[流言板]ESPN谈詹姆斯全文：湖人&骑士以及詹姆斯最具统治力的赛季

今日，ESPN知名记者Dave McMenamin发布一篇关于湖人球员勒布朗-詹姆斯的长文，并在结尾处提到了詹姆斯回归骑士的可能：ESPN：若詹姆斯今夏有意重返克利夫兰，骑士愿为其敞开大门

以下为该文章完整原文&译文：

文章标题：湖人&骑士以及詹姆斯最具统治力的赛季（The Lakers, the Cavaliers and LeBron's most dominant season ever）

如果在2018年季后赛首轮对阵印第安纳步行者队的第五场比赛中命中关键的3分球，以及在克利夫兰骑士队与多伦多猛龙队的第二轮系列赛中第四场比赛中通过快攻投篮获胜，还有在NBA总决赛对阵金州勇士队的第一场比赛中打出51+8+8的数据统计，这些都是勒布朗-詹姆斯在他所称的“最出色赛季”中的精彩表现。那么他在第二轮系列赛第二场比赛中的表现，无疑也应被视为其“冷门之作”。

在东部半决赛首战中，詹姆斯在客场艰难战胜了排名第一的猛龙，从而赢得了比赛的胜利。而在接下来的比赛中，詹姆斯的表现让人们明白了为何骑士（常规赛战绩比猛龙少九场）并非真正的弱队。

在拿下43分、8个篮板和14次助攻（并且仅有1次失误）的同时，詹姆斯还化身成了中距离投手，他凭借精准的投篮技巧，巧妙地突破猛龙队的防线，而非仅仅依靠力量猛攻对手。

骑士的大个子球员拉里-南斯二世告诉ESPN：“我记得当时坐在长椅上，心里真切地想着，‘我再也看不到这样的比赛场面了’。”那一年，在交易截止日期时他被骑士队签下，并且是球队不可思议地闯入总决赛的一员。“再也不会有像那样的比赛了，而且以后也不会有了。”

那场比赛中，詹姆斯跳投12投8中——这是过去10年里他在季后赛中跳投命中率的最高值，数据来自GeniusIQ的追踪统计——他不仅完成了上篮、后仰跳投和接球跳投等各种投篮动作，还在整个球场上都有出色表现。

“这展现了他比赛水平的全面成熟，以及当时的手感和对对手防守漏洞的把握，”南斯继续说道，“如果我是猛龙队，我会非常高兴他能做出这样的投篮选择。但他只是在展示：‘你们什么也奈何不了我。’伙计，这太棒了。”

詹姆斯和骑士队那个赛季未能夺冠。詹姆斯也未能获得他四次最有价值球员奖中的一个。但这位23岁的老将对2017-18赛季仍充满怀念，他在上个月的播客节目中表示那是“我经历过的最棒的一个赛季”。

没人知道詹姆斯周三随洛杉矶湖人队重返克利夫兰是否就是他的最后一次经历。不过，本赛季的湖人队与他之前身披骑士队战袍的那个赛季存在一些相似之处，詹姆斯依然致力于个人表现的卓越，但未知的威胁给他的现役球队带来了混乱。

（IF THE BUZZER-BEATING 3 in Game 5 of the first round of the 2018 playoffs against the Indiana Pacers and the fast-break bank shot to win Game 3 of the Cleveland Cavaliers' second-round series versus the Toronto Raptors and the 51/8/8 stat line in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors are LeBron James' greatest hits in what he calls his greatest season, then his performance in Game 2 of the second round should certainly be considered a B-side gem.

After eking out an overtime victory on the road against the top-seeded Raptors to open the Eastern Conference semifinals, James showed in the next game why the Cavaliers -- who amassed nine fewer wins in the regular seasons than Toronto -- weren't really an underdog.

On his way to 43 points, 8 rebounds and 14 assists (and just one turnover), James transformed into a midrange assassin by using precision to pick at the seams of the Raptors' defense rather than simply pummeling them with his power.

