Mad about Cousins LEXINGTON, Ky. – When DeMarcus Cousins signs an autograph, you never know what you’re going to get. If the crowd is big and Kentucky’s standout freshman is in a hurry, he’ll simply scribble his initials and jersey number. Catch him alone at a restaurant or on campus, and Cousins may write his entire name in perfect penmanship. “The other night, he signed a shirt for me and I couldn’t even read it,” said Monique Cousins, DeMarcus’ mom. “I think he must’ve been in a bad mood. That doesn’t happen very often.” 你永远不知道你会从表弟手中拿到甚麽样的签名。 如果人很多而表弟又赶时间的话，他只会签他的名字缩写加上球衣 号码；如果你在餐厅或校园的一角逮到独处的他时，他可能就会细 心地签上他的全名。 「有一晚他签了一个很短的签名给我，我甚至看不出来他写的是甚 麽，我想他当时的情绪一定很糟，不过这不常发生。」表弟的妈妈 Monique Cousins说道。 Not at Kentucky, where in less than a year the 6-foot-11, 270-pound center has become one of the biggest celebrities – literally – in the history of the Wildcats’ storied program. At Rupp Arena females write marriage proposals on signs while others hold up posterboards that read “In Kentucky We Love Our Cousins.” The autograph requests are non-stop, Cousins has his own nickname (“Boogie” ) and everyone, it seems, wants to pose for a picture with the future NBA lottery pick. Back in the fall, at a burger joint called Tolly-Ho, Cousins put his arm around a classmate during a photo and could feel the kid shaking. “Craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Cousins said. “Dude was so nervous.” 六尺十一寸，两百七十磅的表弟用不到一年的时间便成为最着名的 球员之一，至少在野猫队的历史上是如此。在Rupp Arena不时可见 到女性球迷写着向表弟求婚的告白大字报夹杂在「在肯塔基，我们 爱我们的表弟」的海报中。 签名的要求不曾断过而且大家都想和这位未来NBA乐透区新秀合照。 时间拉回到去年秋天，表弟在一间叫做Tolly-Ho的汉堡店拍了一张 照，照片中表弟用手臂抱住同学，你可以感觉到那位孩子被上下摇 晃着。 表弟：「那是我见过这疯狂的事，他看起来超紧张的。」 Cousins laughs as he leans back in his chair at Wildcat Lodge, Kentucky’s athletic dormitory. As much as he’s enjoyed his time on the court during his first – and probably only – season for the 32-2 Wildcats, he’s relished his time off of it, too. Feeling loved and respected, he said, is a nice change from his days growing up in Alabama, where his mother said he was treated like a “piece of meat.” Cousins is thankful that the folks in Lexington were willing to let him establish his own identity instead of judging him by the labels that have always defined him. “I’m a thug,” Cousins said. “I’m a bad guy, a criminal. I know that’s what people say about me, people that don’t know me. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” 表弟靠在野猫队宿舍的椅子上大笑。他非常享受他的第一个大学赛 季﹝可能也是唯一一个﹞，野猫本季战绩32胜2负，他也喜欢在这 里的生活，在这里他感受到爱与尊敬，表弟说搬到这里对於他这个 在阿拉巴马长大的孩子来说是个很棒的转变，表弟的妈妈说表弟在 阿拉巴马的生活像是块被虎视眈眈的肥肉。 表弟很感谢莱辛顿的居民，他们帮助他重建自信，而不像其他人一 直在他身上贴标签。 「我是个流氓，我是坏人，是罪犯，我知道那些人怎麽说我，他们 根本不懂我。」 事实能说明一切。 A first-team All-American pick by Yahoo! Sports, Cousins averages 15.3 points and 10.1 rebounds for the Wildcats – numbers that are even more phenomenal when you consider he plays just 23 minutes per game. Still, along with being one of college basketball’s most efficient players, Cousins is also one of the most enigmatic, polarizing figures the game has seen in years. Some teams devise schemes to try to stop Cousins while others resort to hacking away at his arms, ribs and groin. One fan may think Cousins is a whiner and a baby for complaining to the officials. Another sees passion and a desire to win. 表弟被雅虎体育选为全美大学篮球第一队，本季平均15.3分10.1篮 板，而他的平均上场时间只有23分钟而已。 尽管身为最有效率的大学篮球员之一，表弟所受到的评价却非常两 极。 有些球队对表弟的策略就是乱拳往他身上招呼，表弟因此会向裁判 抗议，有些球迷认为表弟像个爱打小报告的小鬼；而有些球迷则在 他身上看到热情和对胜利的渴望。 