老爸,這才是真的你
——朗佐·鮑爾寫給父親的信

繪◎馬豆子

Dear Dad,

The real you — not the person everyone has seen on TV. Just, my dad.

One of the things I admire most about you is that you don't really care what other people think. People can have whatever opinions they want about who you are as a person, but they'll never have all the facts. They'll never know you like I do.

They weren't there when you cleared out our living room so that my brothers and I would have room to play games and just be kids.And they weren't there when you were making sure that①I always took care of business in the classroom and graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA. But you were.

This probably won't surprise anybody, but for as long as I can remember you've always been the loudest person in the gym.When I was in middle school,I started dreaming of one day making it to the NBA. I wanted to be a point guard②, just like Magic Johnson.

You agreed to show me how to get there. You made your living training athletes — you still do — so I put my trust in you. And in return, you made me put in the work.

I still have your schedule ingrained in my mind. I probably always will.

Every day, no matter what, you'd take my brothers and me around the corner from our house in Chino to run up and down that hill in the heat before bringing us back home to do sit-ups.

The ride to a game was always a party, but the mood on the ride home,well, that all depended on how the game had gone.

You've never told me, "Great game," and just left it at that. Win or lose,you've always been able to fi nd something that I could improve. Some people are thrown off by your tone, but I've always known to internalize③what you say rather than how you say it. Because when you unpack④everything, there's always truth in what you tell me.

I'll never forget the game we played against a travel team from New York a few years back. They were all older than us, and we were completely out sized.

It was the type of game that most teams probably would have gone into knowing they were going to lose. In fact, most teams probably would have been satisfied with keeping the score within 20. Not our family, though.

We went out there and we ran those kids off the court. We rained threes on them and pressed the entire game. And we won. That was a really good ride home.

A lot of people ask if I ever get sick of⑤you talking about me.

What they don't realize is all of the stuff that you've said about me in public is the same stuff you've been telling me privately⑥my whole life. And a lot of the time, you've been right.

People may not see it, but I possess the very same con fidence that you have. In fact,when I think about it, con fi dence is the most important thing that I inherited from you.

The difference is, I've internalized it.Everything you've told me, I've absorbed and used on the court. That's where I do my talking.

The confidence that you have in me makes me feel so strong. It's helped me to never back down from a challenge and to stay true to myself.

So regardless of what anyone else thinks of you, I'm just incredibly⑦thankful to have you as my dad.

I can't think of anything else that you could ask for from a dad.

Thank you for teaching me how to play this game. Thank you for teaching me how to be a man. And thank you for never apologizing for being you.

Love you.

—Lonzo

親愛的老爸：

那個真正的你——不是大家在電視上看到的那個你。你是，我的老爸。

我最欽佩你的一點是你從來不在乎別人怎么想，別人對于你有千千萬萬種看法，但是他們并不知道一切，他們永遠不可能像我那樣了解你。

他們未曾看到，你將我們的客廳打掃得干干凈凈，只為我和我的弟弟們可以有地方玩耍，享受我們的童年時光。

他們未曾看到，是你確保了我在課堂上不落人后，以GPA 4.0的成績從高中畢業。他們未曾看到，但是你，一直都在。

這可能不是什么小秘密了，但是從我記事起，你就是那個在場邊嚷嚷聲最大的那一位。

那是初中的時候，我開始幻想著自己有朝一日可以躋身NBA。我想成為一名控球后衛，就像魔術師約翰遜那樣。你同意幫助我實現我的目標，你的工作是運動訓練師——現在仍然是——所以我相信了你。而作為回報，你帶我投入這項運動中去。

我的腦海中仍清楚地記得你給我設置的訓練時間表，我可能永遠都不會忘記。

每一天，你都會帶著我和弟弟們，頂著熱浪，從我們在奇諾崗的家一直跑上那個小山坡，再跑下來，回家做仰臥起坐，無論春夏秋冬，風雨無阻。

去比賽的路上永遠快活得像個派對，但是回家的時候，呃，氣氛就因比賽結果而異了。

你從來沒有只說一句“打得好”就戛然而止，無論輸贏，你都能找到一些我需要提高的地方。有些人對你說話的方式感到嗤之以鼻，但是我所關注的，一直都是你說的內容，而不是你怎么說。因為當你抽絲剝繭，將話語層層打開后，我總能發現其中的真諦。

我永遠都不會忘記幾年前我們與一支來自紐約的球隊的比賽。他們的年齡都比我們大，而且我們的塊頭都完全小一號。

這差不多是那種每個人都知道我們會輸的比賽。事實上，大多數球隊在這種情況下只要輸20分以內就心滿意足了。但我們家絕對不是這樣。

我們在場上溜著對面打，讓他們一個個都精疲力竭得下場休息。我們在他們頭頂下起了三分雨，我們壓著對面打了整場。最后我們贏了。那次回家的路上可歡樂了。

很多人都問我，我是不是已經受夠了你喋喋不休地討論我。

他們并不知道，你在公眾面前對我的評價和你私下里對我說的一模一樣。而大多數時候，你都是正確的。

他人可能看不出來，但是我繼承了你的自信。事實上，我認為，自信是我從你身上學到的最重要的東西。

不同的是，我將它珍藏了起來。你告訴我的每一件事，我都吸收了，并運用到了球場上。

你給予我的自信讓我感到自己是多么的強大，它讓我在困難面前勇往直前并保持真我。

所以，無論別人對你怎么看，我都萬分感激你是我的爸爸。

作為一名父親，你已經盡到了自己的每一份職責。

謝謝你教會我如何打籃球，謝謝你教會我怎樣做一個男人，謝謝你從不畏懼活出自己的人生。

老爸，我愛你。

——朗佐

① make sure that(把……)查明，(把……)弄清楚；確信，有把握 ②point guard 控球后衛，組織后衛

③ internalize 英 [?n't??n(?)la?z] 美 [?n't?n?la?z]vt. 使（習俗等經吸收同化而）內在化；使藏在心底

④ unpack 英 [?n'p?k] 美 [,?n'p?k]vt. 卸下……；解除……的負擔 vi. 打開包裹

⑤ get sick of對……厭惡

⑥ privately 英 ['pra?v?tli] 美 ['pra?v?tli] adv. 私下地；秘密地⑦ incredibly 英 [?n?kred?bl?] 美 [?n'kr?d?bli] adv. 難以置信地；非常地