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※ 本文轉錄自 YOONANASH 信箱

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Nash 跟他們一起同生共死。

By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
January 6, 2012

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-120106-08/steve-nash-future-phoenix
http://tinyurl.com/7vg9dby

DALLAS -- Steve Nash sits at his locker with an ice pack on his right knee,
another on his lower back and a sheepish smile on his face, having just told
the laugh-at-yourself story about the new protective pad he's been forced to
wear under his jersey to protect bruised left ribs.

達拉斯特報 -- Nash 在更衣室冰敷他的右膝跟下背，邊開著關於他球衣底下墊來保護他受
傷的左肋骨墊子的笑話。

"It's like half a bra," Nash says. "C cup."

『這就像半個奶罩』Nash 說『有C罩杯喔!』

Then he does one of those Nashian pivots that he usually busts out to make
space in the lane and starts jabbing at the one doing the asking, anticipating
what's coming before the conversation goes any farther, his feel and vision
undented even with birthday No. 38 just a month away.
"Lemme guess what you want to talk about."

在大家提問前，他就先發制人的說『讓我猜猜你們想問什麼。』

Nash knows. He knows because he's been getting the question -- questions,
really -- for more than a season now. He hears it not just from media pests but
from fans, too. Suns fans, even. The desert dwellers obviously don't want to
see their prodigal point guard leave, but they don't want to see the NBA's
all-time leader in playoff games without reaching the NBA Finals suffer any
more, either.

Nash知道，他知道是因為他超過一季時間都在回答這問題。不僅是媒體、球迷連Suns的粉絲
都在問。沙漠居民不想看到他們心愛的控衛離開，但也不像見到他停留在『NBA 最多季後賽
但從未到達總決賽』的第一名王位上煎熬。

Isn't it time to finally ask for a trade? Don't you want one more shot at a
ring before you retire? How much more of this can you take?

不是到了終於提出交易要求的時間了嗎？然道你不想要最後再試一次？倒底還可以忍受這些
多久呢?

"What does that mean?" Nash asks back. "Do I go in and say, 'Trade me to a top
two or three team?' I think it's lot more difficult than people think.

『你這話什麼意思？』Nash回問『是說，我去說「請換我到前兩、三隊嗎？」我想這比人們
想得還困難得多。』

"One, it's not my style. Maybe I'm old school, but I feel like that's not my
place to give up on my team, give up on my teammates. I signed a contract and
made a commitment.

『一、這不是我的風格。或許我是個老古板，我覺得這不是我被許可說放棄我的球隊、放棄
我的隊友。我簽了個合約、給了承諾。』

"And two, I don't feel it's like choosing a restaurant. It's got to be a
situation that works for two teams. And I don't know how simple that is. But
before we even get to that part of it, I just feel that I owe it to my
teammates to stay committed to them. I feel that I owe it to the fans and the
organization to fight."

『二、我不覺得這是在挑餐廳。這要是兩個球隊都可以得到好處才可行的。我不知道這簡不
簡單。但在我們談到那之前，我覺得我欠我的隊友們一個堅定。我覺得我欠球迷跟球團繼續
奮鬥。』

So the cycle continues in Phoenix. Nash is adamant: He will not go to his
bosses and ask to be traded. The Suns likewise haven't budged: They insist they
will not trade Nash unless he comes to them and says he can't bear another day
detached from relevance. The trading deadline isn't until March 15 in this
shortened and late-starting season, so there's lots of time for positions to
change and QB-hungry suitors to make their pitches, but the present course will
find Phoenix playing out the next 60 games and then trying to persuade Nash to
re-sign come July 1 ... or risk losing him without compensation.

所以這將繼續循迴下去：Nash 堅決他絕對不會去跟他老闆要求交易。Suns也不讓步得說，
他們絕不會交易Nash，除非他說無法再繼續再為他們打一天的球。3月15 日才是交易截止日
，當很多缺四分衛的球隊不停開價時，還是有改變立場的空間。但以現況來說，鳳凰城要努
力說服Nash 7月1 日 續約，不然就是白白讓Nash 離去。

On this scorecard, if you exclude the restricted free agent studs like Kevin
Love and Russell Westbrook whose teams are sure to match any offers they get,
Nash surely ranks as the No. 3 free agent-to-be in the 2012 class, behind only
Dwight Howard and Deron Williams, no matter what his birth certificate says.
Yet Nash, who turns a year older on Feb. 7, eventually cuts short any
discussion about the future, having pledged to the Suns that he'll try as hard
as he can to prevent the uncertainty about how much longer he'll be a Sun from
becoming a daily distraction.

