Kevin Durant Defends LeBron James' Decision to Opt out of Contract with Heat
By Jim Cavan , Featured Columnist Jun 25, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/kadulg4
It seems like just about everyone has an opinion on LeBron James' decision,
per USA Today's Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt, to exercise his early
termination option (ETO) with the Miami Heat—some of them astute, others…
well, not so much.
(最近似乎大家都对LBJ的Decision有很多意见)
For his part, Kevin Durant isn’t quite sure what all the fuss is about. From
a recent interview with the Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg:
(对KD来说，他不太了解这些小题大作是怎么回事，以下是记者访谈内容)
I don't know what the big deal is. As a player, I think that's the best way
to go about it. You can have all your options. It's better for you as a
player to opt-out, because you can get a market deal. You can get more years.
You never know what will happen if you pass up on that. So I didn't know what
the big deal was. I'm sure it was a decision he made, something he was
thinking about, for him and his family.
(我不认为这有什么大不了的，身为一个球员做出那样的决定是最好的，你本来就可以有
你自己的选择权，跳脱合约到自由球员市场是很好的事这样你才能得到自己的市场价值。
你还有多年，一但错过这次你永远不会知道将来会如何。所以我不知道这件事有什么大不
了的，我相信这是他再为他自己以及家人着想后，经过深思熟虑之后的决定。)
While Durant could be misreading James' motivations—because, you know, we don
’t really know what they are yet—his underlying point still holds: This was
what was going to happen all along, so why is everyone acting so surprised?
(KD也有可能误判LBJ的动机，当然，我们也不知道LBJ的动机到底是什么。KD的立场一直
坚持在 "这些本来就是会发生的事，你们到底在惊讶什么？")
Durant then went on to discuss what he sees as something of a double standard
levied to the detriment of the game's greatest star:
(KD接着提出针对大家双重标准所造成LBJ伤害的一些看法)
I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think anything that you guys criticize
LeBron [about] is fair. He switched teams; he’s not the first guy to do it.
He decided to opt out; he’s not the first guy to do it. Sometimes a lot of
people criticize him a little bit too much for doing normal things, doing
stuff that everybody has done. [Even] Tim Duncan went into free agency
before. He got courted by quite a few teams. We’ll see what happens with me,
but everybody’s done the same thing. He’s not the first.
(我不认为这很公平，也不认为大家批判LBJ是公平的。他改变的球队、他也不是第一个这
样做的人，有些时候大家对他做的一些再正常不过的事都有点太严厉，石佛他也曾跳出来
过而且有也有一些球队对他很有兴趣。你们将会看到将来会发生在我身上的事、一个大家
都会做的事。LBJ，并不是第一个。
Much has been made of the motivations behind James' decision. On the one
hand, opting out could potentially give the Heat more financial flexibility
this summer—assuming Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh follow suit, of course.
One such scenario, first posed by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, involves Miami’s
Big Three signing new, reduced deals in order to make room for Carmelo
Anthony, who exercised his own ETO on Sunday:
(之前就传出个脚本是三王协议降低薪资以挪出空间吸引甜瓜加入热火。)
The mere concept would require the star trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and
Chris Bosh to all opt out of their current contracts by the end of the month
and likely take further salary reductions in new deals that start next season
to give Miami the ability to offer Anthony a representative first-year
salary. The Heat also are prevented from making any formal contact with
Anthony until July 1 and can do so then only if he opts out of the final year
of his current contract.
(三王本季结束后一起降低薪资，才会有足够空间给甜瓜第一年的薪资，不过热火也会观望
直到甜瓜结束他的合约且7月1号后，才可能给他正式的合约)
So that’s one option—one of many, of course.
(当然，这只是故事发展之一)
Another ancillary theory involves James opting out ahead of Wade and Bosh in
order to exert as much control as possible over how Pat Riley, the team’s
longtime president, augments a roster that saw its three-peat bid throttled
by the San Antonio Spurs.
(另一个揣测是LBJ藉著比wade跟bosh更早跳出以发挥比Pat Riley更大的影响力。)
Whatever James' motive, the ultimate decision was nothing if not a sensible
one.
(不管动机如何，LBJ做出明智的决定才是一切。)
For Thunder fans looking to read into LeBron’s move as a bellwether for what
Durant might do come the summer of 2016, a friendly reminder: Durant’s deal
doesn’t include a player option.
(雷霆球迷引以为鉴，但是不同的是，即使2016年到了，KD本身没有球员选择权。)
However, when KD does enter free agency, you can expect just as big of a buzz
—and just as much incessant hearsay—as we’ve seen with James.
(但是只要KD进入自由市场，大家对LBJ的批判同样也会发生在KD身上。)
One can quibble all day with the timing of James' gambit, coming as it did
right before one of the most hotly anticipated drafts in recent memory.
As for the underlying strategy, it’s probably best to see how it all plays
out before we start accusing him of orchestrating The Decision Part II.
(不管如何，就让我们继续看下去 THE DECISION二部曲究竟会怎么上演。)
心得：看来KD是在打预防针？