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LeBron's Quest for Immortality 翻譯by巴拉圭
With a title in hand, the next step for King James is to secure his legacy
奪冠後的詹皇，下一步就是要穩固自己在歷史上的地位。
At the relatively tender age of 28, he stands alone on the mountaintop,
unquestionably the most famous athlete on the planet and one of its most
famous citizens of any kind. We've heard it so often that it's now a cliche,
though nonetheless accurate: He transcends sports."
— Sports Illustrated
"同樣在28歲處於人生中的巔峰，這名籃球員毫無疑問是目前最有名氣的職業運動員。
他現在依然是職業運動的代名詞"。 — Sports Illustrated
You thought that was about LeBron, didn't you? Nope. Jack McCallum wrote that
about Michael Jordan nearly 21 years ago, in December of 1991, as the lead
paragraph of the magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" feature. When Danny
Biasone's 24-second shot clock saved the NBA in 1954, the same year of Sports
Illustrated's launch, it inadvertently positioned the magazine as the
mainstream media's stamp of approval anytime an NBA star either
revolutionized the sport or transcended it. In 1956, they dubbed Bob Cousy a
"creative genius" and "nothing less than the greatest all-round player in the
64-year history of basketball." In 1963, they celebrated Bill Russell's
brilliance and called him "the most remarkable basketball player of our
time." And it just kept going from there. Five years before Jordan's 1991
coronation, Larry Bird adorned the magazine's cover with the headline "The
Living Legend," which featured a barrage of gushing quotes and wondered if
Bird's supremacy had surpassed even Russell and Kareem. As usual, Bird was
the one who ended up putting everything in perspective.
剛剛上一句你們都以為是LeBron對吧?如果是的話你們都錯了。這是Jack McCallum
在21年前寫的另一個人名叫Michael Jordan。在1991年的12月，上述的那一句話就
是正在形容當時贏得雜誌"Sportsman of the Year"封號。
"All I know is that people tend to forget how great the older great players
were," (said) Bird. "It'll happen that way with me, too."
Bird表示 : "我只知道的是，大家總是會把過去那些偉大的球員到底有多偉大給
忘記，當然我也不例外"。
Now we're doing this dance with the latest object of everyone's affection,
LeBron James, the best basketball player in 20 years. We spent nearly nine
years picking him apart before he flipped the narrative, borrowing the finest
qualities of Bird, Magic and Jordan and blending them together into a
superstar smoothie during last year's playoffs. When his team needed him to
score, he unleashed the most complicated inside/outside game since Jordan's
second prime. When they needed him to create shots for teammates, he found
them wide-open over and over again. When they needed rebounds, he pounded the
boards like Barkley or Moses in their primes. When they needed to slow down
an opposing scorer, he guarded that player and the player stopped scoring (no
matter what position he played).
現在是LeBron James的時代了，我們花了將近9個賽季的時間去真正了解他。
可以說LeBron有著各個前輩的特質，如果我們把Bird、Magic、跟Jordan綜合
起來你就會得到一個LeBron James。尤其是上個賽季季後賽他成功的把這些
特質都顯現出來。每當球隊需要他得分，他有裡有外的得分能力堪比當年的
Jordan。當球隊需要他分球幫隊友找到空檔出手時，他總是能找到有空檔的
隊友，並且將球很舒服的交在隊友手上。當球隊需要他搶籃板，他就化身為
Barkley或Moses的角色。尤其當球隊需要阻止對方的攻勢時，他都能有效的
阻止他的對手，不管隊手的位置是什麼都難不到他。
LeBron James churned out 44 minutes a night, every other night, for eight
straight weeks without ever wearing down. He played two of the greatest
two-way playoff basketball games in the history of the league: Game 4 at
Indiana (40 points, 18 rebounds, nine assists) and Game 6 at Boston (45
points, 15 rebounds, only seven missed shots), then threw on a Larry Bird 2.0
costume in the Finals, destroyed Oklahoma City in the low post, liquidated
the media's absurd "LeBron or Durant?" argument and averaged a triple-double
in the deciding two games. I called it a "virtuoso basketball performance" at
the time, but really, it was more of a watershed athletic achievement — no
different than Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile or Carl Lewis
trying to jump 30 feet. You shouldn't be able to play basketball like that.
For the first time in a long time, someone made the sport of basketball feel
like a Little League game with one of Those Kids — you know, those oversize
five-tool freaks who seem like they're 20 when they're really just 12. I will
never forget sitting next to my father during Game 6 of the Celtics series,
both of us getting shamed into silence because LeBron couldn't miss, waiting
for him to sweat, waiting for him to tire, waiting for any sign that he was
human. It just wasn't happening. The last time I felt that helpless during a
sporting event, Jordan and Pippen were ripping through a pathetic Celtics
team in the mid-'90s — they were playing at such a high level, we couldn't
help showing our appreciation by cheering them when they finally came out.
What else could you do? When were we going to see something like that again?
