Fw: [外電] LeBron James' place among greats

[andy556638 (壎魚)]

※ [本文轉錄自 MiamiHeat 看板 #1Fw7NfM_ ]

作者: l2l (快樂的潛水夫) 看板: MiamiHeat
標題: [外電] LeBron James' place among greats
時間: Mon Jun 25 22:29:59 2012

原文出處 http://tinyurl.com/87otzhn
翻譯參閱 http://www.espnstar.com.tw/news/basketball/2012/0624/240424.htm

LeBron James' place among greats

By John Hollinger

That howling sound you heard was the monkey being thrown off LeBron James'
back and into the path of an oncoming locomotive.

你所聽到的那聲哀嚎，是由雷霸龍從自己背上甩掉的那支猴子口中發出的。它在被雷霸龍
甩掉後，掉到了路中間，迎面而來的，是一列呼嘯而來的火車……

Like he said, it's about damn time.

正如他所說，這一切只關乎該死的時間而已。

With apologies to the ASPCA, these past two weeks were the defining career
moment for the best player of his generation. Yes, the best. There can be no
doubt any longer, as the lack of a championship was the one giant asterisk
that allowed others into the discussion.

我要向美國防止虐待動物協會道歉，用了這樣一個比喻來形容雷霸龍卸下了萬噸壓力。對
於這個時代最出色的球員而言，過去兩個星期是其職業生涯最具代表性的時間段。沒錯，
我說雷霸龍是最好的球員，這一點已經不再有任何疑問。之前雷霸龍還會因為手中沒有冠
軍戒指而受到質疑，還有會其他偉大球星被納入「第一人」討論，可現在沒有了。


So as Miami holds its first title celebration since July of 2010 ("Not one,
not two, not three ..."), it's time to take a step back and look at the
bigger view: Where does this put James in history, and where might it lead to
him eventually ranking amongst the greats?

所以，在熱火舉辦了他們自2010年7月份的第一次冠軍慶典後（那年熱火沒奪冠，但三巨
頭在記者會說出了，不是一個，不是兩個，不是三個……），是時候來考慮這個問題了：
雷霸龍在NBA歷史上能排在哪個位置？這個總冠軍能讓雷霸龍在所有偉大球員中排名第幾
位？

It's hard to overstate how much the past two weeks have changed the
perception of James, both in terms of where he stands among his peers and his
place in the game's pantheon of greats.

很難用誇張的筆墨去描述過去兩周對於雷霸龍而言到底意味著什麼，過去兩周所發生的一
切改變了外界對於雷霸龍的認知。無論是他在同輩球員中的地位，還是他在NBA歷史萬神
殿中的地位，都得到了提升。

People forget this now, but it was barely two weeks ago that the soundtrack
to Miami's season was a 9-year-old kid shrieking "Good job! Good effort!"
after the Heat sleepwalked through a Game 5 home loss to Boston. That loss
left them on the brink of elimination and ushered in a new round of
psychological evaluations from the world's armchair shrinks.

人們現在可能已經忘記了，大約兩周前，東區決賽第五場比賽熱火在主場輸給塞爾提克，
丟掉了天王山之戰的勝利後，一個9歲的孩子曾尖叫著給熱火打氣，高呼：「幹得好，你
們很努力！」那場失利讓熱火站在了被淘汰的邊緣，他們陷入了世人新一輪的質疑中。

All James did since then was average 32.7 points, 11.1 rebounds and 6.3
assists on 51 percent shooting, leading his team to six wins in seven games
en route to the championship. He was a man possessed, as Clay Bennett might
say.

但在那之後的7場比賽中（東區決賽最後兩場和總決賽五場），雷霸龍場均轟下32.7分
11.1個籃板6.3次助攻，投籃命中率達到了51%。他率領球隊拿下了其中的6場勝利，最終
奪冠。他是一個瘋狂的傢伙，也許雷霆老板格雷-本內特會如此感慨。

And he was at his most pathologically locked-in during the darkest moment,
that fateful sixth game in Boston when James single-handedly tore apart the
Celtics with 45 points. James said afterward that he'd succeeded this season
by rediscovering the "joy" in his game, but he had all the glee of a serial
killer on that night and it provided the turning point of his career.

