By Lee Dresie | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2024-08-14 07:24:56
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
奥运会提醒我们，永远不要让年龄阻止你做你最喜欢的事情。
西蒙·拜尔斯 (Simone Biles) 在参加完她在奥运会的最后一项赛事后，被问及是否会参加 2028 年洛杉矶奥运会。她的回答是：“永远不要说永远。但我真的老了”。 她今年 27 岁。
我从 2014 年 10 月开始为 Pounding the Rock 网站撰稿，距今已有近十年的时间。我的第一篇文章是关于我执教时与格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 交手的故事。当时我是克莱蒙特·麦肯纳学院的助理教练，而波波维奇是我们对手学校波莫纳皮策学院的主教练。这两所学校过去和现在都是位于洛杉矶东部的优秀 NCAA 三级联盟学校。
我在这篇文章的后面还会提到波波维奇，但现在我要告诉你的是，我在 2014 年写第一篇文章的时候已经 50 多岁了。如果你算一下，你就能算出十年后的今天我处在什么年代。也许是这个原因，也许是其他一些事情，让我开始更多地思考衰老。
今年夏天发生的“其他一些事情”包括我和我可爱的妻子琳达去观看布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀 (Bruce Springsteen) 在论坛球馆的演出，那里是湖人队赢得众多胜利和总冠军的主场。布鲁斯和 E 街乐队为我们所有在场的人献上了一场充满活力和欢乐的演出，以至于琳达——她不像我那样是布鲁斯的铁杆粉丝——都说这是她看过的最好的演出之一。就本文而言，重要的数字是 74。斯普林斯汀今年 74 岁，却奉献了一场时长三个小时、精彩绝伦的摇滚演出。我的朋友“强力”马克思·温伯格 (Max Weinberg)，一位非凡的鼓手，比布鲁斯小一岁，在这三个小时里一直在演奏着他那神奇的鼓——鼓手是乐队中唯一一个从不休息的音乐家。
有时候，一点点的年龄——和快乐——会更好。正如“老将”西蒙·拜尔斯和斯普林斯汀的演唱会所证明的那样，年龄并不会消磨快乐，而西蒙·拜尔斯自始至终都散发着快乐的光芒。
因为这是一篇关于篮球的文章，我还需要谈谈两场篮球金牌争夺战。这两场比赛都是欢乐的盛会，即使对失利的球队来说也是如此。
首先进行的是男子篮球金牌争夺战，在半决赛和决赛中，美国队夺冠的两名最佳球员都是队内年龄最大的球员。年龄无法战胜快乐，勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James) 和斯蒂芬·库里 (Steph Curry) 在这可能是他们最后一届奥运会上都表现出色，充满喜悦。勒布朗在金牌争夺战前的这番话非常贴切：
“我的意思是，我已经 39 岁了，即将进入我的第 22 个赛季。我不知道我还有多少机会和时间像这样，能够为一些重要的东西而战，在重要的比赛中打球。”
库里在这两场奖牌争夺战中的投篮表现，尤其是他在金牌争夺战中最后投进的四个三分球，完全证明了他纯粹的喜悦是理所当然的，尤其是比赛还剩一分钟时，那个在计时器响起的同时投出的、看起来毫无机会命中的压哨球——最终还是进了。
输掉比赛的法国队将比赛的 17.5 分分差彻底打破，与实力明显更胜一筹的美国队打得难解难分。法国队本来有很大的机会击败这支 2024 版的梦之队——美国队有时会同时派出四名前 MVP 球员上场。当然，法国队有维克多·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)（20 岁）与他的前辈们一较高下。是的，这起到了一定的作用，也给全世界的法国球迷和马刺球迷带来了巨大的欢乐。即使在失利的情况下，维克多和他的队友们也贡献了本届奥运会最精彩的时刻之一。在颁奖仪式上，他们与现场观众一起高唱国歌（许多人眼里含着泪水）。那也是一个欢乐而难忘的时刻。在我的扑克游戏中，我们常说：“他们不会为获得银牌的人演奏国歌”。但在巴黎，他们这样做了。
美国女篮也被认为会轻松战胜法国女篮。拉斯维加斯的赔率是 16 分。如果不是美国队在最后时刻罚球命中率极高（每一次罚球都没有碰到篮筐），法国队可能已经打破了美国女篮在奥运会上的 59 场连胜纪录。
我非常欣赏美国队的控球后卫凯尔西·普拉姆 (Kelsey Plum)，她在最后时刻连续罚中四球。她还做了一件我以前从未见过的事情——在每次罚球前，她都会露出灿烂的笑容。她为自己能在金牌争夺战中罚球而感到由衷的高兴。我也相信她之所以微笑，是因为她绝对相信自己会罚中每一个球，而且每一个球都会帮助她的球队赢得金牌。她做到了，她的球队也做到了。非常棒。（她在今年的 WNBA 比赛中罚球命中率高达 86%。）
当我第一次想到要写这篇文章的时候，我设想的是一篇更加灰暗的文章，讲述的是各行各业的人们随着年龄的增长，却拒绝继续前进，拒绝承认他们的时代已经过去。这实际上是比尔·西蒙斯 (Bill Simmons) 播客节目中一个很好的话题，嘉宾是才华横溢的德里克·汤普森 (Derek Thompson)，他是《大西洋月刊》的撰稿人，也是他自己名为“简洁英语”的播客节目的主持人（强烈推荐）。
这个话题让我不禁质疑，我的前同事格雷格·波波维奇是不是坚持得太久了——他是不是太老了，不适合再执教 82 场 NBA 常规赛了？我不再问这个问题了。就像“老将”西蒙·拜尔斯、在 2024 年奥运会上尽情享受快乐的勒布朗·詹姆斯和斯蒂芬·库里一样，波波维奇仍然宝刀未老。就像我仍然每周两次与年轻得多的球员一起打全场篮球一样，执教仍然给波波维奇带来快乐。事实上，他现在比年轻时笑得更多了。而且他只比布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀大一岁，而布鲁斯显然也仍然充满活力。
