Stephen A. Smith says Kobe Bryant should retire. Right now.
ESPN球評 Stephen Smith說：「KOBE應該現在立刻退休」
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Things aren’t looking great for Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. The
team sits in last place in the Western Conference at 2-12 and Bryant is
averaging only 15.2 points per game while shooting 31.1 percent from the
field.
最近湖人和Kobe看起來實在不太妙，湖人戰績2勝12負牌名西區倒數龍頭，而Kobe平均每
場15.2分、出手命中率只有31.1%。
According to ESPN, Bryant tied his worst career shooting performance in which
he attempted at least five shots in Tuesday night’s 111-77 loss to the
undefeated Golden State Warriors. But the team’s problems go far deeper than
his shooting, Bryant said.
根據ESPN報導，儘管以生涯最糟的出手表現並以大比分輸給了金州勇士的比賽之後，Kobe
認為比起他的出手，球隊有更深層的問題。Kobe表示：
“I’m not really worried about it, honestly,” he said. “My shooting will
be better. I could’ve scored 80 tonight. It wouldn’t have made a damn
difference. We just have bigger problems. I could be out there averaging 35
points a game. We’d be what, 3-11? We’ve got to figure out how to play
systematically in a position that’s going to keep us in ballgames.”
「老實說我並不擔心我的出手，我的出手一定會越來越好。我也可以得個80分但這根本沒
有差別阿！我們有更大的問題！我也能一場得個35分但依然是3勝11負，我們必須在各個
位置上都更有系統地執行然後讓我們持續保有競爭力。」
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says it has gotten so bad that Bryant should just
retire. Right now. As in, during the season.
ESPN球評Stephen Smith則認為，情況已經很糟了，Kobe真的應該在球季中退休，
現在！立刻！
“Even the great Kobe Bryant can’t be great at age 37 with all of these
obstacles joined, colluding with one another to bring him down,” Smith said.
“It is a damn shame that Kobe has to go out this way. But it is over. There
is nothing he can do, especially in the Western Conference. His skills have
diminished.”
「就算是偉大的Kobe也沒有辦法在37歲的年齡去克服這些一起要把他拉下來的障礙，對於
Kobe必須以這樣的狀態下離開籃壇真的很遺憾，但一切都結束了，沒有任何事他可以再去
做的了，他的才能已經消失。」
Smith continued: “I believe that it is over. I believe Kobe Bryant should
retire. …I don’t think he should wait. I doubt he’ll do it, but I think
Kobe should retire right now.
「我認為一切都結束了，他應該退休，不應該再等待，我不知道他會不會這樣做但我希望
他現在就退休。」
Yeah, that’s probably not going to happen, even if Bryant is playing in his
20th season in the league. This is the guy who once scored 81 points in a
game, and whose competitiveness is legendary, even by NBA standards.
不過，盡管這是Kobe的第20個球季，這些都應該不太會發生。
他曾經單場81分、他是傳奇中的傳奇。
But Smith isn’t the only one asking Bryant to call it quits. Complex’s Russ
Bengtson wrote an open letter last Friday begging Bryant to retire.
Smith不是唯一一個叫他退休的人，評論家Russ Bengtson上周五曾寫了一封公開信求他
退休。
“I think your career is over. I don’t mean at the end of the season, I mean
right now,” Bengtson wrote. “Honestly, the best thing you could do — for
your body, for your mind, for your family—is just to pack up that Staples
Center locker, take the helicopter back to the coast, and start enjoying life
as a former NBA player. It’s just not worth it anymore.”
「你的職業生涯已經結束了，我不是指這季結束後、而是現在！。老實說，對你的身體、
你的心理、你的家庭來說，現在你能做到最好的事就是立刻當上直升機離開球場回到岸邊
的家盡情享受你的退休生活。現在這一切不再有價值了。」
Bryant has not said when he is officially retiring, but earlier this summer,
Lakers part-owner and executive vice president of basketball operations Jim
Buss told the Los Angeles Times that the team expects this season to be Bryant
’s last of his career.
Kobe尚未明確表示退休時程，但夏季初湖人高層Buss已經向媒體Los Angeles Times表示
希望今年就是kobe的最後一季。
“We’re going to approach it like it is, but that doesn’t mean it is,”
Buss said of Bryant. “I’m not going to sit there and say, ‘This is it,
Kobe, you’re done,’ because it’s not my decision, it’s his decision.”
「我們朝這方面靠近，但還沒有確定就是這樣了。我總不能對Kobe說"Kobe你已經完成了，
就這樣囉！" 因為這不會是我的決定，是他的決定。」
And hey, Kobe, listen it’s not your fault. Smith added in his rant that he
doesn’t blame Bryant for his downfall, but “Father Time” and the Lakers
franchise.
不過Espn球評Smith表示「嘿Kobe，這不是你的錯」，他並沒有責怪他的殞落，一且只是歲
月和選擇罷了。
“They neglected Kobe Bryant, left him to hang out and dry,” Smith said of
the Lakers. “And they have precipitated, expedited the process of Kobe’s
demise because of what they have surrounded him with and what they have
failed to surround him with. It is a tragedy what they have done to him. But
it is what it is. And because of it, we can’t deny that he looks how he
looks.”
另一方面，Smith提到湖人，「湖人忽略Kobe的問題，任由他懸在那裏繼續乾涸、加速他的
終結，就只因為那些從他身上得到和沒有從他身上得到的那些，湖人這樣對他真是悲劇。
然而事情就是這樣，儘管如此，我們依然不能否認他現在就是我們看到的這樣。」
心得：沒有運動員能永遠強悍阿，選擇急流勇退或是堅持下去都是個大難題。