At 82, Glenda Jackson Commands the Most Powerful Role in Theater
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Credit...
卡里姆·阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔信用...
Dan Winters for The New York Times
丹·温特斯 (Dan Winters) 为《纽约时报》撰稿
I n the sleek, cold lobby of the Langham Place hotel in Midtown Manhattan, one of those thoroughly designed spaces in which one cannot find a right angle, much less a comfortable chair, the 68-year-old, 7-foot-2 former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was sitting on a leather bench with his arms draped around his protruding knees.
曼哈顿中城朗豪坊酒店时尚、冰冷的大堂是精心设计的空间之一，人们找不到合适的角度，更不用说找到一张舒适的椅子了，68 岁、身高 7 英尺 2 英寸的前篮球明星卡里姆·阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔 (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) 坐在一张皮革长凳上，双臂搭在突出的膝盖上。
It was a melancholy pose, best suited for the solitude of a beach at night or a rocky summit after a long hike.
这是一个忧郁的姿势，最适合夜晚海滩的孤独或长途徒步旅行后的岩石山顶。
A U.C.L.A.
加州大学洛杉矶分校
T-shirt and a pair of jeans hung loosely off his narrow frame.
T恤和牛仔裤宽松地挂在他狭窄的身躯上。
Despite having had quadruple-bypass surgery just a few months earlier, Abdul-Jabbar didn’t look all that different than he did during his last days on the Los Angeles Lakers in the late 1980s.
尽管几个月前刚刚接受了四重搭桥手术，阿卜杜尔·贾巴尔看起来与 20 世纪 80 年代末在洛杉矶湖人队的最后几天并没有太大不同。
The only evidence, really, that he had passed retirement age was a dash of white in his goatee.
事实上，证明他已经过了退休年龄的唯一证据就是山羊胡子上的一抹白色。
‘‘Hi, I’m the reporter who is going to follow you around today,’’ I said, sticking out my hand.
“嗨，我是今天跟随你的记者，”我伸出手说道。
‘‘O.K.,’’ he said.
“好吧，”他说。
It was clear there would be no handshake.
很明显不会有握手。
I sat down next to him.
我坐在他旁边。
He made no effort to start a conversation, so neither did I.
他没有试图开始谈话，我也没有。
We sat in silence.
我们默默地坐着。
Abdul-Jabbar has been in the public spotlight for 50 years, and for almost all of that time, he has drawn the ire of most reporters who have dealt with him.
阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔 50 年来一直处于公众的聚光灯下，几乎在这段时间里，他引起了大多数与他打过交道的记者的愤怒。
For a black athlete to be accepted by the sports media, especially during the early years of Abdul-Jabbar’s career, he had to appear humble and deferential and continually thankful to the white world for giving him a chance to become rich and famous.
对于一名黑人运动员来说，要被体育媒体接受，特别是在阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔职业生涯的早期，他必须表现得谦虚和恭敬，并不断感谢白人世界给了他致富和成名的机会。
Abdul-Jabbar, who, like many shy, intelligent people, channeled his innate awkwardness through a hardened mask of superiority, didn’t fit the model.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔和许多害羞、聪明的人一样，通过冷酷的优越感面具来表达自己与生俱来的尴尬，他不符合这个模式。
And while many of the black athletes who were similarly demonized during Abdul-Jabbar’s time — Curt Flood, Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali — have turned into celebrated figures, Abdul-Jabbar, despite his tremendous accomplishments, has never been widely embraced by fans.
尽管许多在阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔时代同样被妖魔化的黑人运动员——科特·弗拉德、比尔·拉塞尔、穆罕默德·阿里——都已成为著名人物，但阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔尽管取得了巨大的成就，却从未受到球迷的广泛拥护。
Abdul-Jabbar had agreed to meet with me on the occasion of his new book, a lively if somewhat dutiful reimagining of the life of Mycroft Holmes, the brother of Sherlock, that is due out this month.
阿卜杜尔-贾巴尔同意在他的新书出版之际与我会面，这本书生动地、但又有些尽职地重新描绘了夏洛克的兄弟迈克罗夫特·福尔摩斯的生活，该书将于本月出版。
‘‘Mycroft Holmes,’’ written with a co-author, Anna Waterhouse, is Abdul-Jabbar’s first novel, but it will be his 10th published book.
