When the Boston Celtics convened for media day back in September, they were the heavy favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in this season's NBA Finals, and arguably no team in the league had a brighter road ahead.
去年九月，凯尔特人召开媒体发布会的时候，他们还是最被看好冲出东部打进总决赛的球队，而放眼联盟也再找不到一支队伍能比他们拥有更光明的前途。
Brad Stevens saw something different."I knew going in that it was going to be super challenging, but October screamed it," the Celtics coach told ESPN recently. "I knew after the first two exhibition games, it was going to be really, really hard."
布拉德-史蒂文斯却给出了不一样的看法，“我一开始就知道，这个赛季的挑战会异常巨大，但十月份我们的胜利掩盖了这一点，”史蒂文斯教练最近告诉ESPN记者，“头两场表演赛之后，我就知道我们今年会非常非常艰难。”
There are plenty of reasons to explain why this season was so hard, and why these Celtics were so disappointing. At the root of all of them, though, is Irving — and, more specifically, his leadership through words and actions on and off the court.
本赛季的艰难、凯尔特人令人失望的表现，都可以找出非常之多的原因来。而究其根本，就是欧文——再细一点，他的领导能力，说到的、做到的，场上的、场下的。
"I mean, we had nothing to lose last year," Irving told reporters. "We had nothing to lose and everybody could play free, and do whatever they wanted and nobody had any expectations.
“我的意思是，我们去年没什么可输的，”欧文对记者说，“我们没有什么值得输掉的东西，每个人都可以自由自在地打，做他们想做的任何事，没有人对当时的球队抱有任何期望。”
What we were supposed to be, at a certain point, we surpassed that. Young guys were supposed to be at a certain point, they surpassed that.
我们超过了当时球队本应有的水平；年轻球员也超过了他们本来的水准。
"We come into this season, expectations, and it's real. Everyone from the coaching staff to the players, it's very much real every single day, so that's new. It's tough. It's hard."
我们这个赛季背负了不少期待，是大家实实在在的希望。从教练组到球员，每天都面对着非常真实的压力。所以这种感觉从未有过，很累，很难。
Irving repeatedly would poke at the team's young players — specifically Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier — through the media. He wouldn't explicitly call them out, just as he didn't in Orlando. But it was clear whom he was referring to.
欧文话里话外一直在提到队里的年轻球员——塔特姆、杰伦-布朗和特里-罗齐尔——面对媒体也是如此。他不会直白地说出这几个名字，首轮打魔术的时候他就没有，但他说的是谁还是挺明显的。
In the wake of Brown's comments, Irving apologized following a win over the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 16.
布朗做出此番发言后，欧文便做出了道歉。
But then, in the glow of one of Boston's best victories of the season, Irving made a stunning admission that made everyone completely forget about what had happened for the prior 48 minutes.
但是，在凯尔特人本赛季数得上的一场大胜之后，欧文突然承认了一个事实，让所有人迅速将这场胜利抛诸脑后。

In the wake of his blowup in Orlando, Irving had called LeBron James — the player he'd demanded to be traded away from 18 months earlier — to apologize for how he dealt with James' leadership and criticism while they were teammates.
在战胜奥兰多赛后，欧文给勒布朗-詹姆斯打了一通电话——就是那个去年他还避之不及请求被交易的詹姆斯——对自己在骑士时处理詹姆斯所给予的领导和批评的方式表示歉意。
Through Boston's fits and starts, there was one thing that didn't appear to be an issue: Irving's commitment to the Celtics.
波士顿的起起落落之间，有一件事是大家从未担心过的：欧文对球队的承诺。
At a season-ticket holder event at TD Garden in early October, Irving pledged to re-sign with the Celtics the following summer.
去年十月，TD花园的季票持有者活动中，欧文向球迷保证自己会在来年夏天与球队续约。
When directly asked about his prior commitment to re-sign with the Celtics, and if it still held, Irving had only this to say: "Ask me July 1."
而后来采访中，再有人问起当时的续约承诺是否作数，欧文只说了句：“七月一号再问我。”
And while Irving made it clear he still believed in what Boston could accomplish, he said that his October commitment had been an example of getting caught up in the excitement of the moment
虽然欧文曾表示，他相信波士顿的前景，但他同时也说，十月份他做出的承诺，只是一时激动脱口而出罢了。
A single thing didn't derail this Celtics season. Across the roster, players failed to completely buy into their roles. Some of that falls on Stevens, whose job it is to manage stars and expectations.
导致波士顿本赛季失败的原因，阵容上来说，球员们并未能很好地承担起自己的角色。一部分要归咎于史蒂文斯，他的工作就是管理好球星与球队的预期。
Hayward's recovery was never assured of taking a linear path. And the Davis situation was a stunner.
海沃德的恢复并非一帆风顺，戴维斯的肥皂剧更是意料之外。
The question now is what Irving will do when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer.
剩下的问题，就是非自由球员欧文，这个夏天要何去何从了。

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