l***o
发帖数: 1111 | 1 转自yahoo，非常好的一篇文章
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/behind-locker-r
Behind the locker room doors before and after Lin’s game-winning shot
against the Raptors
By Holly MacKenzie | Ball Don't Lie – 15 hours ago
Jeremy Lin celebrates with his teammates after hitting the game-winner (AP)
TORONTO — Fifty-five hours.
That's how much time had elapsed between Kobe Bryant's game-winner for the
Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday afternoon and Jeremy Lin's game-winner for the
New York Knicks on Tuesday night.
Two heroic shots, two players at opposite ends of their careers, one 23-year
-old in the middle of a real-life daydream that has made everything else
pale in comparison.
Bryant's dagger against the Toronto Raptors was the 16th game-winning shot
in a career that had spanned 49,386 minutes. The shot was brilliant, but it
was expected.
Lin's 3-pointer to beat the Raps was the first game-winning shot in a career
that has seen him play just 576 minutes. The shot was brilliant, but it was
something none of us could have ever expected.
When Bryant finished his television interview, he sauntered toward the
locker room and looked over at the reporter and locker room attendant
standing beside the locker room door. He smiled. He shrugged his shoulders.
He shook his head and chuckled. He had made this walk many times before.
Fifty-five hours later, Lin raced toward the locker room, welcoming an
escape from the attention, cameras and questions. Exhausted, he glanced over
in my direction. He looked straight through me, though, a dazed look on his
slightly smiling face. As he entered the locker room, his team erupted.
Before the attendants could close the door to allow the team privacy to
celebrate their hero, the booming cheers zipped through the air and into the
hallway.
This is what Jeremy Lin has done.
More thrilling than sinking the game-winner and more crucial than the six
consecutive victories, Lin has given the Knicks life.
In the span of 10 days, he has made them believe.
He has made them act like a group of high schoolers in a locker room. He's
made them fall over themselves praising him, defending him and encouraging
him. He has had his life turned upside down as he's gone from last man on
the bench to fully guaranteed contract to writers-flying-to-Canada-from-all-
over-the-U.S.-to-see-him-play status, and he's barely batted an eye.
Occasionally, he has allowed himself to break into a sheepish smile as he
takes it all in.
He has made the sports world stop, listen and look, wide-eyed and fully
engaged, as he continues to simultaneously defy expectations and exceed the
ever-mounting hype. Perhaps most importantly, he has reminded us all why we
fall in love with sports in the first place, why we pass that love along to
our children and why we want to see someone have their dream come true so
that we have something to believe in.
Lin represents hard work. He represents staying true. True to one's faith,
one's dream. Committed to one's own path. He didn't get here by following
the road map created by someone else. From Harvard to Golden State, Houston
to New York, this blueprint is his and his alone. He's earned it, just like
he's earned the respect his opponents are learning they have to give him.
* * * * *
Looking around the Knicks locker room during pregame media availability, you
would assume the Lakers are in town. You then remember that they were here
but 55 short hours ago, their superstar hitting that game-winning bucket
that was replayed on highlight reels for 24 hours afterward. You realize
that buzz was nothing like this buzz, this electricity in the Knicks locker
room before a Tuesday night game against a 9-20 Raptors team. There were
never fewer than 25 people in the room for the duration of media
availability. Everyone wants to observe the spectacle, experience the mayhem.
The problem is, there isn't anything special or out of the ordinary outside
of the throng of reporters.
Off of the court, Lin is the opposite of flashy. Third from the right,
sandwiched between Landry Fields and Jerome Jordan, Lin's locker is free of
jewelry, high-fashion designer threads or $1,800 jars of lotion. There's a
watch sitting on the bench, a watch without any diamonds, black, white or
gold. There's a book propped up against the locker, "Mastering the Art of
Success," that was hand-delivered by former Raptor and Knick Jerome Williams.
Baron Davis sits in his locker, takes in the scene around him. It was a
setback suffered by Davis weeks ago that put Lin into the starting lineup, a
setback that propelled all of this into motion.