与合著者安娜·沃特豪斯 (Anna Waterhouse) 合着的《麦克罗夫特·福尔摩斯》是阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔的第一部小说，但这将是他出版的第十本书。
His collected works go well beyond the usual jockish hagiographies that litter the sports section of every Barnes & Noble.
他的作品集远远超出了巴诺书店体育专区常见的运动员圣徒传。
He has written two unusually candid autobiographies about his playing days, a comprehensive history of African-American intellectual accomplishment, a memoir about growing up in the cultural shadow of the Harlem Renaissance and an admirably researched history of a black tank battalion that fought in World War II.
他写了两本异常坦率的自传，讲述自己的球员时代，一本关于非裔美国人智力成就的全面历史，一本关于在哈莱姆文艺复兴文化阴影下成长的回忆录，以及一部对二战中黑色坦克营的历史进行了令人钦佩的研究。
But if he wanted to discuss his writing, his book, his influences or anything at all, he gave no sign.
但如果他想讨论他的写作、他的书、他的影响或任何其他事情，他就没有给出任何迹象。
Instead, for the next 15 minutes, he intently studied his fingernails with a mild look of disappointment on his face.
相反，在接下来的 15 分钟里，他专注地研究着自己的指甲，脸上带着一丝失望的表情。
Our mutual silent treatment was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Deborah Morales, a bustling dynamo who has been Abdul-Jabbar’s manager for over a decade.
我们相互沉默的待遇突然被黛博拉·莫拉莱斯的出现打断了，她是一位忙碌的活力分子，十多年来一直担任阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔的经理。
Abdul-Jabbar stood up, walked wordlessly to the hotel’s entrance and peered at the sidewalk.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔站起来，一言不发地走到酒店门口，凝视着人行道。
Morales handles all of Abdul-Jabbar’s public engagements with enormous, slightly delusional enthusiasm, as if he were still winning championships with the Lakers.
莫拉莱斯以巨大的、略带妄想的热情处理阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔的所有公开活动，就好像他仍在与湖人队一起赢得总冠军一样。
But her hustle has paid off: Over the past several years, Abdul-Jabbar has emerged as a prolific columnist, writing in Time, Esquire and The Huffington Post, while also maintaining a steady presence as a pundit on political talk shows on MSNBC and CNN.
但她的努力得到了回报：在过去的几年里，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔已成为一位多产的专栏作家，在《时代》杂志、《时尚先生》和《赫芬顿邮报》上撰文，同时还在 MSNBC 和 CNN 的政治脱口秀节目中保持着稳定的评论员身份。
In front of a camera, Abdul-Jabbar comes across as a learned rationalist.
在镜头前，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔给人的印象是一位博学的理性主义者。
He quotes liberally from literature, and he tries to wrestle ideas back into their historical contexts; he rarely, if ever, talks about basketball or his playing career.
他大量引用文学作品，并试图将思想带回到其历史背景中。他很少（如果有的话）谈论篮球或他的职业生涯。
After scanning the sidewalk for gawkers, Morales ushered us into a waiting car.
莫拉莱斯扫视了人行道上是否有围观的人，然后带我们上了一辆等候的汽车。
The radio was on, tuned to talk news.
收音机开着，调到新闻谈话节目。
Morales asked the driver to change the channel to jazz.
莫拉莱斯要求司机把频道换成爵士乐。
The day’s itinerary, enthusiastically set by Morales, called for a trip to the Bronx Zoo followed by lunch at the Empire State Building.
莫拉莱斯热情地安排了当天的行程，包括参观布朗克斯动物园，然后在帝国大厦享用午餐。
Why Abdul-Jabbar, who grew up in New York City and is famously uncomfortable in crowds, would have wanted to visit two of the most touristy, clogged spots in the city was never explained.
阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔在纽约长大，众所周知，他在人群中感到不舒服，但为什么他想要参观该市两个最受游客欢迎、最拥挤的景点，但从未得到解释。
By 10 a.m., as Abdul-Jabbar moved briskly among the exhibits, the asphalt walkways of the zoo had started to fill up with schoolchildren walking hand in hand in neon T-shirts.
