Tayshaun Prince was ready to concede 2004 title to Lakers before season
by Dan Feldman
Tayshaun Prince on the Lakers signing Karl Malone and Gary Payton to join
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, via Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report:
04年，湖人找了K.Malone & G.Payton，和Shaq & Kobe組成「湖人F4」，風頭一時無兩。
When it happened, my first reaction was, “We’re pretty much handing them
the title right now.” Obviously, we didn’t know at that point how good we
could be. We didn’t have Rasheed [Wallace] yet and we didn’t make the
trades to make us a better team. So at that point, we definitely felt like
they were the front-runners.
近日接受採訪時，Tayshaun Prince回憶道....
「當這件事真的發生後，我當下第一反應是『可以洗洗睡了，冠軍是他們的了。』
顯然，當時我們還不清楚之後我們會變得多好，那時Rasheed Wallace還沒來，
我們還沒做出交易來補強。
當下只覺得他們才是真正的總冠軍大熱門。」
I thought the same thing before the season. Those Lakers were stacked.
在賽季開始前我仍這麼認為，湖人就像一座堡壘橫擋在我們之前。
That’s why Rasheed Wallace was so important to the Pistons’ 2004
championship team.
這就是為何Rasheed對我們當年奪冠來說如此重要。
Not only did he improve the team on both ends of the floor, he brought an
incredible swagger. The Pistons weren’t meek before the trade, but Sheed
took them to the next level.
不只攻防兩端的貢獻，他也替球隊帶來了不可思議的氣勢。
Rasheed到來後，將球隊提升到了一個新的境界。
Many – myself included – still thought the Lakers were an unstoppable force
entering the NBA Finals. But the Pistons didn’t share that view, and that’s
why the rolled in five games.
很多人，包含我自己，認為當時總決賽的湖人是無人能敵的。
但活塞全隊不同意這種觀點，而這也造就了最後的戰果。
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