Two guys covering the whole court? Two guys playing that beautifully
together? What if we never saw that again? Didn't we have to acknowledge it?
Didn't we have to let them know that we knew?
LeBron peaked in a similar way during those last two and a half playoff
rounds, and really, you couldn't blame him if he coasted from here — his
hunger satiated, his point proven, the monkey pulled off his back and
subsequently stomped to death. Everyone handles this moment differently.
Jordan (1991), Magic (1987), Walton (1977), Hakeem (1994) and Bird (1986)
returned more inspired than ever, but it was the worst thing that ever
happened to Shaq — after his 2000 title, he realized his immense physical
advantages allowed him to enjoy his summers, use regular seasons to work
himself into shape, then take over when it truly mattered. And he was right —
the Lakers won two more titles that way, even if they left another three on
the table.
Wilt suffered as well: After briefly embracing controversial things like
"teamwork" and "unselfishness" and defeating Russell's Celtics and winning
his first championship in 1967, he couldn't maintain the momentum. He
measured his own worth by numbers, not team success. The following year, Wilt
went overboard with the "unselfish" gimmick, desperately tried to lead the
league in assists (he did), then mysteriously stopped shooting in the second
half of an eventual Game 7 loss to Boston. They traded him to Los Angeles a
few months later. So much for Wilt "getting it."
So there's definitely a fork in the road with the "Year after The Year." The
good news? There's an overwhelming amount of evidence that LeBron is heading
toward that Jordan/Bird/Magic direction. When we were taping a television
segment for ESPN last week, Magic Johnson mentioned how LeBron's "off the
court" was catching up to LeBron's "on the court." In other words, he gets it
now — that there's a cause and effect between how you spend your offseason
and what actually happens during that season. We finished the segment and
spent the next few minutes bullshitting about LeBron. Magic mentioned that
LeBron could taste it now; he could tell by their phone calls over the
summer. He believed Pat Riley's impact was so much more underrated than
anyone realizes, that Riley has a way of just staying in your ear, appealing
to you as a friend and a competitor, never letting up, never letting you stop
thinking about what's next. Riley wouldn't push it that hard unless he
thought LeBron wanted it. And Magic thought LeBron wanted it.
"It's like eating steak if you've never had steak," Magic said. "Once you
taste it, you want more of it."
After LeBron spent his first eight seasons regarding the low post with
genuine disdain, it took a humiliating 2011 Finals series for someone blessed
with Karl Malone's body and Jordan's footwork to change his thinking. Once
upon a time, Bird started the trend of using every summer to add one new
weapon to his game, something Magic quickly copied, and then Jordan, Hakeem
and Kobe used to their advantage the following two decades. Why wasn't LeBron
following suit? For years and years, that was the easiest way to criticize
him. As long as someone with LeBron's basketball intelligence refused to use
what should have been his biggest advantage (an inside/outside game), then we
couldn't believe in him. We wondered if he was destined to become the next
Shaq or Wilt, someone with all the talent in the world who just couldn't
harness those prodigious physical gifts … and even worse, didn't totally
care.
Everything changed in the summer of 2011, and thanks to our friends at
CourtVision, you can actually see how his offensive game matured. LeBron
spent this summer working on his own version of Magic's junior sky hook (even
asking the master for a few tips). Meanwhile, the Heat's offensive philosophy
has evolved with him — they're gravitating toward a strategy that Holland's
soccer team famously tried during the 1970s, something of an offensive
Nirvana, where positions don't matter and players aren't pigeonholed with a
formulaic set of expectations. For all we know, Miami might eliminate the
sport's two most famous positions completely — point guard and center — so
they can surround LeBron with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and two shooters (Ray
Allen, Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, etc.) 90 percent of the time.
You know what was really frightening? When Erik Spoelstra said the words,
"Thinking conventionally that first season with LeBron — that was my biggest
regret as a coach. I put LeBron in a box. And that's the worst thing I could
have done." As a Celtics fan, I read those words and thought to myself, Good
God, we're all screwed."
Of course, none of this would matter if LeBron didn't want it — and in this
case, the word "it" covers "multiple titles," "dominance" and "true
greatness" — but by all accounts, he does. During the Summer Olympics in
London, observers were pleasantly surprised by a subtle shift in LeBron's
personality: less clowning, more leading, more measuring himself against the
other guys. Four years ago, he may have spent an hour shooting half-court
shots. In 2012, he kept throwing himself into shooting contests with Durant
and Kobe, determined to prove he could hold his own. Anytime one of the USA
practices became heated and turned into something of a dick-measuring
contest, something that tends to happen when you gather the best players in
the world on the same floor, LeBron left little doubt who mattered most. By
all accounts, he was clearly the best player on the team. And it wasn't close.