上午 10 点，随着阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔在展品中轻快地走动，动物园的沥青人行道上开始挤满了穿着霓虹灯 T 恤手拉手行走的小学生。
The kids stared at the tallest man they had ever seen, and one of their chaperones turned to a colleague and whispered, ‘‘That’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.’’ Abdul-Jabbar strode on, determined to ignore them.
孩子们盯着他们见过的最高的人，其中一个监护人转向一位同事，低声说道：“那是卡里姆·阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔。”阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔继续大步走去，决心不理睬他们。
We saw tigers and silverback gorillas, as well as baby goats at the petting zoo.
我们在宠物动物园看到了老虎和银背大猩猩，还有小山羊。
Abdul-Jabbar, looking impassively at the animals, would occasionally recite a fact about their mating habits or natural habitat.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔面无表情地看着这些动物，偶尔会讲述一些有关它们的交配习惯或自然栖息地的事实。
‘‘Sea lions and wolves share a common ancestor,’’ he said dryly.
“海狮和狼有着共同的祖先，”他干巴巴地说。
He struck me as a man whose preferred mode of communication is a stack of random, verifiable statements.
在我看来，他最喜欢的沟通方式是一堆随机的、可验证的陈述。
In the zoo’s play area, Abdul-Jabbar, at Morales’s urging, lay down on a giant spider web made of ropes for one of dozens of photo ops for his Facebook page.
在动物园的游乐区，阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔在莫拉莱斯的敦促下，躺在一张用绳子制成的巨大蜘蛛网上，为他的 Facebook 页面拍摄了数十张照片。
‘‘Look scared!’’ Morales ordered while pointing her iPad’s camera at Abdul-Jabbar.
“看起来很害怕！”莫拉莱斯一边用 iPad 的摄像头对着阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔一边命令道。
‘‘But I’m not scared,’’ Abdul-Jabbar said.
“但我并不害怕，”阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔说。
After some more coaxing from Morales, he opened his mouth, held his hands up by his face and gave a halfhearted look of faux terror.
经过莫拉莱斯的一番哄骗，他张开了嘴，双手捂着脸，露出一副半心半意的假装恐惧的表情。
As we approached the otter exhibit, a man with his young son in tow looked up at Abdul-Jabbar and said, ‘‘Hey, that’s one of the greatest basketball players of all time!’’ The father extended his hand toward Abdul-Jabbar and said, ‘‘Wow, man.
当我们走近水獭展览时，一个男人带着他的小儿子抬头看着阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔说：“嘿，这是有史以来最伟大的篮球运动员之一！”父亲向阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔伸出手说：“哇，伙计。”
...
...
Kareem.’’
卡里姆。”
Abdul-Jabbar dropped into a hunch and stared miserably off into the space above the man’s head.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔陷入了一种预感，痛苦地凝视着那个男人头顶上方的空间。
After it became clear that the man and his child were not going to step aside, Abdul-Jabbar offered up a curt nod, turned and stalked off.
在得知这名男子和他的孩子不会让开后，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔简短地点了点头，转身大步走开。
Morales jogged up to the child and handed him a playing card autographed by Abdul-Jabbar.
莫拉莱斯小跑到孩子面前，递给他一张有阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔亲笔签名的扑克牌。
Gazing after his bowed, retreating figure, the father reached down, grabbed his confused son by the shoulders and slowly walked him toward the next exhibit.
望着他弓着背、后退的背影，父亲弯下腰，抓住困惑的儿子的肩膀，慢慢地带他走向下一个展览。
By any measure of accomplishment, whether individual statistics or overall team success, Abdul-Jabbar was an undeniable superstar.
无论以任何成就衡量，无论是个人数据还是团队整体成功，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔都是无可否认的超级巨星。
His high-school team at Power Memorial, near Lincoln Center, won 71 straight games.
他所在的高中球队位于林肯中心附近的鲍尔纪念馆，取得了 71 场连胜。
At U.C.L.A., Abdul-Jabbar, one of the best players in the history of college basketball, won three national championships and three N.C.A.A.
