「眾志成城(Strength in Numbers)」的灣區大軍金州勇士隊,在連年繳出破天荒奢侈稅後,不得不開始考慮相關問題,加上在這條尋求衛冕的路上,勇士老闆拉卡伯(Joe Lacob)對自己的「10年宇宙勇計畫」仍相當執著,勢必會對勇士的元老功臣「綠色浪花」三巨頭產生影響。
而拉卡伯日前在接受《聖荷西信使報》的體育專欄作家提姆(Tim Kawakami)於《The Athletic》的採訪中表示,如果柯瑞(Stephen Curry)、湯普森(Klay Thompson)以及格林都能在勇士退役,那自己當然肯定樂見其成、也同樣嚮往這樣的未來,然而現實層面的考量就是,這樣的平衡是難以達到的。
儘管總教頭柯爾(Steve Kerr)擔保三人組仍處於當打之年,但拉卡伯對於自己的經營藍圖顯然另有看法,除此之外拉卡伯也表示,過去也有很多例子證明了,象徵一個城市的球員並不是每個人都能堅守所謂的一人一城,就像生涯末期的「法國跑車」帕克(Tony Parker)、韋德(Dwyane Wade),甚至是「籃球之神」喬丹(Michael Jordan)亦如是;拉卡伯另外也表達了自己對陣中年輕長人懷斯曼(James Wiseman)的喜愛,認為他才21歲、還有很多時間可以磨練,同時表示自己並不怪柯爾給年輕球員的輪換時間相對較少,坦言「贏得勝利就是他的工作」。
拉卡伯採訪內容節錄如下:
▼"Whether we like to hear this or not, players do get older and their skills erode; the question is trying to time all that."
▼"We would like them to retire, all three of them, as Warriors. I really would like that. We really would like that. And I think they would like that. And we're going to try to do that if it makes sense."
▼"But unfortunately, if you look through the history of professional sports, let's look at the NBA in particular, it usually doesn't end that way. Players want to hang on sometimes a little longer than they can or should. Organizations sometimes want to hang on to a dream longer. So you're trying to put all that into perspective and trying to balance it all."
▼"You don't want to go through a decade of being bad, either, for our fans, right? It's a very difficult calculus."
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