LAS VEGAS – The globalization of basketball means prodigies don’t stay hidden for long, no matter which continent spawns them. So when a 14-year-old started causing ripples in Senegal three years ago and a Spanish scout got on the trail, he made a pitch to Mamadou Samb’s mother. 篮球全球化的意思就是天才们别躲太久了，不管他们是哪一洲的後代。所以当一个14岁 少年三年前掀起塞内加尔篮坛的波动时西班牙球探就开始追踪，并尝试与Mamadou Samb 的母亲接触。 “You want Mamadou,” the Senegalese mother of nine tall young boys told him, “ you take Cheick, too.” 「你想要Mamadou，」九个塞内加尔年轻男孩的母亲告诉他，「你也得要Cheick。」 Which is the start of the story of how the Pistons might have come to find their big man for the next generation. It’s a story of many chapters with no reliable way yet to tell how it ends. But a significant clue gets delivered over the next 10 days in Las Vegas, where the truth often comes to die. 这可能就是活塞如何找到他们下一代大个子的故事开端。这是一个不太能相信的多章节 故事但我们还不知道它如何结束。一条线索会在 Las Vegas未来10天披露，但是真相常 伴随着终结。 The Pistons acquired rights to the 7-foot-1 Samb on draft night 2006 from the Los Angeles Lakers for Maurice Evans, a swingman of proven worth. Hardly anyone knew anything about Samb then, but when he showed up at last year’s Las Vegas Summer League the grapevine soon hummed with the buzz surrounding the 22-year-old with a wing span that seemingly spans the Dark Continent. 活塞用Maurice Evans，一个已证明身价的摇摆人，从湖人手中获得2006选秀权并选到了 7尺1寸的Samb。那时几乎没有人知道Samb，但自从他在去年Las Vegas夏季联盟现身後， 这个有着一对似乎能跨越黑暗大陆臂展的22岁年轻人的消息不胫而走。 Joe Dumars’ old Pistons running mate, Isiah Thomas, asked in amazement where he ’d found Samb. An Eastern Conference GM called and offered a veteran guard who ’d been a part-time starter and valuable contributor. All that for a player who ’d toiled unspectacularly in Spain’s B League just a few years after picking up the sport at the urging of others in Senegal. Dumars'的活塞老队友，Isiah Thomas，很惊讶的问说他从哪发现Samb。这个东区GM了通电 希望可以用一个曾兼职先发的後卫换到他。这一切在不经意网罗了一个在西班牙B联盟的球 员引起了塞内加尔人对篮球的注意後。 “When I’m young, I play football with my friends,” Samb said after a recent workout at the Pistons’ Auburn Hills practice facility. “And one day, every people, when I’m going out, saying to me, ‘Hey, you big. You have to play basketball.’ And I say, ‘Why I have to play basketball?’ I do try. I like basketball.” 「当我小的时候，我和朋友踢足球，」Samb最近练习结束後在活塞的训练场Auburn Hills 说。「然後有一天，我出外时，每个人都对我说：『嘿，大个子。你应该要打篮球。』然 後我说：『为什麽我应该要打篮球？』我真的跑去打了。我喜欢篮球。」 Basketball appears to like him, too. Samb has natural shot-blocking skills, good footwork and an uncanny shooting touch for a big man. At the end of a two-hour workout under the eye of Pistons assistant and NBA Hall of Famer Dave Cowens, Samb shoots dozens of perimeter jumpers in an effortless arc. He runs with an easy gait and glides laterally with a fluidity uncommon to 7-footers. 篮球似乎也喜欢他。Samb有个天生的封阻技巧，很好的脚步和对大个子来说不寻常的投篮 手感。在两个小时活塞助理教练和名人堂球员Dave Cowens的监督练习中，Samb投进了许多 弧度漂亮的中距离。他跑步的轻松步态和流畅的平行移动对一个7尺球员来说相当不寻常。 The wild card, of course, is how he looks in a full-court game populated by nine other NBA bodies. The Pistons will be assessing that critically over the next 10 days, because it will go a long way toward determining whether they feel comfortable committing one of their 15 roster spots to the still-raw Samb. He has a year left on his contract in Spain, but it’s at Samb’s option. If the Pistons see a role for him and see the value in more closely monitoring and aiding his development, it’s possible Samb will be playing in the NBA come the fall. 当然，重点是他在九个NBA球员的比赛中表现如何。活塞将会在未来10天做风险评估，因为 要把技巧生疏的Samb放进15人名单之中还有一段很长的距离。他还有一年在西班牙的合约， 但决定权在Samb。如果活塞为他安排一个位置，找到就近监督他的意义，还有帮助他成长 的时候，或许Samb在秋天就会出现在NBA。 The fact Samb is so new to basketball is both good news and bad for the Pistons. Though they have to teach him everything from the ground up, at least they have no bad habits to first deconstruct. And he’s a most willing learner, a kid with bright eyes, an easy smile and a quick intellect who apologizes for his English even though he communicates just fine in his fourth language. In addition to his native tongue, Samb speaks French and Spanish plus the English he’s picked up only since being drafted a year ago. 