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Why LeBron James deserves full blame for Lakers' failures, and should no
longer have say in solution

By Bill Reiter

https://reurl.cc/DdG29Q


It's LeBron James' fault.

一切都是LBJ的錯。

The Los Angeles Lakers' postseason hopes are officially over, the future seems
 bleak, and heads are likely to roll. Head coach Frank Vogel is widely
expected to face a reckoning. The Lakers would like to find a way to offload
Russell Westbrook, unlikely though that may be, after he almost surely opts in
 to his $47 million, final year option this summer.

湖人這季季後賽正式告吹。需要開始對這季的失敗問責。
Vogal預計會被裁掉。
湖人會想要處理掉西河，但西河應該會選擇他的球員選項。

Fingers can be pointed all around at a Lakers season that is a wreckage of the
 high hopes when the season began: At Russ, at Vogel, at Anthony Davis'
injuries, at a front office that put as ill-fitting a team as possible around
their all-time great superstar.

But it is, ultimately, the fault of the person in the Lakers organization with
 the most say and the most power who is to blame -- the one who used that sway
 to put into place all the elements that have led L.A. to where it now stands,
 with a failed season behind them and no clear path forward.

然而賽季失敗的最主要原因，追根究柢應該由隊上最有發言權和權勢的人負責。
是他利用他的影響力，使這些所有失敗的因素來到湖人隊。

This is all LeBron James' fault.

這都是LBJ的錯。

The Catch-22 of LeBron's all-time greatness has always been the out-weighted
influence he's exuded on a team. His wants have often been paramount to the
plan, even his actual needs. But the juice has always been worth the squeeze.
His call for player power in the NBA always had a sheen of success because he
succeeded at every turn, regardless of how he wielded that power.

LBJ的球員生涯能取得成功，一部分是出自於他對球隊超然的影響力。
不管他如何運用這些權利，他最終似乎都會取得成功。

Chris Bosh as perhaps the wrong fit with LeBron and Dwyane Wade? No worries.
Championships ensued anyway.

Kevin Love for Andrew Wiggins, JR Smith as a key cog and a host of other moves
 quietly -- or not so quietly -- pushed by the King turning out to not exactly
 be the stuff for an executive-of-the-year resume? Who cares? Finals
appearances, and an actual championship for Cleveland, arrived nonetheless.

Bosh、Love、KI都被質疑過與LBJ的向性，甚至有球員不是管理層想到的。
然而最後都打到了Finals，並且奪冠。

But time comes for everyone, even basketball royalty. And we've now reached
the point where LeBron requires more help on the court than his influence off
it has allowed.

但最終，就算是LBJ，需要的是在球場上的幫助，已經不能單靠他隊球場外的影響力了。

It should have been no secret that A.D. was injury prone, and that his only
successfully complete and deep run in the playoffs came in an anomalous COVID
season in which the shutdown served him, and the Lakers, well.

大家都知道AD是院長，所以Covid造成他的泡泡賽季反而對他是利多，湖人才能打出成績。

Other truths that have turned the Lakers from contenders to disasters weren't
exactly hard-to-forecast shockers. Westbrook has been more statistical-marvel
than impact-player for a long time, and the notion he -- from his game, from
his need to have the ball in his hands, from his track record of
disappointment with other stars -- would not work with LeBron was obvious to
almost everyone in the NBA.

湖人今年會失敗根本不難預測，西河並不是一個有影響力的球員，簡而言之是一個刷子。
他根本就沒辦法跟LBJ搭配。

Except, as we all knew and Magic Johnson recently confirmed, one LeBron James.

Remember: Vogel is likely going to get fired, but it's him and his staff who
properly wanted Westbrook gone at the All-Star break. Being right in LeBron's
universe doesn't matter, just as being wrong often didn't if your name was
LeBron James. The rule was simple: LeBron's way was the only way, and the
tradeoff was worthwhile.

