百萬游戲

Dylan Murphy

Its a single-elimination， winner-take-all tournament for $1 million.

這是場只能贏的比賽，勝利者將帶走所有的一百萬美元。

Dylan Murphy recalls his experience as head coach of Ants Alumni in "The Basketball Tournament，" a single-elimination， winner-take-all tournament for $1 million.

迪倫·墨菲回憶了他作為螞蟻校友主教練帶隊征戰(zhàn)“籃球錦標賽”的經(jīng)歷。這一項單敗淘汰賽制的比賽，最終的勝利者將拿走100萬美元的所有賽會獎金。

With under eight minutes to go in the second half， the Notre Dame Fighting Alumni led Ants Alumni by seven points. It wasnt quite time to panic， but it was certainly time to kick things into another gear①.

距離下半場比賽結束還剩8分鐘，圣母大學校友隊領先螞蟻校友7分。還不到恐慌時間，但我們顯然該再努把力了。

Thats because $1 million was on the line. Played at DePaul University in Chicago， the winner of this game advanced to the final eight of "The Basketball Tournament，" a single-elimination， winner-take-all tournament originally featuring 97 teams and a slew of talent from a variety of backgrounds.

那是因為，100萬美元就在我們眼前。比賽在芝加哥的德保爾大學進行，勝者挺進“籃球錦標賽”八強，這是單場淘汰制、冠軍贏得全部獎金的賽事。共有97支球隊參加，球員來自不同背景的不同行業(yè)。

Ants Alumni is a group of former Fort Wayne Mad Ants players（most continue to play professionally overseas or for the Mad Ants in the NBA Development League）， six of whom won the 2013-14 NBA D-League championship with Fort Wayne. Garrett Martz， vice president of sales for the Mad Ants， put the team together and asked myself and Kevin Bloom， another Mad Ants assistant coach， to lead the squad.

螞蟻校友隊的球員都是前韋恩堡瘋狂螞蟻隊成員（大多數(shù)人仍在海外打職業(yè)聯(lián)賽，或者仍為發(fā)展聯(lián)盟的瘋狂螞蟻隊效力），其中六個人跟隨瘋狂螞蟻拿到過2013-14賽季發(fā)展聯(lián)盟的冠軍。瘋狂螞蟻的銷售部副主管賈雷特·馬茨組建了這支球隊，邀請我、凱文·布魯姆和另一個瘋狂螞蟻的助教擔任球隊教練。

Getting to this point wasnt easy. Martz saved us from back-to-back-toback games by compiling enough fan votes for a first-round bye before TBT started， but NBA Summer League commitments and various overseas tryouts trimmed our roster down to five players for the first weekend.

走到這一步并不容易。馬茨積攢了足夠的球迷投票，讓我們跳過了首輪，避免了背靠背。但NBA夏季聯(lián)賽以及很多海外聯(lián)賽的試訓，導致我們球隊的球員數(shù)量迅速減少。第一周時，我們只剩5名球員。

Although there was a big cash prize on the line， many of our players had to balance the potential of a quick payday versus playing in front of scouts at summer workouts to advance their careers in the long term.

盡管潛在的獎金數(shù)額很高，但我們的很多球員必須在迅速掙錢，在球探面前試訓、以及自身長久的職業(yè)生涯之間做出平衡。

Most of our players have played all over the world—Europe， Asia， Australia， South America， the D-League and even the NBA. Though they might not be household names anymore， they were all once big-time players at major colleges. The vast majority of college basketball players dont play in the NBA. Most follow the path of our players， shuttling across the world to make a career out of playing basketball professionally.

我們的大多數(shù)球員在世界各地打過比賽——歐洲、亞洲、澳大利亞、南美、發(fā)展聯(lián)盟，甚至是NBA。盡管他們不出名，但他們都曾是主流大學里的球星。絕大多數(shù)大學球員不會進入NBA。很多人追隨我們的腳步，以籃球為職業(yè)徘徊在世界各地。

Coaching only five players brings its own set of unique challenges. We practiced the day before our first game to install some game-plan basics： five offensive sets， a baseline out-of-bounds play， a sideline out-of-bounds play， pick-and-roll defense and various thematic strategies.