"It's all opportunity," Davis explains. "That's what this league is about.
You see a lot of players that you wonder why they never have the career.
They have the talent but not the career and it's because of opportunity. A
lot of it is right place, right time, right situation. That can make or
break somebody's career."
As all eyes follow Lin from the doorway to his locker, Davis smiles.
"He's not one to get caught up in this stuff," Davis says. "I don't see how
this will change his perception of where he is. He's a spiritual person and
he's very grounded, he's a very humble kid. I don't think all of the hoopla
really has any effect on him at all."
But has Davis, in all of his 13 years in the league ever seen anything like
what he's currently witnessing? He laughs heartily and answers quickly. "No,
not at all. This is ridiculous. It's crazy."
A locker room attendant brings over Lin's sandals. He ducks a cameraman
positioned squarely in front of him, pats the attendant on the back while
saying, "Thank you very much." Slipping into his sandals, he slides through
the doors to the showers and leaves us to keep each other occupied until the
PR official kicks us out and closes the room.
After the game, it's the same exact thing. After the team has celebrated
with Lin and the doors are opened to the media, his teammates are laughing,
smiling, enjoying. Enjoying the victory, enjoying the performance, enjoying
the camaraderie. Lin quietly gets ready to address the media, seemingly
oblivious to everything around him, the excitement that his six-game stretch
of success has created.
If the magnitude of this story hasn't yet been made clear, consider this: A
security guard and two PR officials escort Lin from the locker room to the
Toronto media room where a podium was set up for him. The last time this
room was used for a postgame press conference? When the space was needed to
accommodate LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Bosh's first return
to Toronto after bolting for South Beach to join the Miami Heat.
Unlike the Heat trio, there wasn't an hour wait for the press conference or
any stifled laughter. Not a hint of anything other than a young man who
could only shake his head and admit that, no, he did not see this whirlwind
coming, either.
This is a story that begins on a basketball court, but extends far beyond
those 94 feet. It's a story of belief and perseverance, of passion and
humility. It has captured us all because we don't know what will happen next
, how long Lin will continue to dazzle us. It's captured us because we
already know that it doesn't matter how long it lasts from here. What
matters is that it's happened at all.
Back in the Knicks locker room, Amar'e Stoudemire is dealing with reporters
in his first game back after taking time to grieve for his older brother,
who died in a car crash nine days ago. He compares Lin to Steve Nash, the
man who many credit for Stoudemire's own ascension into stardom.
Tyson Chandler is laughing, smiling over how he and Stoudemire celebrated
Lin's 3-pointer, talking of expectations and reminding us that this was the
guy who was "probably days away from being cut."
Landry Fields can only sit in his locker and continue to shake his head
again and again and again.
I ask Fields about the night that Lin crashed on his couch before his first
career start. A whopping six games ago. I ask if either of them could have
ever envisioned this, that two weeks later they'd be in Toronto with more
than 100 people on hand to talk to Jeremy.
"What's going on right now? No! You can't even write this. This doesn't
happen in movies," Fields says. "… I hope this is the beginning. It's great
. It's phenomenal. It's an inspirational story right now. It's something
that we're going to look at over time and take a lot from it.
"At times I find myself speechless, just to be a part of it," the shooting
guard continues. "Sometimes I have to step back. I'll have to write my
memoirs about it all. It's the kind of story that we need. A lot of times
people get bad reps out there, a certain type of athlete. To see this happen
, it's really … it's phenomenal."
Lin has made them believe.
"It means everything," Fields says. "It shows the kind of relationship that
we all have with each other. We're not just players, we're not just
teammates, we're actual brothers."
After finishing his media duties, Fields sits down in his locker. "It's one
of those things where you lay in bed at night and you just go, 'Haha.' You
just chuckle about it."
He smiles once more. "Now that I have come off my life high, I can eat."
Taking a moment to gather himself, he begins to dig into the pasta in front
of him as the locker room slowly empties of reporters who have deadlines
looming, and his teammate's story to tell. |
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