In 2008, when things were falling apart during that gold-medal game against
Spain, everyone deferred to Kobe. In 2012, during a similar moment in the
gold-medal game, there was an unforgettable stretch when Coach K frantically
signaled for LeBron, then LeBron sat at the scorer's table for what felt like
three hours, waiting for a dead-ball whistle so he could reenter a game that
was suddenly slipping away. Finally, a crumbling Carmelo Anthony whipped a
pass into the stands — inadvertently, his best play of the Olympics since it
allowed LeBron to come back in — and within a few minutes, everything was
fine. (LeBron made a dagger 3 and a backbreaking drive.) I can still remember
sitting in the stands, freaking out, glancing over at LeBron at the scorer's
table, wondering if he was ever getting back in, feeling like we were screwed
if it didn't happen soon. You couldn't crystallize what happened last summer
better than that.
You know who summed up LeBron's ascension better than anyone? My old friend
Isiah Thomas! The same guy who saved my NBA book with "The Secret" of
basketball dropped a little more wisdom to Sports Illustrated this week,
explaining LeBron's current mind-set by saying, "Think about what I'm saying
here. On the planet Earth, there is nobody better than you, and that gives
you the confidence to walk around and say, I'm bigger than you, I'm better
than you, and the only thing you can hope for is that I'm having a bad night."
That's exactly what it means to be LeBron James right now. The only thing
that can stop him? If Dwyane Wade resists being relegated to "LeBron's
sidekick" status again. During the last three weeks of the 2012 playoffs,
their uneasy alpha-dog battle was resolved as organically as possible —
Wade's aching knee forced LeBron to assume a bigger offensive burden, and
just like that, Miami's team fell into place. To borrow a word from the great
Bob Ryan, the Heat's calibration finally made sense. Everything ran through
LeBron, with Wade reinventing himself as a new-wave Pippen almost on the fly.
He spent the summer fixing his knee and getting himself into phenomenal
shape, blowing everyone away during the preseason and leaving the door ajar —
just a little — that he might not be ready to throw on that Robin costume
again.
Then again, who has it better than Dwyane Wade right now? What if this was
the plan all along? What if Wade and Riley were scheming years ago, We'll
never be able to beat LeBron if he finds the right team, we need him on our
side — we'll push him to another level, ride him to a few titles and never
let him know that we were pulling the strings all along? Now that LeBron has
established himself as the league's most dominant player, there's an
overwhelming chance that Wade is delighted by this — it just means less work
for him, right? And if that's the case, I am fully preparing for the monster
LeBron season to end all monster LeBron seasons: 65 wins, 27 points a game,
10 rebounds a game, maybe even (gulp) 10 assists a game. Oh, while changing
the way we watch and think about basketball, much like Cousy in 1956, or
Russell in 1963, or Bird and Magic in the '80s, or Jordan a decade later.
And yeah, with the greatest basketball season in 20 years looming, I
understand it's easy to get distracted by admittedly juicy story lines like
the Lakers trotting out four future Hall of Famers, or two suddenly juicy
Nets-Knicks and Clippers-Lakers rivalries, or Derrick Rose's potential
comeback, or possible leap seasons for Rajon Rondo (a runner-up MVP
candidate) and Kyrie Irving (as a top-15 guy), or Oklahoma City's "kids"
using last year's bitter Finals defeat as motivation for a possible Eff You
season. Just know that it's all window dressing — fun subplots to pass the
time, keep us engaged, keep us arguing, keep us watching. From a big-picture
standpoint? History says LeBron James is getting ready to destroy everybody.
No other angle really matters.
If it happens — and I think it will — that means two straight titles and
four MVP trophies in five years (something only Russell's ever done). For the
first time, we could start thinking about him in Jordanian terms. What would
it take for LeBron to pass Michael? Does he need six titles to get there?
What if he ended up with five titles and six MVPs while also creating the
35-10-10 club (35,000 points, 10,000 assists, 10,000 rebounds)? Would that be
enough? And if he continues to break ground as a power point guard — Bird
2.0 crossed with Magic, basically — shouldn't it matter that he created a
new position? Also, how have we not hit LeBron's ceiling yet after nine
years? Can we really go higher than what we witnessed last June? How high can
this go? How long can this last?
For the first time, I feel myself starting to waver a little. Maybe Michael
Jordan won't remain the greatest basketball player ever. Maybe we were wrong.
Of all the themes that have me excited for this upcoming NBA season, I keep
circling back to that one. We love sports for dozens and dozens of reasons,
but ultimately, the seasons and teams and championships blend into one blurry
mess. You're going to be 80 years old someday and unable to remember 99.7
percent of it. Only a handful of athletes will stand out, and when someone
asks if you watched them, your face will start glowing, and you'll start
gushing about them, and for a few seconds, you will come to life again.
Usually it's someone with unforgettable athletic ability (say, Usain Bolt or
Bo Jackson), a supernatural mastery of his craft (Bird, Gretzky and Magic)
and/or an indomitable will to conquer everyone else (Jordan, Ali and
Russell). But when someone resonates in all three ways at the same time?
Those are the ones we defend forever. We sing their praises, recall them on
our deathbeds, tell everyone who wants to hear that we were there.
Those are the stakes for LeBron James this season. He already won a
championship. Now he's battling for something else.
待翻譯中....
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