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.

【紅霞譯文】

        決賽在即，人人拭目以待。自從昨晚大出風頭之後，喬治亞理工學院隊開始自高自大起來，也許我們被勝利沖昏了頭腦，成功讓球員變得驕傲自負，以為本隊業已成為大西洋沿岸聯盟中最棒的一支隊伍。

        請注意上一段我所使用的“隊”一詞，這正是本周一貫倡導的團隊精神，而今天我們卻背離了主題思想。長條狀障礙競技場上，喬治亞理工學院隊比其它隊提早衝過大約13英尺／4米的障礙物，詳情不知，反正我們一馬當先，我拍了一下後面的隊友，倒數第二個項目開始。他慌張往前衝，結果從平衡木跑道上掉了下來。還算不錯，這傢伙穩住情緒重新再來，可在跑道末端尚需從一個平衡木跳到另外一個平衡木，他左腳打滑摔了跟頭，這時，緊追其後的對手恰好來到同一個障礙物上，他輕鬆追上這位笨了吧唧的夥伴，快速向前衝去；在這位跌倒的隊友跑完之前，另有兩位其它球隊的選手超過了他。

        全隊集合的時候，人人出言不遜，指責那傢伙拖了大家的後腿。當事人也不是善茬子，又反過來抨擊我們，喬治亞理工學院隊重新回到星期二出現的狀態。“這輩子沒人能投中！”“你媽媽比你幹什麼都強！”“難道走獨木橋就那麼難？！” 隨着隊友間唇槍舌戰不斷升溫，我們昨天煥發出來的旺盛鬥志至此被鐵壁銅牆撞得粉碎，就這麼簡單。那一瞬間，我恍然意識到除非幹掉弗吉尼亞大學隊，否則喬治亞理工學院隊決賽晉級的希望渺茫。

        事與願違，我們連續犯規、頻繁失誤，毫無顧忌地給對方留出甚至連兩歲屁孩都能長驅直入的紕漏空檔，弗吉尼亞大學隊將喬治亞理工學院隊掃地出門。進攻時，大家動作慢得像蝸牛爬，球根本傳不出去。我隊輸就輸在隊員們各自為政互不配合，曾經被視為一列平穩運行的火車，就這樣淪落成油料殆盡的破車，可憐巴巴地困守在前不着村後不着店的蠻荒之地。我們喬治亞理工學院隊本來有望爭奪第三名席位，現在只剩下墊底的份兒，與北卡大學隊再決雄雌。儘管昨兒喬治亞理工學院隊大獲全勝，可北卡隊卻以懸殊比分擊敗第二名杜克大學隊，不過，今天在決賽第一輪中，我們自始至終表現欠佳，比分固然說明不了問題，但本隊的精神面貌確實不能與上場比賽同日而語，隊員們士氣沮喪，脾氣暴躁，並相互指責過失，將早已奄奄一息的球隊扼殺在自己手中。最終北卡大學隊贏了七分，可這七分在我看來卻好像無窮大，隊員們竭盡全力也未能挽回失敗的結局。我們隊有很多天資聰穎的人才，顯然，北卡大學隊整體實力比我們強。

        其實，我們隊裡有不少球員都獲過單項冠軍，但籃球是一項集體運動而非個人比賽，除非你是邁克爾·喬丹，否則一個人無論如何對付不了五個人。