在加州大学洛杉矶分校，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔是大学篮球历史上最优秀的球员之一，他赢得了三个全国冠军和三个 N.C.A.A. 冠军。
tournament most outstanding player awards.
赛事最杰出选手奖。
During a 20-year career in the N.B.A., he won the same number of championships as Michael Jordan (six), and bested him by one M.V.P.
在 20 年的 NBA 职业生涯中，他赢得了与迈克尔·乔丹 (6 个) 相同数量的总冠军，并以 1 个 M.V.P. 优势击败了他。
award (also six).
奖（共六项）。
He is the N.B.A.’s all-time leading scorer.
他是 NBA 历史上的得分王。
And yet discussions of his greatness are usually tinged with annoyance, as if his dominance must be nodded at but not dwelled upon.
然而，关于他的伟大的讨论通常都带有恼怒的色彩，仿佛他的统治地位必须得到认可，但不能被深思熟虑。
He has tried, repeatedly, to register his side of the story by writing.
他多次尝试通过写作来表达自己的观点。
In high school, Abdul-Jabbar took a summer job with a Harlem-based black newspaper and covered the 1964 Harlem riots.
高中时，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔在一家位于哈莱姆区的黑人报纸找到了一份暑期工作，报道了 1964 年哈莱姆区的骚乱。
His literary ambitions never abated.
他的文学野心从未减弱。
In the mid-1970s, the writer Gay Talese, while doing research for his book ‘‘Thy Neighbor’s Wife,’’ ran into Abdul-Jabbar at the Playboy Mansion.
20 世纪 70 年代中期，作家盖伊·塔利斯 (Gay Talese) 在为他的书《你邻居的妻子》做研究时，在花花公子大厦遇到了阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔 (Abdul-Jabbar)。
Abdul-Jabbar told Talese that when he retired, he wanted to become a sportswriter.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔告诉塔莱斯，退休后他想成为一名体育记者。
‘‘It seemed like such a strange thing to admit,’’ Talese told me.
“承认这一点似乎是一件很奇怪的事情，”塔莱斯告诉我。
‘‘It almost felt like he wanted to be anyone else.
“感觉他几乎想成为其他人。
He was caught in this huge body, but his aspiration was to be diminished in terms of ambition: He wanted to be the man in the press box.
他被这个庞大的身体困住了，但他的野心却被削弱了：他想成为记者席上的那个人。
You don’t expect a person with stardom in every muscle to want to become a writer.’’
你不会指望一个浑身都是明星的人想成为一名作家。”
Much later, on a trip back to New York City, Abdul-Jabbar accompanied Talese to Elaine’s, an Upper East Side restaurant that catered to the city’s literary elite.
很久以后，在返回纽约市的途中，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔陪塔莱斯去了伊莱恩餐厅，这是一家上东区的餐厅，为该市的文学精英提供服务。
‘‘He wanted to go be with writers,’’ Talese said.
“他想和作家在一起，”塔莱斯说。
‘‘He wanted to see Styron and Mailer.
“他想见斯泰伦和梅勒。
Again, I found it very unusual.
我再次发现这很不寻常。
It just seemed like there was a part of him that didn’t want to be a man of the body.’’
他身上似乎有一部分不想成为一个有肉体的人。”
In 1983, Abdul-Jabbar published ‘‘Giant Steps,’’ the first of two engrossing autobiographies.
1983 年，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔出版了《巨人的脚步》，这是两本引人入胜的自传中的第一本。
He writes about growing up in the ’50s and ’60s in the Inwood neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, the only child of a Juilliard-trained trombone player turned transit cop and a stylish woman from North Carolina who demanded that her son receive a proper education.