"I remember sitting there on the bench having a very real moment of, 'I'll never see anything like this ever again,'" Cavs big man Larry Nance Jr. told ESPN. Nance had landed with Cleveland at the trade deadline that year and was a part of its improbable run to the Finals. "And there's never been anything like that ever again, and there won't be, really."

James shot 8-for-12 on jump shots that game -- his best shooting percentage on jumpers in a playoff game over the past 10 years, per GeniusIQ tracking-- tossing in pull-ups, fadeaways and catch-and-shoots from all over the court.

"It was showing the full maturation of his game and the touch at that point and understanding where doubles are coming from and everything," Nance continued. "If I'm the Raptors, I'm so happy that he's taking these. But he's just showing them: 'There's nothing you can do.' And, dude, it was awesome."

James and the Cavaliers didn't win the title that season. James didn't win one of his four MVP awards, either. But the 23-year veteran looks back at the 2017-18 campaign with fondness, saying last month on his podcast it was "best season that I had."

No one knows whether James' return to Cleveland with the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday will be his last. However, there are similarities between this Lakers season and the last one in which he wore a Cavaliers uniform, with James still committed to individual excellence but with the pressure of the unknown causing chaos for his current franchise.）

虎扑01月28日讯 这种状态在2017-18赛季骑士队开始前的三个月就已经显现出来了。

简要回顾一下：在2017年6月以1胜4负的战绩输给勇士之后，凯里-欧文在7月要求从克利夫兰队转会出去。

据ESPN获得的消息，骑士队内部此前已就一项交易方案进行了讨论，即用明星前锋凯文-乐福换回保罗-乔治。而就在这位才华横溢的控球后卫明确表示想要离开球队之际，骑士起初还试图等待欧文的诉求得到满足。

最终，有消息人士透露，由于欧文所在的球队（骑士）可能会在训练营前为他安排一次膝盖手术（如果他还在骑士的话），克利夫兰骑士队于8月将他交易给了东部联盟的对手波士顿凯尔特人队。在总决赛中，欧文场均得到29.4分，对手是来自金州的那支有史以来最强大的球队之一。

克利夫兰在这笔交易中的回报并不理想：得到了全明星球员以赛亚-托马斯（他刚刚做完髋关节手术）；一名经验丰富的前锋杰伊-克劳德；一名尚未证明自己能力的大个子球员安特-齐西奇；以及布鲁克林篮网队2018年未受保护的首轮选秀权。

骑士队此前已经连续三次进入总决赛。而詹姆斯本人则已经连续参加了七次总决赛，这一纪录始于他在迈阿密热火队时期的经历。

篮网的这份选秀权成为了幕后谈判中的一个关键问题。詹姆斯及其团队希望尽可能争取到一切有利条件，以争夺总冠军。而骑士则告知他们，球队必须将这份选秀权留作重建之用——当然，前提是詹姆斯同意续约。

那种僵局——以及由此引发的紧张局势——在整个赛季期间一直持续着。

新上任的骑士总经理科比-阿尔坦曼采取了另一种策略，即签下一些短期合同的资深球员：约瑟夫-卡莱隆、杰夫-格林、德里克-罗斯和德维恩-韦德。

“我不知道该如何称呼那支队伍，比如，那是一支‘不团结’的队伍吧。”一位骑士队内部人士向ESPN透露道。

就在这样的背景下，詹姆斯于2017年9月在骑士队的年度媒体日上走上讲台，拿起麦克风对记者们说道：“在我们开始之前，有大概五个不同的话题，六个不同的话题是我们想要谈论的……凯里，这个事情——如果这是一个问题的话；对我新加入的队友们说的；对我明年夏天的自由球员身份说的；还有我对球队以及即将到来的赛季的看法……”

他回答问题的时间超过了40分钟。

（THAT DYNAMIC for those 2017-18 Cavaliers began three months before the start of the season.

To recap: After losing the 2017 Finals to the Warriors 4-1 in June, Kyrie Irving demanded a trade out of Cleveland in July.

