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迈克尔•乔丹的天赋在上学时早已有所显露。和他同班的一位亲密伙伴哈维斯特•史密斯基本上每天都和他一起打篮球。他觉得迈克尔是九年级球队中最出色的——他虽然个子不高，却非常灵活。 史密斯非常清楚他们两人谁更出色——迈克尔比他强得多。但是到了校运动队队员筛选名单公布时，迈克尔•乔丹和史密斯都去了兰尼体育馆看名单。名单上有史密斯的名字，却没有迈克尔。对于年轻的乔丹来说那一天简直糟糕透了。他一个人回了家，进屋后便大哭起来。 兰尼体育馆的助理教练佛雷德•里奇后来说：“我们知道迈克尔很出色，但我们想让他多锻炼锻炼，所以觉得二队更适合他。”那一年，迈克尔轻松地成了二队中最出色的队员。凭借着动作敏捷而非身高优势，他在队中已经举足轻重。许多比赛他都能得到四十分。实际上，他突出的表现使二队的比赛备受欢迎。为了能看到有他参加的二队比赛，所有的校队队员都开始提前到场。 史密斯发现在乔丹被筛选掉之前是不甘于人后的，而在落选之后他的好胜心似乎有过之而无不及，似乎是决心不让历史重演。教练们也注意到了这一点。罗•康利说：“我第一次看到迈克尔•乔丹时，还不知道他是谁。我们去与劲敌哥尔兹保罗队打比赛。我进入体育馆时，二队的比赛就要结束了。场上的九名队员都已无心恋战，只剩下一个孩子还在竭尽全力地打球。那就是迈克尔。我很快就得知他一贯如此。" 乔丹一直都充满着紧迫感，他是队中最勤于练球的队员。一时间，兰尼中学出了一个非常优秀的篮球队，而迈克尔•乔丹成了一颗冉冉升起的明星。 Michael Jordan There were already signs that Michael Jordan had a good deal of talent. Harvest Smith, a classmate and close friend who in those days played basketball with him practically every day, thought he was the best player on their ninth-grade team—he was small, but he was very quick. In Smith’s mind there was no doubt which of them was the better player—it was Michael by far. But on the day the varsity cuts were announced， he and Roy Smith had gone to the Laney gym. Smith’s name was on it, while Michael’s was not. It was the worst day of Jordan's young life. That day he went home by himself and went to his room and cried. “We knew Michael was good,” Fred Lynch, the Laney assistant coach, said later, “but we wanted him to play more and we thought the jayvee was better for him. ” He easily became the best player on the jayvee that year. He simply dominated the play, and he did it not by size but quickness. There were games in which he would score forty points. He was so good, in fact, that the jayvee games became quite popular. The entire varsity began to come early so they could watch him play in the jayvee games. Smith noticed that while Jordan had been wildly competitive before he had been cut, after the cut he seemed even more competitive than ever, as if determined that it would never happen again. His coaches noticed it, too. “The first time I ever saw him, I had no idea who Michael Jordan was,” said Ron Coley. “We went over to Goldsboro, which was our big rival, and I entered the gym when the jayvee game was just ending up. There were nine players on the court just coasting, but there was one kid playing his heart out. It was Michael, and I quickly learned he was always like that. ” Jordan was as driven as ever, the hardest-working player on the team in practice. Suddenly Laney High had the beginning of a very good basketball team, and its rising star was Michael Jordan. |
