原文连结：http://ppt.cc/mjZm Has Kobe Bryant's Love for the Game Reached a New Zenith at Age 35? BY KEVIN DING (NBA NATIONAL COLUMNIST) ON DECEMBER 18, 2013 MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Love what you do. MEMPHIS, Tenn. － 热爱你要做的事。 Love what you do, and you'll have a chance to do it as long and as well as Kobe Bryant is doing his job. 只要你这麽做，你就可能可以和 Kobe Bryant 面对他的职业一样，做得长久并且做得 成功。 Where does Bryant stand now as far as his love for the game goes, I ask Tuesday night. 星期二赛後我问 Bryant，现在他对比赛的喜爱程度是怎样。 “It’s probably a little bit more now than it’s ever been,” Bryant answers, “because there’s a finality to it.” 「大概是前所未见的多吧。」Bryant 答道，「因为结束的时刻已经接近了。」 The end is likely just two-plus years away. Except the end threatened to come eight months ago, too. 离他所提到的结束时刻，可能只剩下仅仅两年多。哦，不提八个月以前发生的事的话啦。 “The love for the game is always there,” Bryant continues. “Now, because of the injury and because the finish line is a lot closer, you have a greater appreciation for the entire body of work—and trying to finish it out on your terms.” 「我对竞赛的热爱一直存在，」Bryant 续道。「但由於伤病，以及生涯终点线确实近 了，你对职业生命的这个整体感到更加欣赏。然後，你要试着用自己的方式去完成它。」 This marks 18 years in the NBA. Bryant is 35 years old. The math is easy; it’ s more than half his life. 这番话标注的是 18 年的NBA生涯，而 Bryant 现在 35 岁。这算术很简单，他在联盟 中待的时间已经比他生命中的一半时间还要多。 Yes, he’s playing basketball. Again. 是的，他又继续开始打球了，再一次的。 But let’s be clear: Playing is only part of the package when it comes to love for the game. 而要搞清楚的是，上场打球只是热爱比赛的其中一个环节而已。 At the moment I’m talking to Bryant, it's after the latest best game of his comeback, a victory over the Memphis Grizzlies capped by this proclamation: “I’m getting back to being myself.” It's also while he’s sitting with his feet and ankles soaking in ice water, knees encased in massive ice packs. 我和 Bryant 谈话的时候，是在他复出以後打得最好的一场比赛赛後。「我将再次成为 我自己。」做出如此声明的他率领湖人击败了灰熊。然而这却是他必须将脚与脚踝泡在 冰水中，并且膝盖上还包着大大的冰袋，在这样的状态下所达成的。 He’s wearing black compression pants with football-style padding on them, the stuff he was wearing under his shorts and under his jersey long before just about anyone in the NBA. 在 NBA 中形成风潮以前，Kobe 早已经习惯在球裤底下穿着黑色且具有足球运动用填充 做成的压缩裤。 His iPad mini is sitting behind him in his locker, waiting to be the only accessory in his hand when he heads off to the bus and then the plane, game footage to be studied ASAP and over and over. 他的 iPad mini 就放在他身後的置物柜里，这是在他回到巴士上，以及上飞机前唯一 一件会在他手上的东西。这能让他马上开始研读球赛的影片，一次又一次的。 Before the game, he had been lying face down on the massage table, getting his left calf literally pounded by a hammer to loosen atrophied muscles sorely unhappy about what has been thrust upon them after immobilization. 为了纾解他左跟腱患部术後肌肉的不适，他必须在比赛开始前趴在按摩床上，让他的左 脚接受敲击按摩。 During the game, he had left the court in the first quarter when given his first rest, deciding to attack the stiffness that had been setting into his left ankle joint during recent games by doing more intricate manual therapy that requires more room to operate than the bench. 赛中，在他第一节第一次下场休息的时候，为了对抗近日来比赛负荷所造成的左脚踝紧 绷症状，他必须要在场下接受手续繁复的徒手处置。为此，这必须要比板凳上更大的空 间才能进行。 Oh, and then there are the two or three other workouts and treatments he’ll do every day. 还有呢，他还有两到三项额外的课表及疗程必须每天进行。 Wife Vanessa has always called him “a workaholic,” Kobe’s ambition to excel including a zealous embrace of every possible step forward. 