The Cavs, sources told ESPN, had already discussed internally a deal to send star forward Kevin Love to the Pacers for Paul George before the talented combo guard made it clear he wanted out, and Cleveland initially tried to wait out Irving's demand.

Eventually, sources said, with Irving's camp leveraging a potential knee procedure if he was still with the Cavs come training camp, Cleveland traded him to an Eastern Conference rival, the Boston Celtics, in August. Irving was coming off a Finals in which he averaged 29.4 points against one of the greatest teams ever assembled in Golden State.

Cleveland's return on the deal was underwhelming: an All-Star in Isaiah Thomas, who was coming off hip surgery; a journeyman forward in Jae Crowder; an unproven big man in Ante Zizic; and the Brooklyn Nets' 2018 unprotected first-round pick.

The Cavs were coming off three straight Finals appearances. James personally had been to seven in a row, dating back to his Miami Heat run.

The Brooklyn pick became a sticking point behind the scenes. James and his camp wanted every advantage possible to compete for a championship. The Cavs, meanwhile, informed them that the franchise would have to hold onto the pick for a rebuild -- that is, of course, unless James committed to a contract extension.

That stalemate -- and the tension it caused -- remained over the course of the season.

New Cleveland general manager Koby Altman brought in veteran talent on short-term deals instead: Jose Calderon, Jeff Green, Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade.

"I don't know what you would call that team, like, the misfit team," a Cavs source told ESPN.

It was with that backdrop that James walked onto the dais at the Cavs' annual media day in September 2017, picked up the microphone and told reporters: "Before we get started, there's like five different topics, six different topics that we want to talk about ... Kyrie, that issue -- if it is an issue; to my new teammates; to my free agency next summer; to what do I feel about the team and the upcoming season ..."

He answered questions for more than 40 minutes.）

始终不变的唯有他的表现。

在揭幕战中，詹姆斯拿下29分、16个篮板和9次助攻，帮助骑士队击败凯尔特人队。而欧文首次身着凯尔特人队服登场的表现却因凯尔特人的戈登-海沃德遭遇严重脚踝伤势而黯然失色。

克利夫兰队在那个赛季也遇到了一些困难：

托马斯在髋部康复期间错过了赛季前的36场比赛；罗斯因病未请假而缺席了球队的训练，前往墨西哥；明星前锋凯文-乐福在与老鹰的比赛半场时突发恐慌发作，这一事件最终促使他成为了心理健康问题的倡导者；韦德的长期经纪人亨利-托马斯在赛季中期突然去世；而特里斯坦-汤普森则成为了八卦新闻报道的焦点，这些报道主要围绕他的个人生活展开。

不过，骑士仍能留在竞争行列中，这要归功于詹姆斯。

“我认为这归功于多方面因素的共同作用，当然包括他出色的运动天赋、出色的组织能力，以及他在攻防两端都具备的敏锐防守意识，”乐福告诉ESPN。“他的运动天赋固然重要。但另一方面，他的球技、篮球思维和头脑也在同一时间完美融合在了一起。”

而詹姆斯在自己的前15个赛季中从未做到过的一件事是：参加了全部82场比赛。

乐福说：“他一直坚定地表达着这样的想法，那就是他要参加全部82场比赛。他反复这样说：‘我会全力以赴。我会参加全部82场比赛。’”

当托马斯回到球队后，骑士的状态急转直下，从圣诞节那天起直到交易截止日前夕，他们只取得了6胜13负的战绩。

詹姆斯参加了每一场比赛，他的数据看起来基本没什么变化，但那种强烈的冲击力却不见了。

“勒布朗显然状态不佳，”骑士的一位消息人士说道。

在交易截止日前夜，詹姆斯状态爆棚，全场砍下37分，投篮22次命中16球，送出15次助攻并抢下10个篮板，出战48分19秒，最终在加时赛中击败明尼苏达森林狼队，命中了关键的制胜球。

