一個契機 01/12 22:42
推 lovea :湖人農場已經養好 準備出售 01/12 22:45
→ LBJ23 :灰熊西區第四為什麼要清倉? 01/12 22:45
推 j91380000 :笑有出頭天 01/12 22:46
推 katanakiller:灰熊老闆小氣想省錢所以清倉 01/12 22:48
推 ice80712 :灰熊就是湖人農場阿 01/12 22:57
推 b2209187 :D'Antoni真的該滾了 01/12 23:01
推 douglasyeh :魔獸是在文青什麼啦哈哈 01/12 23:01
推 sampsonlu919:搞不好灰熊就算想清倉也不想清人到灰熊 01/12 23:02
推 ayaerika :BIG JOKE 01/12 23:02
→ heavensun :When the absurd becomes amusing 01/12 23:15
→ Alik :灰熊又要雪中送炭了嗎 01/12 23:20
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推 Gwendaline :看看bosh那篇底下的推文 噗噗 01/12 23:42
推 miracle1215 :哈哈那篇推文好好笑 湖人走捷徑XDDD 01/12 23:51
推 s86409 :推 bosh :沒在怕的啦 01/12 23:55
推 douglasyeh :其實那篇就是看幾個人在那裡吵架... 01/12 23:55
推 kunda :沒啥好吵的啊 時間會證明一切 01/13 00:01
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