東區決賽第六場比賽，雷霸龍獨力轟下了45分，幾乎隻手率隊在波士頓花園球館取勝。賽
後，雷霸龍表示本賽季他能取得成功是因為他開始重新找到了比賽的樂趣。那個夜晚，雷
霸龍享受到了作為一個「連環殺手」的「樂趣」，那也成為了其職業生涯的轉折點。

Nobody will ever question his "closer" credentials again, not after he made
all the big plays in these last six wins -- including clutch bailout 3s from
several feet behind the line in Game 7 of the conference finals and Game 4 of
the Finals. (Perhaps now that he's a certified closer®", he'll feel
liberated to take horrible 30-foot hero shots with impunity, like Paul Pierce
or Kobe Bryant.) That's a pretty stark contrast to February, when everybody
piled on him for not taking a wild jack at the end of the All-Star Game. The
freaking All-Star Game.

沒有人會再去質疑雷霸龍在膠著時刻的表現，在熱火最後六場勝利中，雷霸龍投中了他應
該投中的所有關鍵球。東區決賽第七場比賽，他投中了一個三分線外幾英尺處的關鍵三分
；總決賽第四場比賽，他在腿部肌肉抽筋的情況下，面對塞弗洛薩投中了反超比分的致命
三分。他現在已經可以像皮爾斯、柯比那樣輕鬆去投30尺處的英雄球。可時光倒退回2月
份，全明星賽後所有人都在質疑雷霸龍關鍵時刻選擇傳球的舉動，這在注重表演的全明星
賽中非常罕見。


Instead, James' new legacy is one of the most amazing top-to-bottom seasons
in NBA annals. Amazingly, virtually nobody discussed this while it was
happening; that's how all-consuming the will-he-choke-or-won't-he meme
became. In the modern history of the league, the only seasons that can really
compare are Shaquille O'Neal's first championship season with the Lakers and
Michael Jordan's first three championships with the Bulls. Everything else is
orders of magnitude below.

翻閱NBA編年史可以發現，雷霸龍本賽季的表現堪稱史上最瘋狂之一。在聯盟現代歷史中
，能夠跟雷霸龍本賽季相提並論的，也不過只有奪得個人第一座總冠軍獎杯時的湖人中鋒
歐尼爾，以及效力於公牛時奪得個人前三座總冠軍獎杯時的喬丹，其他人都沒有達到這麼
高的境界。

Check it out: James led the league in PER by a wide margin at 30.80, the
10th-best mark of the post-merger era. In the playoffs, he kept it up with a
30.39, which was doubly amazing because the competition in the postseason is
so much tougher. It goes without saying that he led the league in both
regular-season and playoff PER, and did so by wide margins. He also had the
best adjusted plus-minus in the postseason, and nearly the best in the
regular season.

具體來說，雷霸龍本賽季的PER（個人效率值）高達30.80，他以巨大的優勢排名聯盟第一
位，同時也是自NBA和ABA合並之後的第10高紀錄。在季後賽，雷霸龍的個人效率值仍保持
在了30.39，這一數據凸顯的是不可思議，因為季後賽的競爭強度明顯更高。更不用說，
雷霸龍的例行賽PER值和季後賽PER值全部都是聯盟第一，且相較第二名優勢巨大。季後賽
期間，雷霸龍的+-值同樣是聯盟第一；他在例行賽時的+-值僅以微弱的差距沒有排在第一
位而已。

He wasn't just the best player in the league; he dominated it from start to
finish, in a way only three players had done in the past four decades.
Jordan. Shaq. LeBron. That's the list.

雷霸龍不只是聯盟最好的球員，從賽季開始一直到賽季結束，他都占據著統治級地位。過
去40年間，只有三個球員做到過，除了喬丹和歐尼爾，就是雷霸龍，僅此三人。

Similarly, we are now forced to contemplate James' status as an all-timer,
both when we consider the body of work and what he might add to it. By any
analysis, LeBron is pretty darned high on the list.

同樣，我們若現在就強行總結雷霸龍職業生涯地位，考慮他目前驚人的體能表現，及未來
可能會再加冕多少成就頭銜，無論怎麼分析，雷霸龍在數據榜單上的排名都極高。

Let's start with the numbers. According to basketball-reference.com, James'
career PER is the second-best all time, trailing only Jordan's. Two caveats
come with that: First, it is basically a post-merger stat since we don't have
turnovers, blocks and steals for the older generation; and second, it's
destined to go down a bit once he gets into his past-prime years.