僅僅執(zhí)教無名球員對我來說也是特別的挑戰(zhàn)。第一場比賽前一天，我們進行了訓練，確定了幾個基本比賽計劃：五個進攻戰(zhàn)術，一個發(fā)底線球戰(zhàn)術，一個發(fā)邊線球戰(zhàn)術，擋拆防守以及其他策略。

With only one short hour to organize， we had to trim down our Mad Ants playbook （anywhere from 150-200 plays） to only a fraction of what our players are used to running.

因為只有一小時組織時間，所以我們必須把瘋狂螞蟻的戰(zhàn)術手冊（150到200種戰(zhàn)術）縮減到球員經(jīng)常打的一小部分。

Without the luxury of substitutions， we had to slow the pace of the game to conserve energy. When it came to timeouts， I couldnt burn them to stop opponent runs； I had to wield them as tools for energy conservation， spacing them out every six to seven minutes to buy our players a moment of rest.

因為沒有替補，我們還需要放慢比賽節(jié)奏，從而保存體力。至于暫停，我不能為了防守而浪費，我必須將暫停當作保存體能的工具，每6到7分鐘就叫一次暫停，為我們的球員贏得一些休息時間。

And then there was the dilemma of fouls. Put simply， nobody could foul out. In our first game， fouls were not an issue. Against stiffer competition like Houston Live， both of our bigs， Chris Porter and Will Frisby， picked up four fouls with 14 minutes to play.

還有犯規(guī)這個兩難問題。簡單地說，沒人能被罰出去。在我們的第一場比賽里，犯規(guī)不是問題。面對更強硬的對手，比如休斯敦現(xiàn)場隊時，我們的兩個內(nèi)線克里斯·波特和威爾·弗雷斯比在比賽還剩14分鐘時都四犯了。

Notre Dame was a far tougher test， but the addition of former D-League MVP Ron Howard， championship team starter Trey McKinney Jones， former NBA player Stephen Graham and athletic， rim-protecting center Tommy Smith gave us much-needed relief and flexibility.

圣母大學是更難纏的對手，不過有了前發(fā)展聯(lián)盟MVP羅恩·霍華德、冠軍球隊首發(fā)特雷·麥金尼·瓊斯、前NBA球員史蒂芬·格拉漢姆以及運動能力超強的籃筐保護者湯米·史密斯的加入，我們的陣容得到了急需的靈活性，大大松了一口氣。

Still， we were down seven points late in the second half. We shuffled our pick-and-roll coverage at halftime， opting to switch every ball screen from the point guard to center position instead of having our bigs drop back and our guards fight over top. Notre Dame was bombing and connecting from threepoint range， and we gambled that their players were not talented enough to individually carve up mismatches.

不過在下半場，我們還落后7分。我們在半場休息時挑戰(zhàn)了擋拆防守，我們要求控衛(wèi)和中鋒換防，而不是中鋒撤后由控衛(wèi)擠過防拆防守。圣母大學的三分球開始發(fā)飆，我們賭的是他們的球員個人能力不夠，無法應對錯位防守。

$1 million was on the line."The Basketball Tournament" is a single-elimination， winner-take-all tournament originally featuring 97 teams and a slew of talent from a variety of backgrounds.

100萬美元就在我們眼前?！盎@球錦標賽”是一個單場淘汰制、冠軍贏得全部獎金的賽事。共有97支球隊參加比賽，球員分別來自不同背景的不同行業(yè)。

From a coaching perspective， the toughest part of these situations is the tactical reaction. Do you make significant lineup changes？ Do you scrap the game plan？ Or do you ride it out and tighten up the execution？

站在教練的角度，這種局面最麻煩的部分，就是戰(zhàn)術上的應對。你需要對陣容做出明顯調(diào)整嗎？你應該拋棄比賽計劃嗎？還是說繼續(xù)堅持，增強執(zhí)行力？

Especially in a single-elimination tournament， its difficult to resist the impulse for wholesale changes. Theres simply no time for things to go wrong.

尤其是這種單場淘汰賽，我們很難抗拒從整體上做出改變的沖動。根本沒有出錯的時間。

Our choice fell somewhere in the middle—we knew we needed a change， but we didnt want to completely break character and show signs of panic. We kept coverages mostly the same but shifted Rojas， who had previously been guarding Team 23s small forward， Larry Owens （a D-League player who had a brief stint in the NBA）， onto White.