当执教不再给他带来快乐，而他在执教方面也不再出色时，波波维奇可以而且应该选择离开。但这还没有发生。我期待着在未来的赛季里，格雷格·波波维奇教练能够继续坐在马刺队的板凳席上，快乐地指导年轻的马刺球员。
我把这篇文章献给我亲爱的母亲，她在今年夏天快乐地迎来了 85 岁生日。我们在她 85 岁生日那天，回到了我们家在三个孩子都还小的时候居住的那个俄勒冈州小镇。我在去年发表的《失败后的胜利》一文中写到了俄勒冈州的银镇：
我对篮球的第一个清晰记忆出现在我 9 岁的时候。当时我们住在俄勒冈州的银镇：一个只有 4000 人的小镇，镇上居民的生活都围绕着高中运动队——银镇狐狸队展开。虽然我们有获得过州冠军的摔跤队，但篮球队……却不太行。但在冬夜，我们还是会去看比赛，而且每个冬夜都在下雨。
在那场我记忆最深刻的比赛中，狐狸队整个赛季都没有赢过一场比赛——我记得当时我们应该是 0 胜 18 负。但在那天晚上，面对来自俄勒冈州另一个名叫桑迪的小镇的球队，主队一直紧咬比分，事情似乎出现了一丝转机。在比分 46 平的情况下，其中一名后卫（我记得他戴着眼镜）在终场哨声响起的同时投进了一个罚球线跳投。顿时全场沸腾！观众们欢呼雀跃，然后又继续欢呼。有人想到去镇上的教堂敲钟——他们真的去了，敲了 48 下，代表着球队在本赛季取得了 1 胜 18 负的战绩——但在那个晚上，狐狸队是 1 胜 0 负。
我的母亲可能无法在我发表这篇文章后第一时间读到它——她正和我弟弟马克一起乘坐火车穿越阿拉斯加州，去德纳里峰和费尔班克斯，这两个地方她都从未去过。顺便说一下，我母亲的名字叫乔伊（Joy，意为快乐）。
点击查看原文：Age does not defeat joy, even in sports
Age does not defeat joy, even in sports
The Olympics was a reminder that you should never let age stop you from doing what you love the best.
After her last event in the Olympics, Simone Biles was asked if she would compete in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Her response: “Never say never. But I am getting really old”. She is 27 years old.
I started writing for Pounding the Rock almost ten years ago in October of 2014. My first post was about when I coached against Gregg Popovich. That occurred when I was an assistant coach at Claremont McKenna College, and Pop was the head coach of our rival school, Pomona Pitzer. Both schools were and are excellent Division III programs just east of Los Angeles.
I will get back to Pop later in this post, but for now I will tell you that I was in my 50s when I wrote that first post in 2014. If you do the math, you can figure out what decade I am in now, ten years later. Maybe that and other stuff is why I have been thinking more about aging.
Other “stuff” that has happened this summer included my lovely bride Linda and I attending a Bruce Springsteen show at the Fabulous Forum, home of many Laker wins and championship. Bruce and the E Street Band put on an energetic and joyful show for all of us in attendance, so much so that Linda — not a huge Bruce fan like I am — said it was one of the best shows she had even attended. For purposes of this post, the important number is 74. Springsteen is 74 years old and put on a stunningly great three-hour rock and roll show. My friend Mighty Max Weinberg, drummer extraordinaire, and a year younger than Bruce, played his magical drums for the entire three hours — drummers are the one musician in the band who never get a break.