比如，根據basketball-reference.com的數據統計顯示，雷霸龍職業生涯PER值為史上第
二高，僅次於喬丹。兩點說明：
第一，這基本是自ABA和NBA合併之後的數據，上古時代沒有失誤、阻攻和抄截數據統計。
第二，等到雷霸龍狀態下滑，生涯開始進入下坡階段，他的PER值肯定會有所下降。

The big asterisk with LeBron, however, has always been the playoffs. History
says they haven't been as bad as you think. Jordan trumps him on this metric,
and so do Shaq and Tim Duncan, leaving James a distant fourth in career
playoff PER. Nonetheless, he outranks a pretty formidable list of talents,
including guys with names like Earvin, Larry and Kobe. He also has the best
single-season playoff PER ever, again by a wide margin: a ridiculous 37.43 in
2009 (check it out).

對於雷霸龍，人們對其最大的質疑是其季後賽表現，但歷史告訴我們，他的表現沒世人想
像中那麼差。喬丹在這一數據統計上以較大的優勢壓過了雷霸龍，但偉大如歐尼爾、歐拉
朱萬、鄧肯，他們的PER值跟雷霸龍都很接近。取決於雷霸龍30歲後的表現如何，雷霸龍
在生涯結束時，也許能夠排在第五位的位置。儘管如此，他仍超過了一票偉大球星，比如
「魔術」強森、「大鳥」伯德、柯比。他還創造了一項聯盟紀錄：單賽季季後賽PER值最
高紀錄為37.43，創造於2009年季後賽。


Of course, he's been the best player in the game for a while, he just hadn't
backed it up in June until now. James had won three of the past four MVP
awards, and the one exception was immediately called into question after
James suffocated Chicago's Derrick Rose in the 2011 Eastern Conference
finals. In two of his three MVP years his team also had the NBA's best
record, and in the third it won the championship.

當然，雷霸龍早已是聯盟最好的球員，只是在奪冠之前，這論點還不夠紮實而已。過去四
個賽季，雷霸龍拿到了三個例行賽MVP，唯一一次無緣MVP在2011年，那年季後賽東區決賽
，雷霸龍完封例行賽MVP德瑞克-羅斯，這也讓人開始質疑雷霸龍未能捧得MVP獎杯一事。
在其奪得MVP的三個賽季中，他所效力的球隊有兩個賽季拿到了聯盟最佳戰績；在其第三
次奪得MVP獎杯時，他的球隊贏得了總冠軍。

Want more? James has become one of only three players in the post-merger era
(Jordan and Shaq are the others) with multiple seasons of PER greater than 30
(he has three), and this year joined those two as the only ones with multiple
seasons of playoff PER greater than 30 (minimum 10 games).

還想要列舉更多數據？好吧，雷霸龍成為了自NBA和ABA合併之後，能夠在多個賽季PER值
超過30的三個球員中的一個，另外兩個是喬丹和歐尼爾；他還比肩喬丹和歐尼爾，成為了
NBA歷史上僅有的三個曾做到多個賽季季後賽PER值超過30的球員之一。

In other words, if you ended his career today, at the age of 27, James is
already in select company. Only 20 players have at least one MVP and one
championship; only 16 have done it with multiples of one or the other. And
virtually none of them did it while dominating to the extent James did. If
LeBron retired tomorrow, he'll have had a top-10 all-time career.

換句話說，如果雷霸龍的職業生涯今天結束，那麼27歲的雷霸龍已經可以進入最偉大球員
的選擇圈。只有20個球員至少拿到了一個MVP獎杯和一個總冠軍戒指；只有16個球員曾多
次做到兩項之一；事實上，他們中沒有一個人的統治力能夠達到雷霸龍本賽季的級別。如
果雷霸龍明天退役，他一定可以排進歷史前10位。

To put it another way: In terms of players you could genuinely compare to
James, even at this point, who is there? The one player lots of people use is
another guy who had to leave Ohio to get his championship ring, Oscar
Robertson, but the Big O had just one MVP and one championship, and the
latter didn't come until he was near the end of his career.

換句話說，如果讓你找出一個球員跟雷霸龍比較，你能選出誰來？很多人會選擇奧斯卡-
羅伯特森，當年他也曾為了奪冠離開了俄亥俄州。但是「大O」只有一個MVP獎杯和一枚總
冠軍戒指，他的那枚總冠軍戒指，直到退役前才拿到。

Moreover, James can still add to his take. And the "not one, not two, not
three ..." boast applies just as much to his MVP collection as it does to the
championships. Voter fatigue is the biggest threat James faces to getting a
ridiculous MVP haul. Jordan won five and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar a record six;
matching those totals looks very attainable now, especially since voters
can't hold his postseason failures against him anymore.

