2015-07-30

【Aiden in English】

        The playoffs were here, and everyone was ready. After that huge victory last night, GA-Tech felt undefeatable. Maybe we became overconfident, but really, that game made us the best team in the ACC.

        Notice how I said the word “team” in the last phrase, because, as the theme of the week, today we weren’t a team. There was a clumpy obstacle course, and GA-Tech had the lead of about 13 feet/4 meters of obstacles. I don’t know how, but we did. I tagged the next teammate, and the second to the last part arrived. The kid rushed the first try. Since it was a balance beam, he fell off. Okay, the kid calmed down and tried again. But right at the end on a jump from beam to beam, his left foot slipped and he took a tumble. By then, the leading opponent was on the same obstacle, and he easily overtook the clumsy kid, leaving him in the dust. So did the other two before he cleared the course. 

        When the team got together, everyone was pointing fingers at that kid, burning him by saying that he sucked at everything. As our sensible kid stepped in, he began to criticize us, and GA-Tech went right back to the one on Tuesday. “No one can score a bucket for your life!” “Your mom plays better than you all!” “What’s so hard about walking over a piece of wood?!” So while we were all yelling at each other, the momentum we had just built yesterday crashed against a steel wall, and that was it. At the moment, I knew that our playoff hopes wore basically over unless we demolished UVA. 

        Instead, though, UVA destroyed us with fouls and misses, getting wide open buckets that could’ve been shot by a 2-year-old baby. On offense, we wore chugging along as fast as a snail, barely moving the ball. We lost because we weren’t a team once again. So what used to be a smoothly running train was now a car that was out of gas in the middle of nowhere. What also looked like GA-Tech stealing the third seed now was GA-Tech at the bottom, left to face UNC. Despite the fact that we dominated the last game, UNC just came off of a big win over the number two seed, Duke. We were beaten beginning to end in the first round of the playoffs today. Although the score didn’t reflect it, GA-Tech wasn’t whole like the last game. We were frustrated, mad, and blamed our own team, stabbing the already dead basketball team I used to know. The game ended with UNC on top by seven. But to me, those seven points seemed like infinity. We did what we could, yet it wasn’t enough. UNC was just simply a better team, even though we had more talent. 

        In fact, we had the champion of one-on-one in our team. But basketball is with a team, not one person. So no matter what, unless you’re Michael Jordan, one versus five never works.

【红霞译文】

        决赛在即，人人拭目以待。自从昨晚大出风头之后，乔治亚理工学院队开始自高自大起来，也许我们被胜利冲昏了头脑，成功让球员变得骄傲自负，以为本队业已成为大西洋沿岸联盟中最棒的一支队伍。

        请注意上一段我所使用的“队”一词，这正是本周一贯倡导的团队精神，而今天我们却背离了主题思想。长条状障碍竞技场上，乔治亚理工学院队比其它队提早冲过大约13英尺／4米的障碍物，详情不知，反正我们一马当先，我拍了一下后面的队友，倒数第二个项目开始。他慌张往前冲，结果从平衡木跑道上掉了下来。还算不错，这家伙稳住情绪重新再来，可在跑道末端尚需从一个平衡木跳到另外一个平衡木，他左脚打滑摔了跟头，这时，紧追其后的对手恰好来到同一个障碍物上，他轻松追上这位笨了吧唧的伙伴，快速向前冲去；在这位跌倒的队友跑完之前，另有两位其它球队的选手超过了他。

        全队集合的时候，人人出言不逊，指责那家伙拖了大家的后腿。当事人也不是善茬子，又反过来抨击我们，乔治亚理工学院队重新回到星期二出现的状态。“这辈子没人能投中！”“你妈妈比你干什么都强！”“难道走独木桥就那么难？！” 随着队友间唇枪舌战不断升温，我们昨天焕发出来的旺盛斗志至此被铁壁铜墙撞得粉碎，就这么简单。那一瞬间，我恍然意识到除非干掉弗吉尼亚大学队，否则乔治亚理工学院队决赛晋级的希望渺茫。

        事与愿违，我们连续犯规、频繁失误，毫无顾忌地给对方留出甚至连两岁屁孩都能长驱直入的纰漏空档，弗吉尼亚大学队将乔治亚理工学院队扫地出门。进攻时，大家动作慢得像蜗牛爬，球根本传不出去。我队输就输在队员们各自为政互不配合，曾经被视为一列平稳运行的火车，就这样沦落成油料殆尽的破车，可怜巴巴地困守在前不着村后不着店的蛮荒之地。我们乔治亚理工学院队本来有望争夺第三名席位，现在只剩下垫底的份儿，与北卡大学队再决雄雌。尽管昨儿乔治亚理工学院队大获全胜，可北卡队却以悬殊比分击败第二名杜克大学队，不过，今天在决赛第一轮中，我们自始至终表现欠佳，比分固然说明不了问题，但本队的精神面貌确实不能与上场比赛同日而语，队员们士气沮丧，脾气暴躁，并相互指责过失，将早已奄奄一息的球队扼杀在自己手中。最终北卡大学队赢了七分，可这七分在我看来却好像无穷大，队员们竭尽全力也未能挽回失败的结局。我们队有很多天资聪颖的人才，显然，北卡大学队整体实力比我们强。

        其实，我们队里有不少球员都获过单项冠军，但篮球是一项集体运动而非个人比赛，除非你是迈克尔·乔丹，否则一个人无论如何对付不了五个人。