老婆 Vanessa 总是叫她的老公作「工作狂一个」，因为 Kobe 的工作范畴包括了所有 可能有帮助的东西。 For so long, Bryant’s blessing has been his ability and enthusiasm to do the work, to run the sprints before dawn, to perfect the fundamentals while also unleashing new weapons. To that end, he would say practice was more fun than games. He sure loved what he did. 已经有很长的一段时间，Bryant 对於工作的执行力以及永无止尽的热情是最为人所称 颂的。日出前的折返跑练习，在研发外挂新武器的同时，也不忘将所有的基本功练到炉 火纯青。到头来，他会说其实练习比上场比赛本身还要有趣。他肯定非常喜爱他在做的 事情。 But Bryant began to grow tired in recent years of the all-encompassing grind. He began to think about Michael Jordan getting not one but two breaks during a career that wasn’t even this long. He began to call himself “Vino” instead of “The Black Mamba,” dwelling on his old age to the point it’s surprising he didn’t change his number again from 8 to 24 to 65. 但是近年各种不同的磨耗下来，Bryant 终於也开始感到疲惫了。他开始想到， Michael Jordan 在没他自己那麽长的职业生涯中也中断休息了两次。他开始称自己为 ”Vino”而不是惯常的”Black Mamba”。而令人惊讶的，他并没有因为自己的年华老 去，从把球衣号码从8号改成24号後，再次地改成65号。 Then the Achilles. 然後呢，阿基里斯腱断了。 And this is where the narrative might seem predictable. Such a terrible injury, but… Blessing in disguise, right? Absence makes the heart grow fonder, yes? 这脉络看起来似乎是可预见的，多糟糕的一次受伤啊…。但反过来想，或许只是恩赐戴 上了伪装的面具，不是吗？缺席能够让心志更加旺盛，对吧？ Well, Bryant has already said he missed the game while it was taken away. And for sure, there aren’t too many legendary athletes who have something happen to them amid the light of tunnel’s end to provide fresh perspective on re-loving the game. Bryant 已经说过，当球赛从他生命中被拿走的时候，他是多麽的想念它。而且没有太 多传奇运动员有这个经验，让他们在职业生涯这个隧道中，得到一次重新爱上竞赛的全 新感受。 Look at Bryant on Tuesday night, smiling late in the fourth quarter as he dribbles with Tony Allen throwing his body against Bryant’s body. Bryant discreetly lands an elbow to Allen’s face on a post-up a moment later. Bryant ranks Allen at the top of the list of Kobe Stoppers, and so what a challenge to face him in the fourth road game in five nights right after an awfully creaky loss in Atlanta. 看看星期二晚上的 Bryant 吧，当第四节末 Tony Allen 用他的身体阻挡着 Bryant 的 运球时，Kobe 脸上是挂着笑容的。他把 Tony Allen 排在「Kobe Stopper 名单」的前 面。所以在已经是五天里的第四场比赛，并且刚在亚特兰大输掉一场糟糕的比赛後，能 够碰到这样一个对手是多麽令人兴奋的一个挑战。 Bryant met his own goal to be “really, really assertive.” He overcame the scare of hyperextending his left knee when trying to spin past Allen. He nailed a pull-up jumper, strong enough to shoot through the contact. Bryant 力行了他对自己的要求：「非常强的决断心」。他克服了转身对抗 Tony Allen 时造成的左膝过度伸张（笔者按：结果居然骨折了…）。并且之後在身体接触下命中了 一记跳投。 Absolutely without a doubt, Bryant is overjoyed just to be back in the game, separate from how much he normally relishes winning it. 明显无疑的，与一般他对於比赛胜利滋味的渴求不同，Bryant 现在对「回到比赛」这 件事本身，感到非常享受。 It has been four weeks since Bryant’s first full-team practice, and I ask Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni if he has seen frustrations from Bryant that he can’t do his old things. “No, no, no,” D’Antoni replies. “He’s very in tune to what needs to be done and where he is and how he’s progressing. … I think he’s just working as hard as he can to get up as high of a level as he can as soon as he can.” 从 Bryant 第一次全程参与球队练习以来已经一个月了，我问湖人总教练 Mike D’Antoni ，当 Bryant 发现他没办法做到一些原本他能完成的东西的时候，他是否有表现过挫折 ?「没有没有没有，」D’Antoni 回答，「他对於该做到甚麽，目前他处在甚麽状态， 以及他的进展状况是怎样非常了解。我想他只是很努力地尽可能去提升他自己的状态， 以他能接受的最快步调进行。」 