美國籃球明星 Russell Westbrook 接受《Flaunt Magazine》專訪兼任封面人物

美國職業籃球員 Russell Westbrook 繼在《VMan》和義大利版本的《Vogue》出現之後，最近更成為首位運動員成為美國文化雜誌《Flaunt Magazine》的封面人物。這位隸屬 Oklahoma City Thunder 球隊的球星除了球技了得之外，他個人的時尚品味亦是時尚界人士喜歡談論的話題之一，去年更入選了《GQ》雜誌 25 大型男排行榜。這次接受《Flaunt Magazine》的訪問，Russell Westbrook 就大談出戰 NBA 籃球賽時所獲得的經驗，同時亦從不同範疇為自己的人格及在球場上的角色作出悍衛。以下是訪問的節錄部份，有興趣閱讀完整訪談內容的朋友請登上 Flaunt 的官方網站查閱。

“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.