范甘迪親筆信:執教姚明是我一生的榮幸

Yao was really funny, but the thing about Yao’s humor was that you rarely saw it coming.

姚明是一個非常有趣的人，但他的幽默常常出乎你的預料。

You can tell a whole lot about a basketball player by how he practices, and Yao Ming was one of the hardest work.ng guys I ever coached.

你可以從球員訓練的方式中看出來這個人的品性，而姚明則是我執教過的最刻苦的球員之一。

And you can tell a lot about a player by how he treats his teammates. If there’s a Mount Rushmore of great teammates, Yao belongs on it.

你也一定能說出很多球員和隊友們的趣聞逸事。但如果有一座偉大隊友的拉什莫爾山，我敢肯定姚明一定在那裏擁有一席之地。

Over the years, I've also learned that you can tell a lot about a person's character by how he deploys humor — not only which jokes he tells or what he laughs at (though that's part of it).

多年以來，我都知道人們可以從一個人抖機靈的方式中看出來他的性格——這裏說的可不僅僅是講個笑話，或者他的笑點（當然這也是其中的一部分）。

It's something harder to describe.

這種東西有點只可意會不可言傳的意思。

It's just something you pick up on when you're around a person. It's a vibe. It's not always what's said, but how you feel when you're in a person's presence.

當你和他相處的時候就能輕易感受得到。就像是一種氣場。莫可名狀，但你在這個人身邊的時候就能感受得到。

People tend to judge an NBA player's career solely on how many championships he won. Winning championships is a big factor in the end, but I've always believed that conducting yourself as a champion is more important.

人們常常喜歡只用球員所獲得的總冠軍數目來判斷一名球員的職業生涯。雖然最終贏得總冠軍確實非常重要，但我總認爲努力追逐總冠軍的過程更加重要。

I first saw that trait in Patrick Ewing when I coached him in New York. And I immediately noticed it in Yao.

起先我是在執教紐約尼克斯隊的時候，在帕特里克-尤因身上發現了這一點。後來當我接觸到了姚明，就立刻發現了兩者身上的相似之處。

During Yao's career, he often battled two other Hall of Fame-caliber centers who were each at different points of their careers: Shaq was in his 30s, and he was still the best center in the league; Dwight Howard was the best young center in the game.

在姚明的職業生涯裏，他總是與兩個名人堂級別的中鋒在較量，雖然他們的職業生涯處在不同的狀態：沙克當時已經30歲了，但他還是聯盟中最棒的中鋒；而德懷特-霍華德則是聯盟中最棒的年輕大個子。

And then there was Yao, who in his mid-twenties was younger than Shaq, but older than Dwight. Yao was better than Dwight, and the gap between Yao and Shaq was smaller than the gap between Yao and Dwight.

姚明介於兩者之間，剛好二十多歲，比沙克年輕，又比德懷特成熟。姚明當時強於德懷特，而且他和沙克之間的差距要小於德懷特與姚明之間的差距。

I've got hundreds of stories about how Yao played. Somehow I think we still don't appreciate how skilled he was.

關於姚明的比賽方式，我能講出幾百個故事來。但我們還是難以領會他的技術究竟有多棒。

(If you're, say, under 25 years old, do me a favor right now: YouTube Yao Ming behind the back dribble.) But, to me, what truly defined Yao's greatness — his basketball “character” — were the moments when he was on the bench or off the court.

（如果你還年輕，不知道這些事兒，那麼上YouTube去搜索一下吧，姚明背後運球。）但對我而言，真正能夠定義姚明偉大的時刻——至少是他在籃球方面的特質——是他坐在場下或者賽場之外的行爲。

I loved the way Tracy McGrady and Yao treated each other as teammates. One thing they showed everyone was that basketball shouldn't be a selfish endeavor.

我喜歡特雷西-麥克格雷迪與姚明的組合。一方面，他們向世人展示了籃球不是單靠一己之力就能成功的運動。

Yao and Tracy were kindred spirits in this way. They never fought over the silly notion of whose team it was.

在這一點上，他們二人一拍即合。他們從來沒有爲誰是球隊老大這種愚蠢的問題而怒目相對過。

Instead, they understood what everyone should remember from kindergarten: to share — the credit, the blame and the responsibility.

相反，他們秉持着一種自從孩提時代就習得了的美德：要學會分享——不管是功勞、批評還是責任。

Much like Tim Duncan and Steve Nash, Yao was a unifying leader.

和蒂姆-鄧肯還有史蒂夫-納什一樣，姚明是個當之無愧的領袖。

I believe that if a great player is also a compassionate, caring, unselfish teammate, then his team's chemistry is going to be exceptional. That's what Yao did every day, in every way.

我相信，如果一位偉大的球員擁有憐憫之心，關愛之心，同時他又是一名無私的隊友，那麼他的球隊化學反應一定非同小可，而姚明就這樣日復一日地重複這些事情。

As a coach, you always want people to be happy for the success of others, but in reality, that's pretty rare in sports.

作爲一名教練，你總是喜歡這種願意爲其他人的成功喝彩的球員，但實際上這樣的人在體育界真的非常少見。

From Day One, Yao was always as happy for his teammate's successes as he was for his own.

