The Lakers have set a date to be the first NBA champions celebrated at the White House by President Barack Obama: Jan. 25. 湖人队已经确定了日期,将成为第一个在白宫接受总统奥巴马接见的NBA总冠军,那个日子是:1月25号。
TheWhite House isn't prepared to confirm it – and probably won't untilabout a week before, because sometimes things suddenly come up whenyou're the leader of the free world
– but the visit is now planned on the Lakers' schedule as surely as the game the next night against the Washington Wizards 白宫方面还没准备发布确切日期,很可能在确切日期的一周前才会公布,因为有时候突发的事件需要这位自由世界的领袖解决,但是这次拜访已经定在了湖人队的日程表中,下个晚上他们将挑战华盛顿奇才队。
Except you can rest assured far more Lakers anticipation and preparation will go into meeting Obama than facing Gilbert Arenas. 信不信由你,湖人将会把更多的准备和期盼留给了与奥巴马的会面而不是与阿里纳斯的对碰。
Whatremains to be seen is whether Obama brings the Lakers over to hisrecently renovated full-size basketball court at the White House. It'shard to imagine the hoops-crazy Obama would miss out on such anopportunity – and would Kobe Bryant be true to his tradition and refuseto take it easy on the prez? – but this is going to be one spectacularmoment on the Lakers' side, too. 让我们期待的是奥巴马是否会带湖人队到他在白宫新修复的篮球场呢?很难想象酷爱篮球运动的奥巴马总统会错过与湖人队同场竞技的机会。而科比真的会像传说中那样不因对手是美利坚总统而手下留情吗?对于湖人队方面,这也将是太美妙的时刻了。
TheWhite House trip falls on the sixth day of an eight-game, 14-day tripthat starts in Cleveland and features Boston as the next-to-last stop.As epic as those games loom to be, they won't compare with meetingObama for most Lakers. 造访白宫将会是在湖人8连客14天征程的第六天,第一站是克利夫兰,而倒数第二站将面对波士顿凯尔特人。那些比赛意义固然重大,但对于大多数湖人队员来说,比起与总统见面就是小事一桩了。
Infact, the leadership of this Lakers team, in the form of both teamcaptains and the head coach, has been aligned with Obama all along. 实际上,这支湖人队的领袖,包括了球队队长和主教练,他们一直以来都是奥巴马的支持者。
KobeBryant was one of the millions who went old-school the day after Obamabecame the first black U.S. President and scurried for commemorativecopies of his local newspaper (yes, The Orange County Register) to savefor himself and his children. 在奥巴马成为首个黑人美国总统后的下一天,科比是众多百万富翁中的一个,也学着以平民百姓的方式,匆匆忙跑去买了当地报纸的纪念版(没错,就是《橘郡纪事报》),作为自己和女儿的收藏品。
DerekFisher was directly involved in the Obama campaign, visiting severaldifferent states to rally support and being on hand – with thecell-phone photos of the stage from afar to prove it – when Obamaaccepted the presidential nomination at the Democratic NationalConvention in Denver. 而费舍尔则是直接参与到奥巴马的总统竞选中,他到了几个州参加集会支持,有从舞台远处拍到的手机照片为证,拍到费舍尔在场。当时奥巴马在丹佛的民主党全民大会接受总统的提名。
PhilJackson donated money to Obama's campaign and was a vocal publicsupporter along the way. Jackson also had the pleasure of receiving aphone call of congratulations from Obama the day after the Lakers'championship parade in June, with Obama saying he was a Jackson admirerfrom when they were both in Chicago and Jackson advising fellow leftyObama about sometimes having to go right to get his shot off. 禅师为奥巴马的总统竞选捐款,而且一路上他还是公开的口头支持者。在湖人六月份总冠军大游行的下一天,禅师也有幸接到总统的祝贺电话,奥巴马说他从他们俩都在芝加哥时起就是禅师的崇拜者,禅师曾建议左撇子的奥巴马有时候得用下右手才能投中球。
LukeWalton also donated money to Obama – the first time Walton hascontributed to a presidential campaign. Jordan Farmar was a guest at aNewport Beach fund-raiser that collected than $1 million in campaigncontributions. Back at the time of Obama's election over John McCain,Lakers players couldn't debate any issues with each other because theyall felt the same way – despite which candidate was the one actuallyprepared to penalize their tax bracket. 沃顿也为竞选捐了钱,那是他有生以来第一次为总统竞选捐献。法玛尔是新港滩筹集基金会的特别来宾,他们为竞选筹集了超过百万美元。回到奥巴马打败麦凯恩的那时候,湖人队员无法互相争论此话题,那是因为他们所有人都支持同一人,尽管这个竞选者实际是唯一准备要多扣他们税的人。