但事实是Samb对篮球还有点陌生，这对活塞是个好消息也是个坏消息。虽然他们必须全部 从头教起，但至少没有坏习惯要改。他是个很有学习意愿的学生，有着明亮的双眼，平易 近人的笑容和迅速的理解力，他为他的英语能力感到抱歉，尽管这是他的第四种语言而且 已经说的不错了。除了母语他还说法语、西班牙语，加上一年前选秀後才学的英语。 “He’s like a sponge,” said Cowens, who worked out with Samb last week for the first time. “He’s got a lot of upside. He’s a pretty coordinated kid for a big and he moves well. The biggest thing for him now is conditioning and the strength in the core of his body.” 「他就像块海绵，」Cowens如此描述，他上星期与Samb第一次练习。「他有很多长处。他 是个协调性出色的年轻大个而且动作良好。他现在最大的问题在於适应环境和增加身体强 度。」 Samb was listed variously at 195 to 215 pounds a year ago, but since getting his first taste of the NBA he’s become a weight-lifting devotee. Samb去年的体重由195磅增加到215，但从他接触NBA他就变成了健身爱好者。 “Last year when I come to Summer League, my first time, I see a lot of players, like, strong,” – and here he holds his hands well apart to display broad shoulders – “and I be like this” – and here he holds up a long, spidery index finger. “Skinny. I see I got to work on legs to get more big and come back to Spain this season. I have a little pain in my foot – I no play. I lift and lift and lift. I weigh now like 12 kilos more – I don’t know in pounds.” 「去年我第一次来到夏季联盟，我看到很多强壮的球员，」他把双手展开，显现宽厚的臂 膀，「我就像这样，」说到这里他伸出长如蜘蛛的食指。「瘦弱。我想我过度使用腿部， 在回到西班牙之後，我的腿有点疼痛。我暂停打球。我举我举我举举举重。我增加了12公 斤，我不知道这有多少磅。」 Twelve kilos to just over 26 pounds, and, in fact, Cowens looks at Samb, now somewhere around 235 to 240, and says, “We don’t want him to get too big (through the chest). With him it’s all between the knees and the core, the abdomen. That’s where he has to get stronger because that’s what controls all the movement.” 12公斤超过26磅，而事实上Samb已经约有235~240磅了。Cowens看着他说：「我们不希望 他变的太大只(对胸膛来说)。他的问题在膝盖和运动核心，也就是腹部。那是他必须加强 的部位，因为那是控制所有动作的地方。」 Cowens has seen hundreds of players with enough talent to crack the NBA come and go having left no impact. He’s not one to make snap assessments of a player ’s future based on a few workouts. Cowens看过数以百计有天份的球员闯进NBA而没有留下任何影响。他不是在几次练习中很快 就对球员未来做出评估的人。 He talks of the “weeding out” process that winnows the pool of thousands of talented basketball players to the relatively few who wind up making a handsome living at it. First comes the body and raw athletic ability that Samb obviously possesses. Then an athlete’s tolerance for pain and a body’s ability to absorb punishment. Then the ability to fine tune athleticism into skill. And finally a willingness to compete. 他谈到去芜存菁的过程把少数能在其中生存的球员从几千个球员中筛选出。第一是Samb明 显拥有的身材和基本运动能力。然後是运动员的耐伤度和身体吸收伤害的能力。接着是把 体能变成球技的能力。最後是竞争意愿。 In his time with Samb, Cowens says “he’s here and he’s working hard. I like his demeanor. He’s friendly, but you can see he’s got a little bit of a nasty thing where he wants to compete. Now, how long he can sustain that is the next thing. He’s going to be playing against the best and the toughest. Bill Russell used to say there are some bad (SOBs) out there trying to make you look bad – don’t ever forget that.” 在他和Samb共处的时间，Cowens说：「他人在这而且十分努力。我喜欢他的行为举止。他 很友善，但你可以从一些小动作中看到他想要获胜。现在他可以持续多久是下一步。他将 会和最好最坚强的球员对抗。Bill Russell曾经说过有总是一些让你变糟的事情，千万别 忘了提醒自己。 “He’s just in the beginning. But he’s got a chance. It’s all up to him. He’ s certainly got the size, the length, the touch, the dexterity, the footwork – he’s got all that stuff.” 「他才刚起步。但他已经有了机会。现在就看他的了。他的高度、体型、手感、速度、 脚步，该有的他几乎都有了。」 “Good coach,” Samb says of Cowens. “He shows me things I never know in basketball. Little, little, important things. I like to work with him.” 「好教练。」Samb对Cowens的看法。「他告诉我从不知道的篮球知识。小的，不起眼的， 重要的事。我喜欢和他一起做事。」 The Pistons arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday, practiced twice Thursday and will do so again Friday before starting their five-game Summer League schedule Saturday against Philadelphia. Every practice, every game, every scrimmage will be another learning experience for Cheick Samb, another opportunity to write the next chapter in a story yet to take form. 活塞队在星期三到达Las Vegas，在星期六与76人开始他们下来的五场夏季联盟之旅之前 星期四五各练习两次。每次练习，每场球，每场争斗将会是Cheick Samb另一次学习经验， 也是我们目睹未来传奇的一个机会。 --

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