The God in Youth: Michael Jordan 球神的少年时代：迈克尔·乔丹

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The God in Youth: Michael Jordan球神的少年时代：迈克尔·乔丹

The summer after ninth grade,

读完九年级的那个夏天，

Michael Jordan and Smith both went to Pop Herring’s basketball camp.

迈克尔·乔丹和史密斯一同参加了波谱·赫里的篮球夏令营。

In Smith’s mind there was no doubt which of the two of them was the better player—it was Michael by far.

史密斯清楚地知道，在篮球方面，目前乔丹比他强得多。

But on the day the varsity cuts were announced,

但是到了宣布校运动队队员名单时，

Smith’s name was on it, Michael’s was not.

名单上有史密斯的名字却没有乔丹的。

It was the worst day of Jordan’s young life.

对于年轻的乔丹来说这一天简直糟糕透了，

That day he went home by himself and went to his room and cried.

那天他独自回了家，关上房间门后便大哭起来。

Smith understood what was happening—Michael, he knew, never wanted you to see him when he was hurt.

史密斯知道：乔丹不愿让任何人看到他伤心或沮丧的样子。

“We knew Michael was good,” Fred Lynch, the Laney assistant coach, said later,

兰尼中学的助理教练福雷德·里奇后来说; 我们知道乔丹很出色，

“but we wanted him to play more and we thought the jayvee was better for him.”

但我们想让他多练练，所以觉得二队更适合他。

He easily became the best player on the jayvee that year.

那一年他轻松地成了二队中最出色的队员。

He simply dominated the play, and he did it not by size but with quickness.

凭借着迅捷而并非身高，他在队中就已举足轻重。

There were games in which he would score forty points.

许多比赛他都能得到四十分。

He was so good, in fact, that the jayvee games became quite popular.

实际上，他突出的表现使二队的比赛倍受欢迎。

The entire varsity began to come early so they could watch him play.

为了能看到有他参加的二队比赛，整个校队的队员都开始提早到场。

Smith noticed that after the cut Jordan seemed even more competitive than ever,

史密斯发现乔丹在被筛选到二队之后，好胜心更强了，

as if determined that it would never happen again.

好像决心不让历史重演。

His coaches noticed it, too.

他的教练们也注意到了这一点。

“The first time I ever saw him, I had no idea who Michael Jordan was,” said Ron Coley.

罗·康利说：当我第一次看到迈克尔·乔丹时还不知道他是谁，

“We went over to Goldsboro, which was our big rival,

当时我们正与劲敌哥尔兹保罗队比赛。

and I entered the gym when the jayvee game was just ending up.

当我走进赛场时比赛已近尾声，

There were nine players on the court just coasting,

场上其它九名队员都已无心恋战，

but there was one kid playing his heart out.

只剩下一个孩子还在竭尽全力。

The way he was playing I thought his team was down one point with two minutes to play.

看他打球的样子，我想他们队一定只落后了一分，

So I looked up at the clock and his team was down twenty points and there was only one minute to play.

可当我抬头看计时钟时，他们队竟落后了二十分，而距比赛结束仅仅只剩一分钟。

It was Michael, and I quickly learned he was always like that.”

这就是迈克尔·乔丹，我很快就得知他一贯如此。

Between the time he was cut and the start of basketball in his junior year,

从乔丹少年时开始打篮球，到被中学校队教练筛选到二队的这段时间，

Jordan was as driven as ever, the hardest-working player on the team in practice.

他一直都充满着紧迫感，他是队中最勤于练球的队员。

If he thought that his teammates were not working hard enough,

倘若他发现队友不够努力，

he would get on them himself, and on occasion he pushed the coaches to get on them.

他就会努力去说服他们，或者鼓动教练去说服。

Suddenly Laney High School had the beginning of a very good basketball team,

一时间兰尼中学出了一支非常优秀的篮球队，

and its rising star was Michael Jordan.

迈克尔·乔丹，也从此成为一颗冉冉升起的篮球新星。