更重要的是，雷霸龍的榮譽庫還會增加，他的那句「不是一座，不是兩座，不是三座…」
不只適用於其奪冠次數，還適用於其捧得MVP的次數。對於雷霸龍而言，將來捧起MVP獎杯
最大的障礙，是投票者對他超凡表現感到疲乏。喬丹生涯拿到了五座 MVP，賈霸則有歷史
最多的六座，現在看來，雷霸龍未來能夠比肩前輩的可能性很大，尤其是現在投票者們已
經無法再用其歷屆季後賽的失敗來作為否定他的理由。

The ring is the harder thing, but as everybody is pointing out, Jordan was
older when he finally broke through. Nonetheless, now that they've seen how
hard it was to get just one, the Heat would probably reconsider that boast
from their over-the-top welcome party in July 2010.

相對而言，再次奪得總冠軍的難度更大，每個人都在指出，喬丹最終破繭而出時，年齡還
更大些。無論如何，他們已經意識到了奪冠有多困難，熱火需要重新考慮他們在 2010年7
月份三巨頭隆重亮相時所發出的豪言壯語。


There's that Jordan comparison again, but I'd argue Shaq is the better
comparison. Like Shaq, James is a physical freak of nature, got swept in a
trip to the Finals, changed to a glamour market as a free agent, and had to
endure some serious drama and questionings in his first title run (anybody
remember Game 7 against Portland?) before finally breaking through.

剛剛的比較又提到了喬丹，但我認為雷霸龍跟歐尼爾是一對更理想的比較對象。跟歐尼爾
一樣，雷霸龍天生神力，身體素質驚人。他們曾在生涯第一次總決賽之旅中慘遭橫掃，在
成為自由球員後他們皆選擇了一個迷人的市場。在他們榮獲第一次總冠軍途中，他們都曾
忍受各種戲劇化情節及質疑，而後有所突破。(有人記得歐尼爾帶領的湖人00年西冠決賽
第七場對拓荒者大逆轉?)

Shaq won only one MVP award but is LeBron's contemporary in many of the
statistical charts when we start talking about 30-plus PER seasons and
playoff runs. And, of course, his total of four championships seems a decent
enough bar for the "over" for LeBron.

歐尼爾職業生涯只贏得了一座MVP獎杯，但在那個時代，歐尼爾的數據非常華麗。他的奪
冠4次—對雷霸龍而言也是個很值得去超越的標竿。

But even in that comparison, James comes out ahead -- he's been more
consistent, more durable and a better teammate.

但在這組對比中，雷霸龍仍位居優勢，因為他更穩定、更耐操、出勤率更高，他也是一個
場上更好的隊友。


So at the end of the day, it's scary to think how highly LeBron may rank in
the pantheon. He has work to do, but it's not unreasonable to think he may go
down as the second-best player of all time behind Jordan. Nobody else is
going to match his combination of peak value, durability and (likely)
longevity; the thing he was always missing was a championship.

所以最終，去思考雷霸龍最終能夠在NBA歷史萬神殿中排名第幾是一件很恐怖的事情，他
必須得努力，但認為他也許是NBA歷史上在喬丹之後排在第二偉大的球星並非不切實際。
將最大價值、耐用性等組合在一起考慮，還沒人能跟雷霸龍相媲美，他所缺的，只是一個
總冠軍獎杯。

He's got one now, and it may be the first of several. Good job, good effort,
indeed.

現在，他拿到了，這個總冠軍獎杯也許僅是他生涯所獲得的總冠軍獎杯中的其中一個。
「幹得好，你很努力！」確實，雷霸龍他做到了。


--
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◆ From: 111.243.30.195
※ 編輯: l2l             來自: 111.243.30.195       (06/25 22:33)
推 eyelash55:推!
推 annielaurie:好文推
推 apinky1031:推
推 johntw:沒想到連John Hollinger都會看錯自己創造的數據..
推 johntw:Lebron的生涯季後賽PER是27.10,比O'neal、TD及Olajuwon還高
推 NJN:推
推 Lamitea:大推!
推 andy556638:借轉LBJ版
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※ 轉錄者: andy556638 (111.249.91.98), 時間: 06/25/2012 23:47:33