第二天，阿尔特曼通过一系列三笔交易，送出了六名球员以及一个未来的首轮选秀权，从而彻底改变了球队的阵容。

骑士队引进了乔治-希尔、罗德尼-霍德、乔丹-克拉克森和纳森，同时送出了托马斯、克劳德、韦德、罗斯、钱宁-弗莱、伊曼-斯图佩特以及他们队内的2018年首轮选秀权。

其中的一次运作是与湖人有关的——这为洛杉矶队腾出了足够的薪资空间，使得他们能够在几个月后以自由球员的身份签下詹姆斯。

即便如此，一位骑士内部人士表示：“对于那个交易截止日，我想到的一点是，我们得到的最好的一笔交易成果就是，我们把勒布朗-詹姆斯请了回来。”

詹姆斯在本赛季结束后场均贡献29.2分，投篮命中率为53.4%，同时还有9.8个篮板和9.8次助攻。骑士队取得了19胜10负的战绩，而且在他身边几乎是一支全新的球队阵容。

他本赛季在得分、篮板、助攻、抢断和盖帽方面均领跑骑士队——这是他第二次在所有五个方面都超越自己的球队。他共完成了18次“三双”表现，这是其职业生涯中单赛季完成次数最多的。他还是全联盟场均上场时间最长以及总得分最高的球员。

詹姆斯上个月在自己的播客节目“球场大脑”中与搭档史蒂夫-纳什一起接受采访时表示：“如果你问我哪个赛季是我作为篮球运动员表现最出色、最完整的时期，我会说是2018年。”

“在2017-18赛季里，我觉得自己在篮球场上表现得毫无瑕疵。无论是进攻端还是防守端，我都觉得自己在比赛中没有任何失误。”

“每次踏上球场，我都觉得自己真的可以做任何想做的事，”詹姆斯继续说道，“三个位置上都如此。防守方面，要兼顾三个位置。我的意思是，那种感觉至今依然存在，但在2017-18赛季，尤其是在我们那支队伍中，那种感觉达到了一个新的高度。那个赛季，我觉得那可能是我最完美的一个赛季。”

（THE ONE CONSTANT was his performance.

On opening night, James posted 29 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists as the Cavs beat the Celtics, with Irving's first appearance in green and white overshadowed by Boston's Gordon Hayward suffering a gruesome ankle injury.

Cleveland had its challenges that season:

Thomas missed the first 36 games of the season while his hip was recovering; Rose took an unexcused leave of absence from the team to go to Mexico; star forward Kevin Love experienced a panic attack at halftime of a game against the Hawks, which eventually led him to become a mental health advocate; Wade's longtime agent, Henry Thomas, suddenly died midseason; and Tristan Thompson found himself the subject of tabloid news stories centered on his personal life.

Still, the Cavs stayed in the mix because of James.

"I think it was the confluence of, obviously, his elite athleticism, his playmaking ability, his ability to read defenses on both sides of the ball," Love told ESPN. "That athleticism, sure. I'm saying on the other side of that, his skill and basketball mind and brain were all just converging at the same time."

And James did something he'd never done in his first 15 seasons: play all 82 games.

"He was very consistent in speaking that into existence, that he was going to play all 82," Love said. "He kept saying it: 'I'm going to put it all out there. I'm going to play all 82.'"

When Thomas returned to the court, the Cavs hit a tailspin, going 6-13 from Christmas Day until just before the trade deadline.

James played every game and his numbers looked mostly the same, but that extra oomph was missing.

"LeBron wasn't himself, obviously," a Cavs source said.

The night before the trade deadline, James came alive with 37 points on 16-for-22 shooting, 15 assists and 10 rebounds, playing 48 minutes, 19 seconds and hitting the game winner in overtime against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The next day, Altman traded away six players and a future first-round pick in a series of three deals to completely overhaul the team.

The Cavs added George Hill, Rodney Hood, Jordan Clarkson and Nance, and they parted with Thomas, Crowder, Wade, Rose, Channing Frye, Iman Shumpert and their own 2018 first-round pick.

One of those moves was with the Lakers -- and it opened up just enough cap space for L.A. to sign James as a free agent only a few months later.