在2012年的自由球員裡，restricted free agent 的 Kevin Love and Russell
Westbrook 的球隊不管誰開價都會跟，不會讓他們走人。那Nash 就會是排在Dwight
Howard and Deron Williams後第三位有行情的球員，不管Nash 到底有多老了。 Nash 2月7
日就又多了一歲，但總是打斷任何關於以後的討論。他因為效忠了Suns，就不會讓關於他倒
底還會在這多久的閒言閒語成為每天的干擾。

"Particularly with this condensed season, all the energy I have is to try to
prepare to play," Nash said. "I'm still rusty. It was a long layoff with really
no basketball for me. It takes a lot of energy and effort every day to prepare
to play. So I really don't have time to think about the future. I gotta try to
get back to midseason form."

『為了縮短的球季，我全身精力都用在準備比賽』Nash說『我還有點生鏽。在休息的這段時
間我幾乎都沒打籃球。每天準備比賽都要用掉我很多的精力跟努力。所以我真的沒時間想以
後的事，我正在試圖回到季中的體態。』

Said Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby: "We have a pretty
definitive plan, which is to stay as competitive as we can with the leadership
of Steve and Grant [Hill] and try to begin to put the pieces in place to look
towards the future and maintain flexibility in 2012 and beyond. Those are the
elements of what we're doing.

Suns 總經理Lon Babby說『我們有很確實的計畫，那就是盡可能的在Steve & Grant 的領導
下組成有競爭力的球隊。試圖拼湊出可以展望未來又可在2012年後有彈性空間。』

"We're trying to brick by brick put a team together that will compete at the
highest levels and create a little bit more balance than we've had here
offensively and defensively and try to do what's difficult to do: build for the
future but at the same time maintain a level of competitiveness. It's a tough
task, but we'll see if we can pull it off."

『我們一磚一瓦的組成一個可以在最高程級比賽，而又在攻守都平均的球隊。要一方面又有
競爭力，又要展望未來是很困難的。困難的習題就看我們可不可以達成。』

The obvious problem is that July -- when the Suns come into their first
significant cap room since swiping Nash back from the Dallas Mavericks in the
summer of 2004 -- feels years away because of where they are now in the West's
pecking order. As one scout said Wednesday after watching Nash rack up 12
assists to go with 15 points in the Suns' eighth straight loss in Dallas: "How
many of their other guys are legit NBA starters?"

最明顯的問題就是七月將是Suns在2004年從Dallas 簽回Nash 後第一次擁有大的薪資空間。
有個球探在Nash 12次助攻15得分卻還連敗Dallas 八次後說『到底有幾個其它的球員是正當
的先發？』

Hill, at 39, splits the leadership load with his little buddy and is as equally
stubborn in his devotion to the Suns (and his resistance of Father Time).
Marcin Gortat continues to develop and raise hope that he can solidify his
standing as one of the NBA's top 10 centers. Jared Dudley remains a determined
and endearing sixth man. But beyond those three? The Suns have only four
holdovers from the 2009-10 team that fell two wins shy of a Cinderella trip to
the NBA Finals and are borderline unrecognizable some 18 months later.

39 歲的Hill 與他的死黨一起領導球隊，也對Suns 一片癡心 (不服老也一樣)。Marcin
Gortat 有成為NBA 前10 大中鋒的希望。Jared Dudley 是有毅力跟活力的第六人。但在這
三人之外呢？2009 年灰姑娘傳奇的球隊只剩4名，而在18 個月後都幾乎認不出來了。

These Suns, sacrilegious as it sounds, struggle to score, falling shy of 90
points three times in their first six games. The game-changing bench of 2010 is
a memory. Suns coach Alvin Gentry and Nash have openly frothed at the idea of
what Lamar Odom might have given the team as a one-year rental, because power
forwards who can make plays are tailor-made to play with Nash, but sources
close to the situation insist that the Lakers never made Odom available to the
masses after the collapse of their Chris Paul deal, agreeing to trade the
reigning Sixth Man of the Year to Dallas because that's where Odom's camp
pushed for if he had to leave L.A.

聽起來不可思議的，這些Suns 對於得分感到挫折。近六次比賽有三次都未滿90 分。2010
年的板凳暴徒已成往事。教練跟Nash 都有公開幻想說如果可以借Lamar Odom 一年的話，這
位大前鋒可以跟Nash 合作無間。但根據可靠來源說，Laker 從未把Odom 兜售給所有球隊，
是Odom 黨在Chris Paul 不成的交易後要求去Dallas 的。

Suns owner Robert Sarver is still paying for the decision after the near-Finals
trip to let Amare Stoudemire go ... and then ill-advisedly spend $80-something
million on Hedo Turkoglu, Josh Childress, Hakim Warrick and a re-signed
Channing Frye in a doomed attempt to replace Nash's longtime pick-and-roll
partner. Sarver has resolved to take a lower profile and let Babby do the bulk
of the talking now, which he lived up to Wednesday night by declining to be
interviewed for the first time I can remember, but it's going to take more than
measured words for Phoenix to recover from that plan.