NBA scouts know that Cousins has all the tools to be a dominant force at the next level and help turn a dormant program into a winner. But some of them also wonder whether Cousins has anger management issues that could cause him to implode. “Ask all 30 teams about DeMarcus Cousins’ temper and you’ll get 30 different answers,” an NBA executive said last weekend. “I think that whole issue is overblown. “From the first game of the season to the NCAA tournament, people have been sitting on the edge of their chairs waiting for that kid to mess up, and he hasn’t. “Instead he just continues to kick some serious ass.” NBA球探深知表弟的天赋能主宰下一个层级，帮助弱旅变雄狮，但 也有不少人担心表弟的情绪管理会误事。 上星期一位NBA主管这样说：「去问三十支球队关於表弟的情绪问 题，你会得到三十种不同的答案。我觉得这个问题被过度放大了。」 「NCAA淘汰赛开始後，大家都等着看这孩子把事情搞砸，但这孩子 并没有搞砸任何事。」 「取而代之的是他狠狠痛击了对手。」 “The Big Ticket” played his first organized basketball game as an eighth-grader, but Cousins was given his nickname before he ever stepped on the court. Gary Williams, a recruiter for the AAU Birmingham (Ala.) Storm, went to watch a prep contest at Erwin High School and noticed Cousins walking through the halls. At age 14 he was already 6 feet 6, so Williams figured he was a senior. “You know any eighth-graders who might want to play basketball?” Williams asked Cousins. “I’m in the eighth grade,” he replied. 「希望之星」的第一场正式比赛是八年级的时候，但表弟还没上场 打球前就已经获得这个绰号。 AAU伯明罕风暴队的招生教练Gary Williams当时前往Erwin高中看 一场练习赛，他注意到穿过球场的表弟，14岁的表弟当时已经六尺 六寸高，所以Williams误以为表弟是个高中生。 「你有认识想打篮球的八年级生吗？」Williams问表弟。 「我就是八年级阿。」表弟回应道。 A meeting was set up with Cousins’ parents and Storm coach Danny Pritchett, who still remembers the moment Cousins stepped out of the car. “His mom told me over the phone that he was about 6-3,” Pritchett said. “ But when he rose out of that car he kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It was like he never stopped standing. In my mind I was thinking ‘ Yes!’ “I knew he was going to be a kid everyone would want to watch play. He was going to be The Big Ticket.” Before then Cousins never had much interest in sports. His junior high school classmates used to pick on him and tease him about not using his height to his advantage. “A waste of space,” someone once called him. “I was just hanging around, doing nothing but getting into trouble,” Cousins said. Now that was no longer the case. 表弟的双亲和风暴队教练Danny Pritchett约了见面，Pritchett直 到现在仍记得表弟走出车外的情景。 「他妈在电话中跟我说他大约六尺三，但当他起身离开车外时，我 觉得他一直不断变大，好像他一直没有站直的样子，当时我心里就 决定要这孩子了。」 「我知道他是那种大家都想看他打球的孩子，他会是希望之星。」 在表弟对运动还不太感兴趣之前，他的国中同学常嘲笑不会利用自 己的身高，「浪费空间人」─曾经有人这样叫他。 表弟：「当时我游手好闲，除了惹事生非外一事无成。」 如今这些都已成往事。 Within weeks a kid who didn’t know how to shoot a layup was calling Pritchett every day, begging him to take him to the gym. It wasn’t long before he could jump high enough to dunk, and he was so dominant that teams began intentionally fouling and cheap-shoting Cousins to keep him from scoring. “They were hanging on his back and hitting him with their open hands or fists,” Pritchett said. “Initially he thought, ‘This is about more than basketball. They’re trying to hurt me.’ “We explained to him, ‘It’s an honor for someone to have to double-team you. It’s an honor for a kid to have to do all these [illegal] things to stop you.’” By the end of his first year with the Storm, Cousins had lived up to his nickname. Spectators were circling the court to watch his AAU games, and Rivals.com had ranked him as the No. 1 prospect in the country for his class. 刚开始表弟连上蓝都不会，整日黏着教练，拜托教练带他上体育馆， 不久後他已经可以灌篮，他开始主宰球场，逼得对手要用犯规和垃 圾话来阻止他得分。 Pritchett：「他们黏在他背上不停地打他，一开始表弟认为这已 经超过尺度了，他们想伤害他。」 「我们向他解释，在球场上被包夹是一种光荣，逼对手用非法手段 阻止自己是一种荣耀。」 在风暴队的第一个球季结束後，表弟擦亮了自己的招牌，观众围绕 在场边想看他AAU的比赛，Rivals.com更将他排在同年级的全国新 秀首位。 待续... --

※ 发信站: 批踢踢实业坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 118.167.177.161 ※ 编辑: kingpredrag 来自: 118.167.177.161 (05/11 15:17)