Even so, one Cavs source said, "The thing I think about with that trade deadline is, the best acquisition we got was, we got LeBron James back."

James finished the season averaging 29.2 points on 53.4% shooting, 9.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists, and the Cavs went 19-10 with a virtually entire new team around him.

He led the Cavs in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks for the season -- the second time he topped his team in all five categories. He had 18 triple-doubles, the most in a season in his career. He led the league in minutes per game and total points.

"If you ask me what was the best season that I had, where I felt the most complete as a basketball player, I would say 2018," James said last month on an episode of his podcast, "Mind the Game," with co-host Steve Nash.

" 2017-18 season, I felt like I could do no wrong out there on the basketball floor. Offensively, defensively, I felt no flaws in my game."

"I felt every time I stepped out on the floor, I really could do everything I wanted to do," James continued. "All three levels. Defensively, guard all three levels. I mean, I still feel that way, but it was just another level of that in 2017-18, with the team that we had. That season right there, I felt like that was probably my most complete season."）

詹姆斯的出色表现在这次季后赛中更是达到了新的高度。

他在季后赛中的总计748分是联盟历史上的第二高分，仅次于迈克尔-乔丹在1992年创下的759分纪录。詹姆斯在季后赛中独得或助攻得分共计1230分，这是NBA季后赛得分最高的纪录。他在22场季后赛比赛中取得了8次40分以上的比赛佳绩，追平了杰里-韦斯特1965年创下的季后赛单场40分以上的最多场次纪录。

“季后赛来临了，而他则披上了战袍。”一位骑士队内部人士说道。

与上述那些经典比赛并列其中的，还有在波士顿举行的东部决赛的第七场比赛。他全场出战48分钟，拿下35分、15个篮板和9次助攻，从而成功连续第八次闯入总决赛。

“他当时真是太自信了，”南斯对ESPN说道。“印第安纳队曾将比分追至7比7，波士顿队也曾将比分追至7比7，但我觉得更衣室里的任何人都没有感到真正的压力，因为，没错，我们成功阻止了他（得分）。”

随后，詹姆斯带领骑士队打进了总决赛的第一场比赛。而且——先别提JR-史密斯在常规时间结束时的失误——如果不是在比赛还剩36秒时被吹了盖帽犯规（导致勇士队得到2分而非出现失误），骑士队原本是能够赢得这场比赛的。

“我认为那是一次漏判了的犯规/阻截判罚，”纳恩说道。“我认为这会极大地改变整个系列赛的局势。”

乐福对这部剧发表了自己的看法。

乐福说：“随后它被提交进行审查，但最终却被埃德-马洛伊否决了。”“嗯……当然。”

在那次失利之后，詹姆斯在客队更衣室的黑板上猛击了一下，结果弄伤了自己的手，结果骑士队最终还是被横扫了。

正如乐福所说：“我记得他只是把手直接伸进冰浴中，然后心里想着：‘好吧，这大概就是结局了。”

（JAMES' REMARKABLE PRODUCTION only amplified in the playoffs.

His 748 postseason points were the second most in league history, trailing only Michael Jordan's 759 in 1992. James scored or assisted on 1,230 points, the most in an NBA postseason. He racked up eight 40-point games across the 22 he played, tying Jerry West's 1965 record for the most 40-point games in a postseason.

"The playoffs came and he just put on his cape," a Cavs source said.

Right up there with the aforementioned greatest hits was Game 7 of the Eastern Conference in Boston, as he played all 48 minutes and tallied 35 points, 15 rebounds and 9 assists to make it to his eighth straight Finals.

"He was just so confident," Nance told ESPN. "Indiana took us to seven, Boston took us to seven, but I don't think there was anybody in the locker room felt any real pressure because, yeah, we got him."

James then led the Cavs into Game 1 of the Finals and -- forget JR Smith's blunder at the end of regulation -- would have won the game if not for being called for a block on Golden State's Kevin Durant with 36 seconds left, resulting in two points for the Warriors rather than a turnover.