And it comes back to Bryant’s hard work again. And the tidy conclusion would be that he’s doing it all with renewed passion because he finally got a break from the grind at the most opportune time. 所以 Bryant 的工作狂热又开始了。简单来说，他在最合适的时间点终於得到了休息的 机会，所以他得以用全新的动力重新开始他的职业生涯。 Except it’s not such a clean slate, because for Bryant it wasn’t a clean break at all. Even while his leg was in that boot, he was plotting his return, researching his courses of action, looking for all his edges—as usual. 除了这并不像完全重新开始以外。 对 Bryant 来说，这次并不是一次彻底的休息。就算当他的脚还必须穿保护靴的时候， 他就已经在盘算着他的回归计画，研究他该进行的课题，像往常一样的寻找他所有可能 的优势。 Then came the baby steps back, and his past trainers Gary Vitti (worked with Magic Johnson) and Tim Grover (worked with Jordan) will tell you no one tends to his body as diligently/maniacally as Kobe Bryant. 然後就像娃娃学步般，他的老战友 Gary Vitti（曾和 Magic Johnson 共事）以及 Tim Grover（曾任 Jordan 的训练师）会告诉你，没有人比 Kobe Bryant 还要更用心 并且狂热的去对待他自己的身体。 “It wasn’t a break, man,” Bryant tells me now. “I had to do so much work. Getting ready and doing rehab and things like that, I didn’t have a chance to decompress or shut the engine completely off. It was constant push. Obviously in my career I haven’t had the chance to take a break a couple times just to get away from the game.” 「这才不是休息呢，老兄。」Bryant 告诉我说，「我有好多必须要做的事情，我必须 准备好进行复健以及其他之类的东西。我根本没有机会放松，或是乾脆完全把我的引擎 关掉，因为这是必须一直持续进行的过程。在我的职业生涯中，我好几次根本没有机会 休息一段时间，让比赛离开我的生活。」 He will bungee jump, play Candy Crush or watch movies for hours on end, but the flip side of that is he can’t deny how much or how long he has loved this game. 他是会玩玩高空弹跳，玩 Candy Crush 游戏，或是看几个小时电影等等的啦。但是他 心里的小恶魔总是会出来提醒说，他的比赛虫已经在蠢蠢欲动了喔。 The injury has helped Bryant appreciate it all more, for sure. In his five games back, he has often looked like a guy simply excited to be playing—as seen in all the hopeful, low-percentage passes he has been throwing that become turnovers. 肯定是的，受伤让 Bryant 更感激这一切。他回归後的这五场比赛，他常常看起来像是 个能打球就很兴奋的家伙，这在他那些想一箭穿心，但成功率低，最终变成失误的传球 中也能看得出来。 Yet if it was more work than ever to get back here, and if you refuse to settle for being here and insist on going for much, much more all over again… 从重大伤病中回归需要比以往更多的努力。但如果你拒绝停滞在伤後的状态，并且坚持 用加倍奉还的态度拼命努力的话… “I’m doing more work now than I ever have,” Bryant says. “The discipline, the will, has to be there more now than it ever was.” 「我现在要做的事情可是比以前都还要多呢，」Bryant 说道，「该做的训练，以及需 要的意志力，都比原本还要多上一大截。」 So the bottom line is that this isn’t fairy-tale stuff. It is still hard on him, really hard, to keep doing it after so long. The normal thing is to get hurt and get old, but Bryant simply will not do the other normal thing: lower the standards. 所以其实 Kobe 的 stuff 并非像神话般强大。在联盟中打滚了这麽久，这对他来说依 然是相当困难的考验。一般的状况是你会受伤，也会老，但是 Bryant 只是拒绝另一项 很平常的事情发生：降低标准。 And what he does have working for him, remember, is the love for the game— bookended by possible finality on this side and that. 而让他能一直持续这麽努力的原因，就是对比赛的爱，不因可能来临的生涯终点而有所 不同。 “It’s not the same march. It’s different in that sense,” Bryant says. “ Especially players who have played as long as I have, the important thing that you want to be able to have is to go out on your own terms.” 「就意义上来说，现在走的路已经不一样了。」Bryant 说道，「特别是对职业生涯和 我一样长的球员来说，你希望自己能拥有的东西，其中一项最重要的是走出自己的路。」 Bryant’s terms? The same as ever Bryant要走的路是哪条呢？就和以前一样啊。 --

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