他写了自己在上世纪 50 年代和 60 年代在曼哈顿上城因伍德社区长大的经历，父亲是茱莉亚音乐学院训练有素的长号手，后来成为交通警察，母亲是一位来自北卡罗来纳州的时尚女性，她是唯一的孩子，她要求儿子接受适当的教育。
As a boy, Abdul-Jabbar — whose birth name was Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. — ran around with a diverse, middle-class crew.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔（Abdul-Jabbar）出生时的名字是小费迪南德·刘易斯·阿尔辛多（Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr.），小时候，他与一群多元化的中产阶级成员一起生活。
This innocence was shattered when his best friend, a white boy named Johnny, ultimately betrayed him in the seventh grade by calling him a ‘‘jungle bunny’’ and a ‘‘nigger.’’ ‘‘I just laughed at him,’’ Abdul-Jabbar writes.
当他最好的朋友，一个名叫约翰尼的白人男孩最终在七年级背叛了他，称他为“丛林兔子”和“黑鬼”时，这种纯真被粉碎了。“我只是嘲笑他，”阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔写道。
‘‘ ‘[Expletive] you, you ...
” “[脏话]你，你……
milk bottle.’ It was the only white thing I could think of.’’
牛奶瓶。”这是我能想到的唯一白色的东西。”
When he started at Power Memorial, Abdul-Jabbar was already known around the city as an up-and-coming basketball star.
当阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔在鲍尔纪念球场开始工作时，他已经作为一位崭露头角的篮球明星在全城广为人知。
He was written up in sports dailies and accosted on the subway.
他被体育日报报道，并在地铁上被搭讪。
A few weeks after his 16th birthday, Richard Avedon shot his portrait.
16 岁生日几周后，理查德·阿维登 (Richard Avedon) 拍摄了他的肖像。
His coach, with whom he became very close and who shielded him from reporters, was an irascible Irishman named Jack Donohue.
他的教练是一位脾气暴躁的爱尔兰人，名叫杰克·多诺霍（Jack Donohue），他与他关系非常亲密，并保护他免受记者采访。
The older man would talk to his star about the racism he saw while stationed at Fort Knox in Kentucky.
这位年长的男人会和他的明星谈论他驻扎在肯塔基州诺克斯堡时看到的种族主义。
On a trip to North Carolina in 1962, his first time alone in the South, Abdul-Jabbar got to see Jim Crow for himself.
1962 年，阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔第一次独自一人前往南方，前往北卡罗来纳州，他亲眼见到了吉姆·克劳。
‘‘So I knew a little of what Mr. Donohue was talking about,’’ he writes.
“所以我知道多诺霍先生在说什么，”他写道。
‘‘He was certain that racism wouldn’t die until the racists did, and so was I.
“他确信种族主义不会消亡，除非种族主义者消亡，我也是如此。
What I didn’t tell him was that I hoped it would be soon and that if I could help them along, I would be delighted.
我没有告诉他的是，我希望很快就会到来，如果我能帮助他们，我会很高兴。
I wasn’t quite ready to pick up the gun, but I was intimate with the impulse.’’ (His close relationship with Donohue was damaged when the coach told his protégé that he was behaving like a “nigger” during a halftime rant.)
我还没准备好拿起枪，但我对这种冲动很敏感。”（当教练告诉他的门徒他在半场咆哮时表现得像个“黑鬼”时，他与多诺霍的亲密关系受到了损害。）
The next year, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., was bombed, killing four young black girls and partially blinding another.
第二年，阿拉巴马州伯明翰第 16 街浸信会教堂遭到轰炸，造成四名黑人女孩死亡，另一名女孩部分失明。
Abdul-Jabbar’s impulse hardened into something stronger.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔的冲动变得更加强烈。
‘‘As I watched the ineffectual moral outrage of the black southern preachers,’’ he writes, ‘‘the cold coverage of the white media and the posturings of the John F.
“当我看到南方黑人传教士毫无效果的道德愤怒时，”他写道，“白人媒体的冷酷报道和约翰·F·肯尼迪的故作姿态。”
Kennedy White House, my whole view of the world fell into place.
肯尼迪白宫，我的整个世界观都清晰了。
My faith was exploded like church rubble, my anger was shrapnel.
我的信仰像教堂的瓦砾一样被炸毁，我的愤怒像弹片一样。
I would gladly have killed whoever killed those girls by myself.’’