Suns 老板 Sarver 依舊在為在幾乎到總決賽後卻讓Amare 走，而為了替代Nash
pick-and-roll  的拍檔卻亂花了八千萬在Hedo Turkoglu, Josh Childress, Hakim
Warrick and a re-signed Channing Fry 的決定付出代價。Sarver 現在已經改成低調作風
，讓Babby 發言了。他星期三時就從所未有的第一次拒絕訪問。謹言慎行並不能讓Phoenix
從那決定復原。

According to one theory circulating in GM circles, Phoenix favors keeping Nash
for the entire season at least partly because it knows it can't possibly get
multiple difference-making assets for him now, having held onto the league's
fifth-oldest player for so long instead of moving him sooner. And if Nash
elects to walk away in July, deciding it's finally time to put himself first
after resisting any urges to force his way out like we expect NBA stars to do
when rings are out of reach, Sarver will be able to say that he tried his
hardest to hang onto No. 13 and just couldn't stop him.

在GM 圈裡盛行的理論，Phoenix 偏好留住Nash 一整季，因為hold 住聯盟第五老的球員過
久，現在已經不可能換到多個有用的資產。而當Nash 七月決定走掉 (像所有人都預期NBA
明星正常會做的)，Sarver 就可以說他有試過留住13號，只是留不住而以。

"He's going into the Hall of Fame in a Suns jersey and I think he's earned
that," Babby said, rejecting any premise which contradicts the notion that
keeping Nash is Phoenix's Plan A, B, C, etc.

『他將穿著Suns的球衣進名人堂。而我也覺得這是他應得的』Babby 否認任何其它跟留住
Nash 在 Phoenix 相反的傳言。

"And it's not just that he's earned it, it's what we want as an organization.
Maybe people say you should do this or do that, but we disagree. I think
treating a player of his stature in this way is projecting the right values. As
long as he wants to be a Phoenix Sun, he'll be a Phoenix Sun.

『這也不只是他應得的，也是我們球團希望的。或許有些人會說你應該這樣那樣，但我們不
認同。我覺得這樣才是尊敬一名球員。只要他想當Sun 的一天，他就會是Sun。

"This is what I told him as soon as we got back to work," Babby continued.
"What I told him is there's Isiah Thomas, there's Magic Johnson, there's John
Stockton. Those are three of the greatest point guards who ever played and all
of them essentially played with one team. We know there's a little glitch in
his background where [Nash] didn't play here, but fundamentally everybody views
him -- and we certainly view him -- as a Phoenix Sun. And that's what I want
for him. That's what our organization wants for him. So what I told him is as
long as he wants to be here and believes in what we're doing and is all in with
what we're doing, we want him to stay. That's the commitment I made to him and
I think we're on the same page."

『當我們上班的第一天，我就是這樣跟他說的。我跟他說 Isiah Thomas、Magic Johnson、
John Stockton 這些在NBA 史上最名垂千古的控衛都只為了一個球隊效忠。我們知道Nash的
履歷在這方面有點小出錯，但是所有的人包括我們都當他是個Sun。而這也是我們想要的，
我們球團想要的。我跟他說只要他想在這，相信我們的作為，認同我們的作為，我們想要他
待在這。這是我給他的承諾。我相信我們這方面的立場是一致的。』

Said Hill: "We're all hoping he'll stay and retire a Sun. It wouldn't look
right if he's in a different uniform. But as I say that I know it's a business.
And that means anything can happen."

Hill 說『我們全都希望他可以在這直到以Sun 的一員的身份退休。他穿任何其他球衣都怪
怪的。但就像我說的，這畢竟是個商場，任何事都可能發生。』

Critics have struggled to comprehend how Nash can settle for the comfort and
continuity of desert life instead of chasing that elusive title, but Hill's
presence is one of those factors that helps Nash stay at peace no matter where
the Suns are in the standings. They're as close as Nash and Dirk Nowitzki were
in Dallas, which helps explain why Hill returned to the Suns on a one-year,
$6.5 million contract last month despite interest from a handful of contenders.

批評的人無法了解為何Nash 可以就為了舒適跟沙漠生活而放棄追求那更高的名聲。但Hill
的存在是Nash在Suns已經不在名列前茅時還留戀這的一個主因。Nash 跟Hill 的交情就像他
當初在Dallas 與Dirk 的交情。這也可以說明為何有那麼奪冠熱門的球隊在追Hill，Hill
卻還是選擇跟Suns續約一年6百50萬。

The same holds for a Suns training staff that has nursed Nash through countless
ailments in this second Suns run, headed by head athletic trainer Aaron Nelson
and strength and conditioning coach Mike Elliott. It's no coincidence that
Stein Line HQ favorite Michael Redd, having seen the sort of care Nash and Hill
get, chose Phoenix as the launching pad for his comeback from three straight
seasons interrupted by knee troubles.