"I believe that was a missed block/charge call," Nance said. "I think that changes the series drastically."

Love offered his take on the play.

"Then having it get reviewed and it gets overturned by Ed Malloy," Love said. "Yeah ... sure."

James punched the whiteboard in the visitors locker room after that loss and hurt his hand, and the Cavs ended up getting swept.

As Love said, "I remember him just putting his hand right in the ice bath and thinking to myself, 'OK, well, this is likely it.'"）

詹姆斯和骑士队在2017-18赛季未能夺得总冠军，整个赛季的混乱状况让所有人都感同身受。

詹姆斯如今已为湖人队效力了八个赛季——这是他职业生涯中与同一支球队保持连续效力时间最长的一段时期——但他在洛杉矶的未来仍充满不确定性。他的合同将于本赛季结束时到期，而球队也将继续以卢卡-东契奇作为当下的核心球员和未来的领袖球员来发展前行。

多位球队和联盟方面的消息人士向ESPN透露，如果詹姆斯愿意重返克利夫兰（继续征战他的第24个赛季，并开启个人第三段骑士生涯），骑士将非常乐意欢迎他归来。

目前还无法确定湖人今年春天还能走多远，尤其是如果詹姆斯能找回那件战袍的话。有消息人士称，尽管詹姆斯比以往年长了八岁，但他对本赛季的湖人表现出了与以往相同的投入态度。他因坐骨神经疼痛缺席了前14场比赛。但在康复期间，詹姆斯戒掉了饮酒的习惯，并且体重也明显减轻了，他希望这样能减轻背部和关节的压力，并“跟上年轻球员的步伐”，他说。

乐福谈到那支2017-18赛季的骑士队时说：“我们原本没指望能走这么远。要知道，你看看那支球队的阵容和球员的缺乏经验，尤其是后者。那并不是一支拥有足够配角阵容、能够达到那种水平的球队。”

“但正是因为勒布朗带领我们走到了那里，并将我们托付给他自己，我们才得以达到那个阶段。”

或许，在2026年的此刻，他周三在克利夫兰的出现能够让两支球队都亲身体验一下2017-18赛季的那番情形。

“这将会是一场闹剧，但这其实只是一场常规赛而已。”一位骑士内部人士向ESPN透露道。“但当他登场时，却感觉就像总决赛一样了。”

ESPN的马特-威廉姆斯为这篇报道做出了贡献。

（JAMES AND THE CAVS don't have a championship to show for 2017-18, and the chaos of the season was felt by everyone.

James is now in his eighth season with the Lakers -- his longest uninterrupted stint with a team in his career -- but his future in Los Angeles remains uncertain, with his contract set to expire at the end of the campaign and the franchise set to move forward with Luka Doncic as its star of the present and the future.

Multiple team and league sources told ESPN the Cavaliers would gladly welcome James back this summer if he wanted to return to Cleveland for his 24th NBA season and third stint with the team.

There's no telling the ride the Lakers could still go on this spring, especially if James can find that cape to put back on. While James is eight years older, he has shown a similar commitment to this season's Lakers team, sources said. He missed the first 14 games because of sciatica. But James stopped drinking alcohol during his rehab, and he has slimmed down considerably, hoping to take pressure off his back and joints and to "keep up with the young guys," he said.

"We weren't supposed to make it that far," Love said of those 2017-18 Cavs. "I mean, you look at the makeup of that team and the inexperience, even more so. It wasn't a team that really had enough of a supporting cast to make it to that level.

"But because LeBron took us there and put us on his shoulders, we were able to get to that point."

And maybe, here in 2026, his presence in Cleveland on Wednesday can give both teams a taste of that 2017-18 experience.

"It's going to be a circus, and it is just a regular-season game," a Cavs source told ESPN. "But when he comes, it feels like a Finals game."

ESPN's Matt Williams contributed to this story.）

北京时间明日8点，洛杉矶湖人队将在客场挑战克利夫兰骑士队。

来源：ESPN全球