Sometimes, a bit of age — and joy — is better. As demonstrated by the “Old” Simone Biles, who absolutely radiated joy throughout, and the Springsteen concert, age does not defeat joy.
Because this is a basketball post, I also need to talk about the two basketball gold-medal games. Both were joyous affairs, even for the losing teams.
The men’s gold medal game went first, and the two best players on the gold medal winning USA squad were two of their oldest players, in both the semi-finals and the finals. Age does not defeat joy, and LeBron James and Steph Curry were both magnificent and joyous in what will surely be their last Olympics. LeBron’s quote before the gold medal game fits perfectly here:
“I mean, I’m 39 years old, going into my 22nd season. I don’t know how many opportunities or moments I’m going to get like this, to be able to compete for something big and play in big games.”
Steph’s shooting performance in both of the medal games, and in particular his last four three-pointers in the gold medal game, completely justified his sheer joyous celebration, especially the shot clock buzzer beater with a minute left that had no chance to go in — but did anyway.
The losing French team, who destroyed the 17.5 point spread for the game, competed evenly with the vastly more talented USA team. The French team had a legitimate shot to actually defeat the 2024 version of the Dream Team — USA sometimes had four former MVP’s on the floor together. Of course, the French had Victor Wembanyama (20 years old) going toe-to-toe with his elders. Yes, that helped, and brought much joy to French fans and Spurs fans all over the world. And even in defeat, Victor and his teammates had one of the highlights of the Games. During the medal ceremony, they all sang their national anthem (many with tears in their eyes) along with the home crowd. That too was a joyous and unforgettable moment. We have a saying in my poker game: “They don’t play your anthem for the silver”. In Paris, they did.
The USA women were also expected to blow out their French counterparts. The Vegas line was 16 points. Absent some great free-throw shooting by USA down the stretch (every made free throw did not touch the rim), France might have broken the USA women’s 59 game Olympic winning streak.
I really enjoyed USA point guard Kelsey Plum, who made four consecutive clutch free throws down the stretch. She also did something that I haven’t seen — before each free throw, she flashed a joyous smile. She was genuinely happy to be shooting those free throws in a gold medal game. I also believe she smiled because she absolutely knew she would make each one, and that each would help her team win gold. She did, and her team did. Very cool. (She has made 86% of her free throws this year in the WNBA.)
When I first thought of writing this post, I envisioned a much darker piece about people in all walks of life getting older but refusing to move on, refusing to recognize that their time had passed. That was actually the subject of an excellent Bill Simmons podcast with the wonderful Derek Thompson, a writer for The Atlantic and host of his own podcast called “Plain English” (highly recommended).
That topic made me question whether my former colleague Gregg Popovich is holding on too long — is he too old to be coaching an 82-game NBA season? I am no longer asking that question. Like the “old” Simone Biles, the LeBron James and Steph Curry exuding joy at the 2024 Olympics, Pop still has it. Like me continuing to play full-court hoops twice a week with much younger players, coaching still gives Pop joy. Indeed, he smiles much more now than he did when he was younger. And he is only one year older than Bruce Springsteen, who clearly also still has his fastball.
When coaching no longer brings him joy, and he is no longer great at it, Pop can and should walk away. But that has not happened yet. I am looking forward to more seasons with Coach Gregg Popovich on the Spurs bench, joyfully coaching up the young Spurs players.
I am dedicating this post to my mother who joyfully turned 85 this summer. We spent her 85th birthday visiting the small Oregon town our family lived in when all three children were young. I wrote about Silvertown, Oregon in my Winning After Losing post last year:
My first distinct basketball memory came when I was 9 years old. We lived in Silverton, Oregon: a town of only 4,000 people whose lives revolved around the high school sports teams, the Silverton Foxes. While we had state champion wrestling teams, the basketball team was … not good. But on rainy winter nights, which was all of them, we went to the games.
In the game that I remember most, the Foxes had not won a game all season — I think we were 0-18 at the time. But that night, against a team from a similar Oregon small town named Sandy, things looked a bit brighter as the home team kept the game close. And with the score tied 46-46, one of the guards (whom I remember as wearing glasses) made a free-throw line jumper at the buzzer. Pandemonium! The crowd cheered and cheered, and then cheered some more. Someone got the idea to go to the local church and ring the bell — and they did, 48 times, one for each point that made the team now 1-18 on the season — but the Foxes were 1-0 that night.
My mother probably won’t be able to read this when it first comes out — she is taking the train across Alaska with my brother Mark to visit Denali and Fairbanks, two places she has never been. By the way, my mother’s name is Joy.
By Lee Dresie, via Pounding The Rock