我們在兩者之間做出選擇——我們知道自己需要改變，但我們不想徹底打亂計劃，表現(xiàn)出自己的恐慌。我們維持了大部分防守計劃，不過讓之前防守Team 23小前鋒拉里·歐文斯（發(fā)展聯(lián)盟球員，短暫地在NBA打過球）的羅哈斯去防守懷特。

Rojas was our teams best defender and pound-for-pound rebounder. Its hard to imagine a 64" power forward dominating the glass， but thats exactly what Rojas does.

羅哈斯是我們最好的防守球員，也是個每球必爭的籃板手。我們很難想象一個身高1.93米的大前鋒能統(tǒng)治籃板，但羅哈斯確實如此。

The initial choice to stick him on Owens was twofold. Rojas could match his physicality in the post and be nearer to the glass should a shot go up. White， who is completely perimeter-oriented， would drag him out too far from the rim.

最初讓羅哈斯防守歐文斯有兩層意義。羅哈斯在低位能用身體扛住他；他還能更接近籃下，有機會出手。而懷特完全是個外線球員，他會讓羅哈斯離籃筐很遠。

Rojas， who was arguably the fiercest competitor on either team every time he stepped on the court， answered the challenge and completely changed the game. An 18-point lead evaporated. We were down three points with all of the momentum and almost 10 minutes still to play.

羅哈斯大概是兩隊最有活力的球員，他接受了挑戰(zhàn)，徹底改變了比賽走勢。18分的劣勢縮小了，比賽還剩10分鐘時，我們只落后3分，而且形勢對我們很有利。

Team 23， however， was full of pros as well. Most of the teams that made any type of significant run in TBT had a team of professional basketball players.

不過Team 23也滿是職業(yè)球員。任何能在這個錦標賽里走得遠的球隊，都有職業(yè)球員。

Although the NBA has most of the best talent in the world， the line between the NBA and other professional leagues—the D-League and Spains ACB， for instance—is pretty thin.

NBA擁有最有天賦的球員，但NBA球員和其他職業(yè)聯(lián)賽——比如發(fā)展聯(lián)盟、西班牙ACB聯(lián)賽——之間的差距其實很小。

Sometimes a player hits his peak too late in his career； NBA teams tend to favor youth and potential. Sometimes an overseas player is probably good enough for an end-of-the-bench minimum contract but can actually make more money， have more financial security and see more minutes playing overseas.

有時候一個球員在職業(yè)生涯后期進入巔峰；而NBA偏愛年輕和有潛力的球員。有時候一個在海外打球的球員也許足夠優(yōu)秀，能夠以底薪填補一支球隊最后的名額，但他們在海外能賺到更多錢、得到更多經(jīng)濟保障，還能得到更多上場時間。

Team 23 was not going to fold easily. They responded to our run with two free throws and a three-pointer， extending the lead back to eight. Once again， I faced a decision： stick with the lineup that helped us crawl back into the game， or bring in fresh legs to combat Team 23s countersurge.

Team 23不準備這么輕松放棄。他們回敬了兩個罰球和一個三分球，把優(yōu)勢重新拉開到8分。我又一次要做出選擇：堅持使用幫助我們追上比分的陣容，或者換上有體能的人對付Team 23。

I opted for the latter and played small ball， hoping to get our stagnant offense going. But the game held at a 10-point edge for Team 23 until they closed it out to end our run.

我選擇了后者，換成小個陣容，希望能帶動停滯的進攻。但Team 23一直把比分差距維持在10分左右，他們最終贏得了比賽。

We were obviously very disappointed to lose， especially with the $1 million within our grasp. But we were proud to reunite as a group， and youll definitely be seeing Ants Alumni in next years TBT.

輸?shù)舯荣?，我們當然非常失望，特別是100萬美元就近在咫尺。但重新集合在一起成為一個集體，我們非常自豪，明年的錦標賽，你們絕對能看到螞蟻校友隊的身影。

①kick into gear是英語俚語，意思是get started（開始）。更常見的說法是kick into high gear，也就是全力以赴。