1999-06-06, By Roy Bragg
波特兰理发店里，篮球话题热议不断
一周前，特雷尔·布兰登(Terrell Brandon)理发店，位于东北部阿尔伯塔街，人们谈论的话题是篮球、开拓者狂热和世界冠军。
这是一家朴实无华的小店，由前波特兰高中球星、现效力于明尼苏达森林狼队的特雷尔·布兰登(Terrell Brandon)经营，这里吸引着各个年龄段的男人前来，既能增长见识，也能放松身心。
然而，在圣安东尼奥马刺队以85比63羞辱了波特兰开拓者队后的第二天早上，这里没有自夸，也没有梦想。
“我们不敢相信会发生这样的事，”29岁的首席理发师道恩特·帕斯卡尔(Daunte Paschal)一边为特雷尔·佩尼(Terrell Penney)理发，一边说道，“刚开始，到处都是关于开拓者队的谈论，谁也没想到会这么一边倒。”
佩尼强忍着笑意，没有说话。当被追问时，他微微一笑，低声说道：
“我支持马刺队，”他说，并补充道，他一年前蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)加入球队后就成为了马刺队的球迷，“我认为他们会赢得冠军。”
系列赛将在今天下午继续进行。
马刺队是联盟中最好的客场球队，他们可以在今天的比赛中战胜混乱的开拓者队，从而完成连续第二轮系列赛横扫，并赢得他们连续第10场季后赛胜利。
就像许多发展中国家一样，年轻的开拓者队正处于革命和崩溃的边缘。
周五晚上，开拓者队崩溃了。当地体育版面刊登了关于球员在比赛结束后在更衣室里争吵和互相指责的文章。
比赛中，开拓者队得分王拉希德·华莱士(Rasheed Wallace)因为对马刺队球员杰罗姆·克西(Jerome Kersey)一次无犯规的抱怨而被判罚了一个毫无意义的技术犯规。当他在比赛还剩不到两分钟时犯规离场时，华莱士怒气冲冲地走向更衣室，留下他的队友在板凳上忍受着羞辱的失败。
“我们得让他在今年夏天去上愤怒管理课程，”肯尼·沃伦(Kenny Warren)一边在第2号椅子上理发，一边说道。
沃伦说，他是开拓者队后卫达蒙·斯塔德迈尔(Damon Stoudamire)的密友，斯塔德迈尔也是当地人，目前正在经历一个漫长的投篮低迷期。沃伦的顾客都知道这一点。
“他们一直问我，‘你那小子怎么了？’”他说，“我不知道。”
篮球是这里的热门话题。由于布兰登的知名度，这里吸引了很多开拓者队球员，以及其他来波特兰的NBA球员。
帕斯卡尔说，布兰登从小就住在附近的欧文公园(Irving Park)和格兰特高中(Grant High)附近，两年前他建起了理发店和相邻的运动服店。布兰登的公司位于同一栋大楼，他的父母住在他家附近几条街。
布兰登在城里，但无法发表评论，他的表妹布兰达·卡尔文(Brenda Calvin)说，她经营着这家服装店。
虽然这是一栋新建筑，天花板很高，背景音乐是嘻哈乐，但这是一家传统的理发店，正是布兰登——他的球队在季后赛首轮输给了马刺队——想要的。
帕斯卡尔说，主要动力是为非洲裔美国男性提供一个理发的地方。过去，由于这类场所缺乏，男人们只有两种选择——去不熟悉的女性理发店，或者在地下室、客厅，甚至任何地方互相理发。
在这里，理发费用是10美元，不允许说脏话，而且有一个标语牌写着：店里唯一可以抽的东西是烟草。
但另一个重要的动机是社交。
“这只是为了让人们有一个聚会的地方，”帕斯卡尔说。“(布兰登)想要恢复老式理发店的融洽氛围，年轻人在那里听老家伙讲述他们的人生经历。”
这里有许多常客，他们甚至不来这里理发。
“他们的主要任务是进来引发话题，”帕斯卡尔说。
“我很喜欢这里，”26岁的沃伦说，他已经在这里工作一年了。“你可以有机会和人们交谈，感觉就像在酒吧当酒保一样。”
如果他是一个酒保，这里是一个酒吧，很有可能当地人会因为这个系列赛而借酒消愁。
“我们还是有一些乐观情绪的，”沃伦说。“我个人来说，我不确定。有人说开拓者队可以创造历史，”成为历史上第一支在七场系列赛中输掉前三场后还能反败为胜的球队。
“我不知道，”他说。“我希望马刺队输掉比赛。”
点击查看原文：Portland barbershop buzzes with basketball chatter
Portland barbershop buzzes with basketball chatter
A week ago, the talk in Terrell Brandon’s Barber Shop on Northeast Alberta Street was of basketball, Blazermania and world championships.