TheLakers' visit will be tied to an as-yet-undetermined community-serviceproject. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Obama did one with militaryfamilies. When the Boston Celtics made their visit last year, PaulPierce announced the club was donating $100,000 to the American RedCross for Hurricane Ike relief ... to which President George W. Bushhilariously responded: "That's awesome!" 湖人造访白宫同时还会参加一项还未确定的社区服务项目。匹兹堡钢人队与奥巴马跟军人家庭做过一回。去年当波士顿凯尔特人拜访白宫时,皮尔斯宣布他们球队向美国红十字会捐款10万美金用于埃克飓风的善后工作...当时的总统小布什用年轻人的口吻夸奖道:“那真是太棒了”
Bushhosted the Lakers at the White House back in January 2002, the one timefrom the three-championship run that the Lakers made the special trip.Bryant presented Bush with a Lakers jersey, Shaquille O'Neal handed himan autographed ball, and Bush asked Mark Madsen to dance for him beforestopping Madsen by saying: "I'm afraid the Secret Service might reactviolently if you did." 布什在2002年1月于白宫接见过湖人队,那一次特别之旅是在湖人三连冠时期,科比向布什赠送了一件湖人球衣,而奥尼尔交给了他一个签名的篮球,而布什要求马克马德森为他跳舞,但他阻止了他并对他说:“恐怕你跳的话,联邦情报局会给你来硬的。”
Obamais unlikely to be as entertainingly wacky as Bush, but Obama's deepbasketball ties offer unique potential. He carved out time to watch allthe Lakers' NBA Finals games, although he picked them to beat Orlandoin six games, not five. 奥巴马并不像布什那样子古怪风趣,但是他那深深的篮球情结是少有的。他挤出了时间观看了上赛季湖人所有的总决赛,即使他预测湖人将在6场内解决魔术,而不是实际的5场。
Unfortunately,the Lakers are not planning to have their practice that day on Obama'snew South Lawn full court, expanded over an old tennis court. It'dprobably be hard for the Lakers to get quality work done on an outdoorcourt that comes with a few distractions. The Lakers will fly intoWashington in the wee morning hours after playing in Toronto theprevious night, probably get their team practice out of the way in themorning at an indoor facility and visit Obama later in the day. 不幸的是,湖人并没计划要在奥巴马在南草坪的那新球场训练,那是由一块旧的网球场扩建的。对于湖人队来说在那室外的场地而且还得分心的情况下是无法获得有质量的训练的。湖人将在前一晚打完多伦多猛龙后凌晨飞往华盛顿,他们很可能在上午在室内馆里进行球队训练,然后在之后拜访奥巴马。
Soit seems unlikely we'll get to see Sasha Vujacic pestering Obama withannoying in-your-face defense at a Lakers scrimmage to the point thatObama elbows Slovenia right off the map. Yet maybe the Lakers canengage the gunner nicknamed Barry O'Bomber on his Hawaiian high schoolteam in some shooting contests. 所以看起来在湖人的队内训练中我们将不可能看见莎莎武贾西奇用烦人的贴身防守来纠缠奥巴马了,否则奥巴马一肘就让斯诺文尼亚从地图上消失了。然而也许湖人可以与有着“炮兵”之称的奥巴马母校夏威夷高中进行投篮比赛。
Afterthe University of Connecticut women's team visited in April, Obamafinished his public meeting with the team, ditched the cameras andreporters and surreptitiously brought the team over to his court – thenjust a half-court – and rolled up his sleeves to shoot around. His lovefor pick-up basketball games has been well documented, includingplaying on election day. And Obama invited another of his big campaignaides, LeBron James, to christen the new White House court. DwightHoward cared enough to attend Obama's inauguration. 在四月份时奥巴马在接见完康涅狄格州大学女子篮球队后,他结束了与球队的公开会面,之后就甩掉了摄像机和记者,偷偷地把球队带到了他的球场,那时候还只是半场而已,他马上卷起衣袖,投起球来。他对于篮球运动的喜爱是有纪录的,包括了在选举当天也打篮球。而奥巴马也邀请了他另外一位竞选的帮手,勒布朗詹姆斯,让他来为白宫的这新球场洗礼命名。魔兽霍华德感觉很荣幸能参加了奥巴马的就职典礼。
Yet it won't be James, Pierce or Howard who gets the NBA's first Obama White House tour. It'll be the Lakers. 然而,得到NBA第一个接受奥巴马白宫之行的不会是詹姆斯,皮尔斯或者霍华德,而是洛杉矶湖人队。
Now somebody just make sure Ron Artest, who'll be the tag-along on Jan. 25, wears his best shirt ... or a shirt. 而目前就得有人确保阿泰斯特,他也会尾随球队在1月25号进宫见皇帝,得确保他穿上最得体的衣服..或者说,至少得穿衣服去吧。作者: Ifthen 時間: 2009-12-12 10:34 PM