我很乐意亲手杀死那些杀害这些女孩的人。”
After being recruited by nearly all the major college basketball programs in the country, Abdul-Jabbar landed at U.C.L.A., where he studied history and English, dropped acid and became entranced by ‘‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X.’’ After his first season on the court, the N.C.A.A.
在被全国几乎所有主要大学篮球项目录取后，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔来到了加州大学洛杉矶分校，在那里他学习历史和英语，迷上了迷幻药，并被《马尔科姆 X 自传》迷住了。
rules committee outlawed dunking when Abdul-Jabbar netted an average of 29.5 points a game and a 67 percent field-goal percentage.
当阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔场均得到 29.5 分、投篮命中率为 67% 时，规则委员会宣布扣篮为非法。
Other players dunked, but none as frequently and as ferociously as he did.
其他球员也有扣篮，但没有人像他那样频繁、凶猛。
The rule change, as a result, was informally known as ‘‘the Alcindor rule.’’ ‘‘Clearly, they did it to undermine my dominance in the game,’’ Abdul-Jabbar writes in ‘‘Giant Steps.’’ ‘‘Equally clearly, if I’d been white they never would have done it.
结果，规则的改变被非正式地称为“阿尔辛多规则”。“显然，他们这样做是为了破坏我在游戏中的统治地位，”阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔在《巨人的脚步》中写道。“同样清楚的是，如果我是白人，他们永远不会这样做。
The dunk is one of basketball’s great crowd pleasers, and there was no good reason to give it up except that this and other niggers were running away with the sport.’’ Abdul-Jabbar’s U.C.L.A.
扣篮是篮球运动中最受观众欢迎的一项运动，除了这个人和其他黑鬼正在逃避这项运动之外，没有充分的理由放弃它。”阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔的加州大学洛杉矶分校
team won the national championship again when he was a junior.
少年时期随队再次夺得全国冠军。
That year, Abdul-Jabbar refused to play in the 1968 Olympics because he did not want to represent a country that did not treat him as an equal.
那一年，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔拒绝参加 1968 年奥运会，因为他不想代表一个不平等对待他的国家。
The press pilloried him for it.
媒体因此嘲笑他。
In a much-publicized spot on the ‘‘Today’’ show, Joe Garagiola, a baseball player turned TV personality, asked Abdul-Jabbar why he wouldn’t play for his country.
在“今日”节目的一个广为人知的节目中，棒球运动员乔·加拉吉奥拉（Joe Garagiola）问阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔为什么不为自己的国家队效力。
‘‘Yeah, I live here,’’ Abdul-Jabbar said.
“是的，我住在这里，”阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔说。
‘‘But it’s not really my country.’’
“但这并不是我真正的国家。”
‘‘Well, then there’s only one solution,’’ Garagiola said.
“好吧，那么只有一个解决方案，”加拉吉奥拉说。
‘‘Maybe you should move.’’
“也许你应该搬走。”
In 1969, Abdul-Jabbar was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, where he would perfect his signature sky hook — a balletic feat that involves an explosive one-legged leap before flinging the ball into the hoop with one hand — and win three of his eventual six M.V.P.
1969 年，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔被密尔沃基雄鹿队选中，在那里他完善了他标志性的天勾拳（一种芭蕾舞壮举，其中包括爆炸性的单腿跳跃，然后用一只手将球投进篮筐），并赢得了他最终的六次 MVP 中的三次。
awards.
奖项。
Before games, Abdul-Jabbar read books in front of his locker to avoid engaging with reporters.
比赛前，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔在更衣室前看书，以避免与记者接触。
(On his reading list that year: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who reignited his childhood interest in Sherlock Holmes.
（当年他的阅读清单上有：阿瑟·柯南·道尔爵士，他重新点燃了他儿时对夏洛克·福尔摩斯的兴趣。
He admired the detective’s ability to synthesize huge amounts of information.) He became notorious for berating reporters who he thought were trying to bait him into a controversial answer.
他钦佩侦探综合大量信息的能力。）他因斥责记者而臭名昭著，他认为这些记者试图引诱他给出有争议的答案。
Basketball, because it is played in shorts and without a helmet or cap, invites a peculiar intimacy that puts each facial expression, each bodily tic, into heightened focus.