This is a small, down-home place, owned by the former Portland high school phenom and current Minnesota Timberwolves guard, where men young and old gather to have their awareness raised and their ears lowered.
But on the morning after the San Antonio Spurs humiliated the Portland Trail Blazers 85-63 - moving a game closer to a series sweep and the first NBA championship berth in the history of the team - there was no boasting, no dreaming.
“We can’t believe it’s happening like this,” head barber Daunte Paschal, 29, said as he brushed and clipped Terrell Penney in Chair No. 1. “Early on, it was Blazer talk everywhere. Nobody figured it would be so one-sided.”
Penney fought back a smirk but said nothing. When pressed, he smiled and mumbled.
“I’m down with the Spurs,” he said, adding he became a fan a year ago when Tim Duncan joined the team. “I think they’re going to do it.”
The series resumes this afternoon.
The Spurs, the league’s best road team, can complete their second straight series sweep and win their 10th playoff game in a row with a victory over the befuddled Trail Blazers.
Like many developing nations, the youthful Trail Blazers stand on the brink of revolution and collapse.
The wheels came off Friday night. Local sports pages spoke of players arguing and pointing fingers at each other in the locker room after the game.
During the contest, leading scorer Rasheed Wallace got a pointless technical for complaining about a noncall against Spur Jerome Kersey. When he fouled out with less than two minutes left in the game, Wallace stomped to the locker room and left his teammates on the bench to endure the humiliating defeat.
“We got to get him into anger management classes this summer,” Kenny Warren said as he cut hair in Chair No. 2.
Warren said he is a close friend of Blazer guard Damon Stoudamire, another local product and in the middle of a series- long shooting funk. Warren’s clients know this.
“They keep asking me, ‘What’s up with your boy?’” he said. “I don’t know.”
Basketball talk is a big topic here. Because of Brandon’s cachet, it draws a lot of business from Trail Blazers, as well as other NBA players when they are in town.
Brandon, who grew up here playing in nearby Irving Park and at Grant High, built the barbershop and the adjacent sports clothing store two years ago, Paschal said. Brandon’s company is housed in the same building, and his parents live a few blocks away.
Brandon was in town but unavailable for comment, said cousin Brenda Calvin, who operates the clothing store.
Although it’s a new building with high ceilings and hip-hop playing in the background, this is a traditional barbershop, just what Brandon - whose own team lost to the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs - had in mind.
The main impetus, Paschal said, was to provide a place for African- American men to get their hair cut. In the past, because of a dearth of such places, men had two choices - go to the unfamiliar environs of a women’s hair salon or cut each others’ hair in basements, living rooms, whatever.
Here, a haircut is $10, there’s no foul language allowed, and a sign says the only thing that can be smoked in the shop is tobacco.
But another significant incentive was social.
“This was just to give people a place to come together,” Paschal said. “(Brandon) wanted to bring back the camaraderie of the old- time barbershop where young guys listen to old guys tell their stories about what they went through in life.”
There’s a regular cast of men who don’t even get their hair cut.
“Their main job is to come in and spark conversation,” Paschal said.
“I like this place a lot,” said Warren, 26, who’s been working here for a year. “You get a chance to talk to people. It’s like being a bartender.”
If he were a bartender and this a bar, odds are the locals would be drowning their sorrows over the series.
“We’ve got some optimism,” Warren said. “Me, personally, I don’t know. Somebody said the Blazers can make history” by becoming the first team ever to come back after losing the first three games in a seven-game series.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’d love for the Spurs to blow it.”
By Roy Bragg, via San Antonio Express-News