從第一天開始，姚明就爲自己隊友的成功而感到開心，彷彿就像是他自己獲得了成功似的。

And when we didn't succeed, Yao took it just as hard as anyone else. What really impressed me was how he responded to those er. He didn't blame his injuries. He just went back to work.

當我們沒能取勝的時候，姚明會像其他人一樣失落，不過真正讓我印象深刻的則是他對待這些失望時刻的方式。

Whether it was losing a regular-season game or a blowing a lead in the playoffs, Yao never took defeat easy. But he never made excuses

不管是在常規賽中失利還是在季後賽中被逆轉，他都不會隨便處理。而且他也從來不爲失敗找藉口，也不爲傷病抱怨，他只是回去繼續努力。

If there's anything I regret from my time as Houston's coach, it's the two playoff series that we didn't finish off after going up 2–0.

在我的火箭執教生涯中，如果非要說有什麼事情令我感到遺憾的話，那就是有兩年季後賽我們沒能把握住2-0的領先優勢，輸掉了系列賽。

We never got out of the first round, and so NBA fans didn't get to see Yao's greatness when it mattered most.

我們從未越過季後賽首輪，因此許多NBA的球迷也不認同姚明的偉大，因爲他們認爲成績纔是最重要的。

I've always liked the quote, “Your actions speak so loudly that I can barely hear what you say.” That was how Yao conducted himself.

一直以來我都喜歡這樣一句話，“行勝於言”，這是姚明常常用來激勵自己的話。

By the time practice rolled around, Yao had already been at the facility for a couple of hours. The everydayness of his routine is what made his work ethic one of the best I have ever seen.

直到訓練開始，姚明已經在體育館裏待了好幾個小時了。正是這樣日復一日的努力，才塑造出了我執教生涯中最令人欽佩的職業態度。

But as dedicated as he was, Yao always found time to laugh. And he loved giving his teammates the chances to shine whenever possible — and I don't think I've ever seen him laugh harder than when he was around Dikembe Mutombo.

雖然他一直都是一個非常專注的人，但姚明總能找到機會開懷大笑。而且他總是樂於爲自己的隊友留出閃光的機會--我從沒見過姚明比他和迪肯貝-穆託姆博在一起更開心的樣子了。

Those are the moments I miss. The games and the seasons run together. But those moments of laughter I will always cherish.

我很懷念這段時光。很懷念我們在一起比賽的日子。但我更珍視這些彌足珍貴的歡樂時刻。

Houston has a history of terrific big men, like Moses Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon. I always thought Yao fit perfectly in the tradition of those icons who had come before him — and that he brought honor to the Rockets organization, and to the game itself.

火箭隊擁有引以爲傲的中鋒歷史，比如摩西-馬龍，比如哈基姆-奧拉朱旺。我一直都認爲姚明很好地繼承了球隊先驅們的衣鉢——而且像他們一樣，爲球隊以及比賽帶來了榮耀。

Now his number will hang in the rafters at Toyota Center alongside those legends. I think every teammate who will be there when he gets his number retired will agree what a great and good person he is.

現在，他的球衣將和其他的傳奇球星一樣，被懸掛在豐田中心的穹頂上。我想，到時前來參加球衣退役儀式的每一位隊友都會認同這樣一個觀點，姚明是一名偉大而出色的隊友。

Today, what's most exciting for me, as his coach and friend, isn't his jersey retirement. It's what's next for Yao.

今天，作爲他的教練和朋友，最令我感到興奮的並不是他的球衣退役儀式本身，而是欣喜的看到姚明的未來。

The greatness of Yao Ming will extend well beyond his NBA career — from the causes he's involved in, to his return to school, to his ownership of a team in the Chinese Basketball Association.

姚明在NBA的職業生涯中所鑄就的偉大將在其他方面得以延續——他所從事的事業，重返校園，成爲了CBA球隊的老闆。

I'm certain of this: Yao's next 36 years are going to be so much more impactful and important than his first 36. Because the virtues that made him great at basketball weren't just basketball skills.

我非常肯定，在未來的36年裏，他一定會比之前的36年展現出更大的影響力。因爲真正鑄就了這名偉大球員的並不是球技本身。

I could go on and on. (He would've told me to stop a long time ago.) But I do want to say, simply, this: It was a great honor to coach Yao Ming. He was the real deal — a great man, a great player, a great teammate and a great humanitarian.

這樣的溢美之詞我可以一直不停的說下去（要是在以前他肯定早就喊停了）。但我還是想特別說一點，非常簡單的一點：能夠執教姚明真的是我莫大的榮幸。他真的是一位了不起的人——一位偉大的人，一位偉大的籃球運動員，一位偉大的隊友，一位偉大的人道主義者。

Congratulations, and thank you, Yao, for all that you did for the game, and all that I'm sure you're going to do going forward.

恭喜！爲了你曾經在比賽中所付出的一切，也爲了你未來會繼續投身的事業，謝謝你，姚明。

更多精彩內容請關注微信公衆號、新浪微博：籃球英文堂