請記住，Vogal高機率被炒，但他與他的團隊都想要西河走。
但在LBJ的宇宙，對的事情並不重要。
規則很簡單，LBJ就是唯一的規則。

There's more examples. Alex Caruso and his value to the team being utterly
overlooked. Carmelo Anthony as a solution despite his obvious decline and lack
 of postseason success. Passing on Buddy Hield. Forgetting LeBron, more than
anything else, needs to be surrounded by shooters. And athletes who can defend
.

還有其他失敗的例子，例如放掉Caruso、甜瓜明顯也老了、放棄Buddy Hield。
完全忘記LBJ是需要一群射手以及厲害的防守球員。

The ins and outs of building a successful basketball team require a general
manager capable of making the right, difficult calls. And on a LeBron James
team -- or, at least now, this LeBron James team -- that means telling him no
when, say, he decides he wants Westbrook over Demar DeRozan or several
promising players in place of one star.

如果要建立一個成功的LBJ球隊，需要一個能夠阻止LBJ選西河放棄DeRozen的經理。

Remember, LeBron's good friend Rich Paul, who's now his agent, runs an agency
that is strongly involved in the makeup of the Lakers. Paul asking or cajoling
 for something is the same as LeBron doing so, when it was nabbing A.D. or
taking Talen Horton-Tucker (a Paul client) over Caruso (not one).

LBJ的好朋友也是他的經紀人，富保羅，對於湖人隊影響亦很深。
最明顯的例子是他留住THT，放棄Carus，THT是他的客戶，後者並不是。


Klutch Sports, Paul's agency, at the center of moves that impact LeBron is a
very, very thin veneer trying to disguise the fact the Lakers' best player has
 his hands all over the team's makeup and construction.

That was easy to overlook, or not care about, when LeBron was winning titles
and rattling off Finals appearances year after year after year after year
after year.

這一切原因都很容易被忽略，當LBJ一直打進Finals，甚至贏得冠軍。

Yes, LeBron James is still a marvel, even at 37 years old. His 30/8/6 is
astounding and means, with the right team, he can continue to be in the thick
of NBA title runs.

But he can no longer eclipse on the court what he's wrought off of it.

LBJ仍然是一個很厲害的球員，但他在球場上的表現已經不能再掩飾他球場外的行為。

LeBron likes to refer to himself as King James.
But here's the thing about royalty: The problem with powerful aristocracies
included having power without a system in place to force accountability,
responsibility and course corrections. That led to sycophants with too much
influence, no bad news or candid advice flowing upward and rivals getting
stronger and better because they were willing and able to do what was
necessary rather than flattering.

LBJ喜歡稱自己為國王。
但強大的皇室若沒有責問機制及改正的方向，將導致阿諛奉承者的影響力過多，沒有諫言

最後對手越來越強，因為對手願意做對的事情，而不是聽蜜語。

Kings and queens make fine figureheads. But as rulers, in the long run, they'
re much more likely to fail.

國王跟皇后可以當一個很好的代言人。但最為統治者，長遠來看，很有可能失敗。

It's time for the NBA's king to accept that in order to retain his throne he
needs someone else to govern his kingdom: A GM -- Rob Pelinka, maybe, or
someone else -- who is fully entrusted with decision-making aimed at giving
LeBron James what he needs rather than what he wants.

現在是時候讓 NBA 的國王接受，為了保住他的王位，他需要其他人來管理他的王國：一
位總經理——也許是羅伯· 佩林卡，或者其他人
一個能夠做出LBJ需要什麼決策，而不是他想要什麼的人。

The Lakers are a mess. But all of it -- Westbrook, A.D.'s very-predictable
fragility, the lack of depth and defense, the lack of shooting, the entire
makeup of the team -- was a LeBron James production.

湖人就是一團混亂，西河跟AD的糟糕表現、爛防守、爛投籃。
這一切都是LBJ的作品。

He's to blame. And until he accepts it, and changes, and gets the help now
even he needs, things aren't going to improve for him or the Lakers.

他是罪魁禍首。直到他願意改變或接受，他跟湖人隊才能變好。

.......

心得：
雖然就是一篇罵LBJ的文章，原因也眾所皆知。
但內文其實蠻有趣的，各種比喻。

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