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The God in Youth—Michael Jordan
邁克爾·喬丹
There were already signs that he had a good deal of talent. Harvest Smith, a classmate and close friend who in those days played basketball with him practically every day, thought he was the best player on their ninth-grade team — he was small, but he was every quick.
邁克爾的天賦早已有所顯露。他的一位同班同學(xué)和親密伙伴維斯特·史密斯，當(dāng)時基本每天都和他一起打籃球，并覺得他是九年級球隊中最出色的——他身材不高但非常靈活。
The summer after ninth grade, Jordan and Smith both went to Pop Herring’s basketball camp. Neither of them had yet come into his body, and almost all of the varsity players, two and sometimes three years older, seemed infinitely stronger at that moment when a year or two in physical development can make all the difference. In Smith’s mind there was no doubt which of the two of them was the better player—it was Michael by far. But on the day the varsity cuts were announced — it was the big day of the year, for they had all known for weeks when the list would be posted — he and Roy Smith had gone to the Laney gym. Smith’s name was on it, Michael’s was not.
讀完九年級的那個夏天，喬丹和史密斯一同參加了波譜·赫里的籃球夏令營。他們倆從當(dāng)時還未長大成人，而當(dāng)時幾乎所有的校隊隊員都比他們大兩三歲，在這個年齡，大一兩歲在體魄上就大相徑庭，因而看上去都比他們強壯得多。在史密斯的頭腦中，他們二人誰更出色是毫無疑問的——邁克爾比他強得多。但是到了宣布校運動隊隊員篩選名單時—— 這可是一年中的大日子，因為他們幾星期前就知道名單何時會公布—— 他和羅伊·史密斯都去了蘭尼體育館，而此時名單上有史密斯的名字，卻沒有邁克爾。
It was the worst day of Jordan’s young life. The list was alphabetical, so he focused on where the Js should be, and it wasn’t there, and he kept reading and rereading the list, hoping somehow that he had missed it, or that the alphabetical listing had been done incorrectly. That day he went home by himself and went to his room and cried. Smith understood what was happening — Michael, he knew, never wanted you to see him when he was hurt.
對于年輕的喬丹來說這一天簡直遭透了。因為名單是按字母順序排的，他就注意看可能有“喬”字的地方，可是并沒有。他一遍又一遍地看著，真希望是自己看漏了，或者是字母順序排錯了。那天他獨自回了家進(jìn)屋后便大哭起來。史密斯明白所發(fā)生的一切——當(dāng)邁克爾傷心或沮喪的時候，他不愿意見人。
Smith noticed that while Jordan had been wildly competitive before he had been cut, after the cut he seemed even more competitive than ever, as if determined that it would never happen again. His coaches noticed it, too. “The first time I ever saw him, I had no idea who Michael Jordan was. I was helping to coach the Laney varsity,” said Ron Coley. “We went over to Goldsboro, which was our big rival, and I entered the gym when the jayvee game was just ending up. There were nine players on the court just coasting, but there was one kid playing his heart out. The way he was playing I thought his team was down one point with two minutes to play. So I looked up at the clock and his team was down twenty points and there was only one minute to play. It was Michael, and I quickly learned he was always like that.”
史密斯發(fā)現(xiàn)在喬丹被篩選掉之前是不甘于人后的，而在落選之后他的好勝心似乎有過之而不及，好像決心不讓歷史再次重演。他的教練們也注意到了這一點。羅·康利說：“我一直幫忙在蘭尼的運動隊做教教練，當(dāng)我第一次看到邁克爾·喬丹時，還不知道他是誰。我們?nèi)ヅc勁敵哥爾茲保羅隊打比賽，當(dāng)我進(jìn)到體育館時，二隊的比賽就要結(jié)束了。場上的九名隊員都已無心戀戰(zhàn)，只剩下一個孩子還在竭盡全力。看他打球的樣子我想他們隊在剩下的兩分鐘里一定只落后了一分，可當(dāng)我抬頭看計時鐘時，他們隊在最后的一分鐘里竟落后了二十分。這就是邁克爾，我很快就得知他一貫如此。”
