美国篮球明星 Russell Westbrook 接受《Flaunt Magazine》专访兼任封面人物

美国职业篮球员 Russell Westbrook 继在《VMan》和义大利版本的《Vogue》出现之后，最近更成为首位运动员成为美国文化杂志《Flaunt Magazine》的封面人物。这位隶属 Oklahoma City Thunder 球队的球星除了球技了得之外，他个人的时尚品味亦是时尚界人士喜欢谈论的话题之一，去年更入选了《GQ》杂志 25 大型男排行榜。这次接受《Flaunt Magazine》的访问，Russell Westbrook 就大谈出战 NBA 篮球赛时所获得的经验，同时亦从不同范畴为自己的人格及在球场上的角色作出悍卫。以下是访问的节录部份，有兴趣阅读完整访谈内容的朋友请登上 Flaunt 的官方网站查阅。

“I just went out, played hard, and gave 110 percent.”

For anyone who’s ever watched even one courtside interview, that sentiment—if not precisely in those words, then at least in that spirit —will be wearily familiar.

Athletes are frequently derided for speaking in clichés, with some merit to the charge. However, criticisms of athletes in this vein are just as often misplaced—or, at the very least, leveled without an understanding of the whole context. For one thing, it’s frequently the case that the questions themselves to which an athlete is responding resist any sort of meaningful answer. To ask a small forward how he hit this or that shot is not entirely unlike asking a venture capitalist how he determined whether to invest in this or that asset or a skateboarder how he landed a particularly difficult trick. The honest answer to all three questions is something like, “By means of a combination of innate talent, years of training, and experience.” However, such a response would be considered churlish, rude. And so, for those moments when reporters ask such questions, athletes respond in kind from their stockpile of Accepted Clichés.

Beyond that, demanding eloquence from a professional athlete is patently unfair. To succeed at the highest level in any competitive sport requires a sort of single-­‐ mindedness and preparation alien to the common man and woman. To ask of a young athlete that, in addition to perfecting his body and its movements—to ask that he also perfect his speech—is unreasonable.