一路照顧Nash 的醫龍團隊 (訓練師Aaron Nelson  跟健身教練 Mike Elliott)也是他們留
下來的主因。在過去三球季被膝傷困擾的Michael Redd會選Phoenix 為重新開始的地方也不
是個巧合。

Those are the central figures in Nash's basketball family. Phoenix, of course,
is also where he shares custody of his three children after getting divorced
last season.

這些都是Nash 籃球家人的中心人物。而Phoenix是他擁有跟前妻分享三個小孩共同扶養權的
地方。

It likewise helps that Nash has the unique ability to tune out external chatter
about his résumé, legacy, defensive deficiencies and any other advice from
the masses. He too, like Hill, finds it difficult to prognosticate.

Nash 有特殊的技能可以對大家關於他的履歷、成就、防守缺陷閒言閒語都聽而未聞。他跟
Hill 一樣都不想當預知者。

All he can promise at this point is that he wants "to keep playing for two or
three more years for sure." Not because he's burning to make it to his 40th
birthday as an active player, like Stockton did, but because "if I can still
compete with the best I want to do so."

他唯一能答應的就是他想『再多打個兩三年』。Stockton 當初是熱切得想打到40歲生日，
但他只是覺得『如果還可跟最強的打，那他還要再打。』

"I don't know what the organization's plans will be," Nash said of the next two
months, "if they'll have a change of heart. We've talked about it. At this
point they want me to stay for as long as I want. And I'd like to stay. But you
just never know. This is a business that changes every day. They could change
their philosophy and I understand that.

『我不知道球團的計畫是什麼。』Nash對於下兩個月的展望『如果他們改變主意，我們會再
談。但現在他們希望我想待我想待的多久。而我很可能會待著。但你永遠不知道。這是個每
天都不一樣的商業，他們可能會改變理念，而我可以理解。』

"To be honest, I really don't think about [the future] much. It doesn't enter
my mind a lot. I'm trying to get this team better. I'm not going to be at my
best for a while, but I think that's a realistic outlook. I think even guys who
played a ton of basketball [over the summer] are still finding their rhythm.
I'm actually surprised that I am where I am considering it was such a long
layoff from the game.

『說實話，我真的沒有在想以後的事。真的就很少進入我的意識。我在試著讓這球隊更好。
我可能在近期無法達到我的高峰了，但我覺得這是很實際的觀點。就算暑假常打球的人都還
在尋找他們的節奏。而我對於我現在的狀況已經感到意外，尤其考慮到我有多久沒打球了。
』

"I did the best I could without playing much basketball [during the lockout]
and I think it put me in a really good position to find my game. If we continue
to struggle, that's not the type of thing that I handle easily, but I can't
predict what that would do to the situation from my perspective or the front
office's perspective. I expect a lot of myself, so sometimes I get pissed [off]
and frustrated, but the truth is I'm way ahead of probably where I should be
considering the layoff. I think I'll be right back to where I've always been
fairly soon, and I feel like I can do that for a couple more years."

『我盡力在封館時盡到不打籃球能盡的事。我覺得對於我找回球感很有益。如果我們繼續的
輸球，那不是我很會處理的事，但我無法預知那將對我或制服組的影響。我對我自己期待很
高，所以有時我會生氣與懊惱，但事實是我大概是想太多了。我覺得我應該很快可以回到我
以前的狀態，我覺得我還可以再維持個幾年。』

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這一篇Espn 的文章應該是中文新聞裡的來源，除了Nash 決不背叛球隊的義氣外，還多點經
理跟老闆的說法。整個文章一點都不熱血，有著淡淡的感傷。沒有人想要Nash保留著『
NBA's all-time leader in playoff games without reaching the NBA Finals 』的寶座
，所有人提到Barkeley 跟 Malon 就說是沒有拿到冠軍戒指的前十名頂尖球員。Nash 難道
就變成未進冠軍賽的頂尖球員了嗎?

這真的是個兩難。前幾天看到將在100週年4月12日將重新上映鐵達尼號的預告，Nash 會是
那堅持在沈船上演奏的琴師嗎？

鞠躬盡瘁，死而後已。想一想都覺得很難過。

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※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
※ 編輯: neak            來自: 24.205.132.109       (01/08 14:57)

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※ 作者: YOONANASH  時間: 2012-01-09 21:40:59  來自: 111-240-46-178.dynamic.hinet.net