TABITE

“To me, I never really focused on that,” Thabeet said. “My focus is on playing the game.This is something I fell in love with and I chose to do. So when I hear somebody talking like that and saying things like that, I really try to not let it get to me. Whatever they have to say, they are just going to have to see me on the court now and they are going to have to judge by that. This is important to me.

“对我来说，我从来也没有关注过这些，”塔比特说，“我关注的是打球，这是我喜欢的东西，我选择去做的事情，所以当我听到有人说那些或者类似的东西，我都会让自己去忽略他们，如果他们必须说些什么，他们得看看我在场上的表现，他们要根据我在场上的表现评价我，这对我来说很重要。”

“Of course the doubters motivate me, but you can’t just be motivated by the negativity. I have to be self motivated too. And I am, because I love what I do. Yes, part of me wants to go out there and prove all of those people wrong, but I’m also self motivated.”

“当然，这些质疑者激励着我，但是你不能只是被负面的东西激励，我也必须自我激励，我也确实在激励自己，因为我喜欢这样做。是的，一部分的我希望上场比赛，证明那些人是错的，但是我也激励自己去这样做。

Would someone who doesn’t love the game or have the necessary passion put themselves through six months of hell and cut themselves off from family and friends in order to make a serious comeback attempt? Matrisciano heard the gossip about Thabeet, but didn’t see anything to back it up.

有哪个不喜欢比赛或者对比赛没有必要的激情的人会让自己接受六个月的地狱式训练，自己的家人朋友断绝联系，仅仅想要得到回归NBA的机会？Matrisciano听说了关于塔比特的流言，但是他没有说任何话反击。

“For people to say, ‘He’s lazy, he doesn’t put in effort, he’s mentally weak, he’s aloof, ’ that’s ridiculous. What I saw was completely the opposite actually,” Matrisciano said. “I’m very proud of him because he’s worked his ass off.”

“对于那些说这些话的人，'他很懒，他一点都不努力，他的意志力薄弱，他不好相处，'那是很荒谬的。实际上我看到的东西完全相反，”Matrisciano说，“我为他感到骄傲，因为他工作很努力。”

In addition to the intense training, Newton had Thabeet watch a ton of film. Thabeet loves studying legends like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon, and trying to implement some of their amazing skills into his own repertoire.

除了这些紧张的训练之外，Newton也让塔比特看了大量的录像。塔比特喜欢研究像贾巴尔和奥拉朱旺这些传奇球星，他在努力在自己的技能包里加入一些他们的技术动作。

“I like a lot of centers, and I honestly watch all of the big men who have come before me,” Thabeet said. “I figure watching greats like Kareem, Hakeem and others can only help me. I want to shoot the running hook like Kareem. I think if I work on it more, it’ll be a good weapon to have in the arsenal. And I love Hakeem’s spin moves and quick feet.”

“我喜欢很多中锋球员，我曾经真切地看到这些大个子球员在我身前经过，”塔比特说，“我发现仅仅是看贾巴尔、奥拉朱旺还有其他一些前辈的录像就能对我有所帮助，我想像贾巴尔一样投中勾手投篮，我认为如果我勤加训练，那会是我军械库里一个好武器。我还很喜欢奥拉朱旺的转身动作和他快速的脚步移动。

“We went through post footwork; I looked at all the greats and that’s what we incorporated into the workouts,” Newton said. “I had specific names for the moves. I had him working on ‘the Danny Manning up-and-under,’ ‘the Danny Manning double chop step-post move, ‘the Kareem skyhook,’ which a lot of players say isn’t a sexy shot

“我们研究过低位脚步，我看了所有优秀球员的相关录像，我们会把那些融入进训练中，”Newton说，“我给这些动作起了特殊的名字，我让他训练这些动作，其中有一个'贾巴尔空中勾手'，很多球员说这种投篮动作不迷人。我问哈希姆，'如果你用勾手投篮能得20分，这个动作对你有吸引力吗？'他说，'是的！'我们还有一个动作叫做'奥拉朱旺转身动作'，在做这个动作训练时，我会把球扔给他，他会下蹲起身，然后他会向底线转身。

I asked Hasheem, ‘If you could score 20 points on skyhooks, is that something that’s appealing to you? He was like,‘Yeah!’ We also had a move called ‘the Hakeem spin move,’ where I would throw it to him and he would go up and come down and he would spin to the baseline.

I mean these are former greats who were just dominant in the post. I mean, if you have a move named after you, you did something right. We also worked on his reverse pivot shot, jump hooks, pivot hooks, running skyhooks, having neutral feet when catching the ball, dribble hand off, pick-and-rolls and things like that.

这些伟大的球员曾经在低位主导比赛，我是说，如果有一个动作以你的名字命名，你肯定做了些正确的事情。我们也训练他的反转身投篮、跳起勾手等投篮动作，还有接球后的脚步动作以及运球、挡拆等相关的技术训练。哈希姆能够做所有这些低位动作，因为他有难以置信的运动能力，以他的垂直弹跳能力，他能跳出训练馆。同时他的身体也很强壮，他有所有的能力在NBA长时间地成为一支球队的中流砥柱，他真的真的非常有天赋。”

Hasheem is able to do all those post moves because he’s incredibly athletic. With his [34-inch] vertical, he jumps out the gym. He’s physically strong too. He has all of the tools to be a mainstay in the NBA for a very long time. The guy is extremely, extremelytalented.”

Thabeet’s agent, Ryan N. Davis, praised Newton and Matrisciano for the work they did while also crediting Hasheem for putting in the time and energy to take these huge strides.

“Hasheem took direction from two professionals, Milt and Frank, who are critical of even the smallest misstep,” Davis said. “The months Hasheem spent with them resulted in a bigger, stronger, faster, more cerebral Hasheem Thabeet. Hasheem has invested sweat equity to improve his standing as a player.”

After overseeing his growth firsthand over the past few months, Newton and Matrisciano believe it’s only a matter of time until Thabeet salvages his career and changes how he’s perceived.

“I’m very confident,” Newton said. “I’m very confident. He still has a lot left and his mentality is one that, to me, is of a player who is willing to work hard and who is committed to the game. You don’t do what he has done this summer and not have a commitment to play the game. That, in a sense, is a change from when he initially got into the league. I believe that when he gets with an NBA team, if given the opportunity, he understands that it’s something he’s going to have to prove in practice before he may even get in to a game. His practices will be games. But with all coaches, if you show that you can do it in practice, that’s when you get the opportunities in games and I think he understands that. He’s willing to go through that process again.

“He’s only worked out for three teams – the Knicks, Wizards and Lakers – so teams still don

’t know the work he’s put in or what he’s done. They still think he’s the old Hasheem, when

he really isn’t. I think people will see that he is a different player when he gets with an

NBA team and he gets in games and he plays well. That’s when, I think, people will start

investigating and wondering what he did over the summer to improve. I mentioned his name to a

couple other teams [outside of the three that worked him out], people I know and trust in the

league. I won’t mention those names, but they hadn’t seen him and so the only memory they had

of him is the old Hasheem.

“And all I would say is, ‘I guarantee when you see him playing in the winter, you’ll

remember our conversation.’”