http://www.sportsline.com/columns/weblogs/entry/9631872 Going international -- and paying for it 国际化 -- 并付出代价 You are about to read some of the smartest analysis from any NBA player, coach or official about why it seems the Americans, when it comes to international basketball play, couldn't beat a foreign team composed of three French Poodles and two third-graders if their lives depended on it. 你大概已经听过不少 NBA球员、教练或官员的分析，关於为什麽当美国队去打国际赛时， 没办法干掉只不过由三个法国狮子狗和两个三流球员所组成的外国球队，即使他们可是靠 着打球混饭吃的。 This is why we stink in international hoops, why we finish in third place despite having delicious NBA stars on the roster, or at least how Dallas owner Mark Cuban sees it. And he's right. He's so right that by the time you are done reading this you will be nodding your head in agreement. 这就是为什麽我们在国际篮坛臭名远播，为什麽我们只拿到第三名尽管我们的阵容里有上 好的 NBA明星，换句话说，至少达拉斯的老板 Mark Cuban 看到了这些。而且他是对的。 他的正确性会让你在看完这篇文章後同意地点着你的脑袋。 "I can make it easy for you," Cuban said when I asked him to give me 10 steps to make America's international basketball experience more successful -- and less like having a left testicle being hit with a ball peen hammer. "Either we change all levels of basketball in the USA to play by international rules, or we get them to play by U.S. basketball rules. 「我可以很简单地弄给你看，」当我要求他给我 10 个步骤来让美国的国际赛经验能够更 完美时，Cuban 说的话至少就像你左边的蛋蛋被槌到一样地一针见血。「要嘛就是我们改 变美国国内所有的规则去配合国际赛，要嘛就是我们让全世界都用美国的规则。」 "I would be willing to bet that if you brought back all the same teams in the final eight and played under NBA rules," Cuban said, "with an NBA ball on an NBA-sized court, we would torch them. The different rules require different skill sets. It's that simple. 「我敢打赌，如果你把所有同样的队伍带到季後赛然後用美国的规则打，」Cuban 说。「 用 NBA 的球在 NBA 规格的场地，我们可以放火烧了他们。不同的规则需要用到不同的技 巧模式。就是这麽简单。」 "If one set of rules isn't natural to you, you will struggle to adapt," Cuban continued in his e-mail. "We hear it all the time about international players having to adapt to the NBA game. Here the rules are geared towards entertainment, which is a good thing. But if we changed to international rules, we would have a completely different set of stars and teams would be constructed and coached completely differently." 「如果某套规则对你来说很不自然，你将很难去适应，」Cuban 继续在他的 e-mail 里论 述。「我们老是听到关於国际球员必须去适应在 NBA的比赛，这里的规则是以娱乐为目的 订立的。但如果我们改用国际规则，我们会有一群完全不同的明星、完全不同的建队模式 以及完全不同的带队方法。」 The international teams put more emphasis on pure shooting, for example. They don't care as much about slam dunks. They want to make outside shots, not highlight shows. 举例来说，国际球队把更多的重点放在基本的投篮。他们不太在乎灌篮。他们要做的是外 线投篮，不是十大好球。 Don't stop reading. Cuban is just getting warmed up. 不要转台，Cuban 正在做准备。 "And as far as wondering why the USA can't dominate the Olympics like the original Dream Teams, there is an easy answer," he said. "We plugged in our NBA stars to play against international teams that had been comprised of non-professionals forever. While at the same time the Soviet Union imploded, so the one team that also was filled with professionals didn't exist any longer." 「然後如果要探究为什麽（现在的）美国队无法像梦一一样称霸奥运，这答案也非常简单 ，」他说。「我们不让我们的 NBA明星有对抗国际球队的机会，老是派些业余的出去打。 而且刚好（梦一）那时苏联瓦解，所以这支也由职业球员所组成的球队没能存在太久。」 （言下之意就是说苏联瓦解所以梦一唯一的对手派不出人来......老板真劲爆。） "Of course the U.S. teams were going to kill any and every team," Cuban continued. "It was our stars against their amateurs. Well, 15 years later, they have had plenty of time to integrate their professionals into their teams. Their national teams not only start playing together much younger, they play together every summer and their players go pro younger. So they have professional players who are now playing together every summer, year after year, for well-funded national teams. On top of that, the top Euro (teams) play against each other. They get friendlies that are competitive. The U.S. team played against creampuffs a couple times before the tournament." 「当然美国队曾经横扫任何球队，」Cuban 继续说。「那是因为我们派明星去打他们的业 余。嗯，15年前，当时的他们有足够的时间把职业球员整合起来，当时的国家队不只是在 很年轻的时候就开始一起打球，而且他们是在还没进职业的每个暑假都一起打球。所以当 时他们拥有每个暑假都在一起打球的职业球员，组成了汉草很好的队伍。 That makes so much sense my head hurts. 这番话让我那疼痛的脑袋非常有感觉。 Cuban is not trying to diss the Dream Team, but what he says is true. That team did not play a series of pro teams. They played scrubs. It was like the Dallas Cowboys taking on a state college. Cuban 无意靠北梦幻队，但他说的是真的。这支球队没有打一系列的赛前赛，他们是临时 凑成的。这就像达拉斯牛仔队打州大队伍一样。 Then Cuban says something that at first I don't agree with, but then, after reading what he says, his argument sways me. 然後 Cuban说了些我一开始不赞同的话，但之後在我看了他所说的一切，他的理论折服了 我。 "All that said, I personally think that the NBA, from a business perspective, is stupid for letting our players play at all," Cuban explains. "We absorb all the risk and we have gained little if anything from it. Well, that's not completely true. (The) last six to 10 years of international competition have led media to call our players selfish, without basic basketball skills, ugly Americans and worse. This year's team was far better behaved and that's great. But we put ourselves in a no-win, everything-to-lose situation (just ask Memphis). That’s not good business. Ever." 「我的意思是，我个人认为，从商业的角度来看 NBA，让我们的球员一天到晚打球简直就 是笨，」Cuban 解释。「我们要吸收所有的风险，而即使我们可以从中得到些什麽，那也 是微乎其微。嗯，这不完全是事实。过去十年来的六支（国家）队伍让媒体把我们的球员 称作自私鬼，缺乏基本功，丑陋与糟糕的美国人。这支年度球队确实很好。但我们根本啥 都没赢，每件事情都处在输掉的状态（也可以问看看曼菲斯这种感觉）。这生意简直糟透 了。」 When I tell Cuban that -- to borrow a lame phrase being used about another topic altogether -- refusing to play, instead of fixing the problems, would be cutting and running, he responds: "It's just a financial decision. The Olympics is nothing but a big business. It's not a platform for national pride. They are a competitor for advertising and TV dollars. Lending them our best players is a dumb business decision. It has nothing to do with winning or losing." 当我告诉 Cuban -- 我借用一段话来作为这另一个议论的标题 -- 用拒绝打球来代替解决 问题是否本末倒置，他如此回应：「这不过是个财务上的考量。奥运只不过是个大生意而 已，它不是一个让国家自大的平台，他们（奥运官方）是要竞争广告和转播收入的人。为 此借出我们最优秀的球员在生意上是个蠢毙了的决定。这跟输赢根本没关系。」 The Americans have everything to lose while international clubs have everything to gain. Keeping our NBA players out of it and reengineering the international team to play a more international style might be the best thing to do. 当世界各国在各方面都获胜时，美国人却在各方面都落败了。把我们的 NBA球员从那之中 抽离出来而以国际的方式对付国际队,或许会是最好的作法。 As usual, Cuban makes too much sense. 总之， Cuban 的感触良多。 --

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