Ding column: NBA players want a ring, and to be part of (Olympic) rings
回音壁：NBA球员想要一个戒指，奥运冠军是其中之一
Monday, March 10, 2008
2008年3月10日，星期一
NBA:Pau Gasol's new frontier with the Lakers is his task at hand, but inmany ways his greater challenge will come after the NBA playoffs withthe Olympics in China.
The NBA championship won't mean quite as much this season.
NBA总冠军并不会在很大意义上意味着这个赛季结束。
That'sbecause it'll be followed up two months later by an even biggerbasketball bash: the Olympics. Worldwide anticipation for basketball atthe Olympics is off the charts – which is why as much as Yao Ming'sfoot injury saddened Houston, there was no comparison to the frayednerves throughout China, the host country and a longshot contender forgold.
Yaohad an open letter published Friday in Chinese newspapers to reassurefans of his intention to return for the Olympics. Given theridiculously hard-line Communist ways of the Chinese BasketballAdministration, the next step will be ordering Yao to send letters toall 1.3 billion people over there, too.No mass e-mail! Hand-written!
AskYao about Pau Gasol, neither of whom has won an NBA playoff series, andYao will tell you there's a fundamental difference between them: Gasolis a champion. Spain won the 2006 FIBA World Championship, even thoughYao was the tournament's leading scorer.
Youcould never get Gasol or Kobe Bryant to say a disparaging word aboutthe upcoming NBA postseason, especially because the Lakers have a realshot. But make no mistake; Gasol and Bryant are totally geeked aboutthe Olympics.
"It's going to be really exciting," Gasol said, smiling. "I'll sign up right now for a nice USA-Spain final."
“这真的令人期待。”加索尔带着微笑说，“我现在断定美国与西班牙将会有一场精彩的决赛对决。”
Spainis third in the FIBA rankings after the U.S. and Argentina, so it mightwell happen. Bryant plans to put off surgery on his shooting hand forhis first real opportunity on a major international stage – even thoughit likely means he won't be fully recovered for Lakers training camp inOctober. The Olympics are that important to him.
Lookaround Staples Center on Tuesday night and you'll see an NBA-high sixinternational players on the Toronto Raptors. Quietly the Lakers havemoved up to second on that list – tied with Golden State, Phoenix andSan Antonio – with five: Gasol, DJ Mbenga (Congo), Vladimir Radmanovic(Serbia and Montenegro), Ronny Turiaf (France) and Sasha Vujacic(Slovenia). An extremely intriguing Asian representative is en route,too, with 2007 second-round pick Sun Yue – dubbed "the Chinese MagicJohnson" – likely joining the Lakers next season.
"It'sa pleasant surprise," Stern said. "And the competition is going to getmore intense for jobs in the NBA. More elite athletes are playingbasketball – good and potentially great ones. And it's going tocontinue to put pressure on the game in the NBA in a very positiveway."
Forthe moment, though, foreign players remain the clear minority, which iswhy Gasol has become such fast friends with Vujacic.
目前，外国球员尽管仍然是少数－－这就是为什么加索尔如此迅速地与武贾西奇变成朋友的原因。
Youmight have noticed that spectacularly exuberant on-court embracebetween the two of them as the Lakers were beating Phoenix last month.Vujacic has been ribbed so much about his Lambeau leap into Gasol'sarms that when I mentioned something about the two of them having goodon-court chemistry, Vujacic said without smiling: "You are talkingabout that hug?"
Butactually it is Vujacic who has been Gasol's anchor in SouthernCalifornia. In his first weekend here, Gasol was already at Vujacic'shouse to hang out.
"He'sfrom Europe; it's his first time in L.A., so I was more than willing tohelp him not get lost, which is easy to do," Vujacic said. "Where togo, what to do, where are good places to hang out, where is a goodplace to live."
“他来自欧洲；这是他第一次到洛杉矶，所以我更乐意帮助他。这很容易做到。”武贾西奇说。“无论去哪里，无论做什么。哪里有好的地方住，哪里就是居住的好地方（随遇而安？）。”
NowGasol is settling into his new house in Redondo Beach – where Vujacic'splace is, too -- and they also spend considerable time together on theroad. Asked about Vujacic's accusation that Gasol creates new rules onthe fly in the poker game he's teaching Vujacic on the team plane,Gasol fired back: "No way. I'm not a cheater like he is."
Atthe start of this NBA season, who could've imagined Vujacic, stuckbehind Maurice Evans on the depth chart as Bryant's backup, and Gasol,stuck in Memphis, as two of the Lakers' best players? Yet as theAmericans found out in finishing third in that 2006 FIBA WorldChampionship – with only Carmelo Anthony making the all-tournament team– the Europeans can move fast.
Thewhole world is moving fast, which is why Bryant and Phil Jackson foundthemselves at the same time separately reading Thomas Friedman'sbest-selling globalization book, "The World is Flat," last season. Thisseason, Bryant and Jackson are seeing theory become reality with thearrival of one scraggily bearded Spaniard.
Forhis part, Gasol is probably among the most well-read players in leaguehistory, which is why he and Jackson have already enjoyedbook-club-style banter about Ernest Hemingway's writings on the SpanishCivil War.