篮球运动因为穿着短裤、不戴头盔或帽子而产生一种特殊的亲密感，让每个面部表情、每个身体抽动都成为高度关注的焦点。
Michael Jordan, and then Kobe Bryant, were celebrated for the way they set their jaws in determination.
迈克尔·乔丹（Michael Jordan）和后来的科比·布莱恩特（Kobe Bryant）因坚定的决心而受到赞誉。
Abdul-Jabbar was judged, and is still judged, on his grim game face and the apparently joyless way he ran up and down the court.
阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔曾被评判过，现在仍然被评判，因为他在比赛中的冷酷表情和他在球场上跑来跑去的明显无趣的方式。
He was traded to the Lakers before the 1975-76 season, and won two more M.V.P.
1975-76 赛季前他被交易到湖人队，并又赢得了两次 M.V.P.
awards in his first two years.
在他的头两年获得奖项。
But the team floundered.
但团队陷入困境。
When Magic Johnson came to the Lakers in 1979, the press regarded him as the team’s savior.
1979年，当“魔术师”约翰逊来到湖人队时，媒体将他视为球队的救世主。
They loved his radiant smile and cast him as the exuberant, warm foil to Abdul-Jabbar’s supposedly arrogant, selfish loner.
他们喜欢他灿烂的笑容，并把他视为阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔傲慢自私的孤独者的生机勃勃、温暖的陪衬。
Despite being painfully aware of his role in the Magic-Kareem binary, Abdul-Jabbar found himself drawn to the rookie’s enthusiasm.
尽管痛苦地意识到自己在“魔术师”与“贾巴尔”二元组合中的角色，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔发现自己被这位新秀的热情所吸引。
He began to open up, in his own peculiar way.
他开始以他自己独特的方式敞开心扉。
He chose to explain himself to the public by writing a book in which he discussed, in grim detail, the anger he felt toward white people and how it informed the choices he made in his youth.
他选择通过写一本书来向公众解释自己，书中详细讨论了他对白人的愤怒，以及这种愤怒如何影响他年轻时做出的选择。
He did not apologize.
他没有道歉。
This is the Abdul-Jabbar paradox: He’s a man who cares enough about his legacy to write two memoirs and eight other books, but he refuses to engage in the usual smoothing, sanding and editing that is required of a public persona.
这就是阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔悖论：他非常关心自己的遗产，写了两本回忆录和另外八本书，但他拒绝进行公众形象所需的通常的平滑、打磨和编辑。
He instead asks you to accept his version of his truth, even if the truth is that at 68, he sometimes has a hard time being civil to children and still refuses to shake the hand of a reporter.
相反，他要求你接受他的说法，即使事实是，他已经 68 岁了，有时很难对孩子们保持礼貌，而且仍然拒绝与记者握手。
Abdul-Jabbar rarely stretches out to his full height.
阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔很少能伸展到他的整个高度。
Instead, he hunches: His shoulders close on their hinges, and he tucks his chin into his neck.
相反，他弓着背：肩膀紧靠铰链，下巴抵在脖子上。
It’s a necessary adjustment to a world that is not designed for a man as tall as he is.
这是对一个不适合像他这样高的男人设计的世界的必要调整。
In the car on the way to lunch, though, he stretched back in his seat, stared out at the passing skyline and tapped his knee to the jazz on the radio.
然而，在去吃午饭的车上，他在座位上伸了个懒腰，凝视着窗外飞逝的天际线，并随着收音机里播放的爵士乐轻敲着膝盖。
He said that he once hoped to spend some of his retirement in a brownstone in Harlem, but the crowds and the constant attention had forced a retreat back to a suburb of Los Angeles, where he could get around without the hazards of busy sidewalks.
他说，他曾经希望在哈莱姆区的一座褐砂石建筑里度过一些退休时光，但人群和持续不断的关注迫使他撤退到洛杉矶郊区，在那里他可以四处走动，而不会遇到繁忙人行道的危险。
He is divorced and has five grown children: three with his former wife, Habiba, and two by other women.
他已离婚，有五个已成年的孩子：其中三个是他的前妻哈比巴（Habiba）生的，两个是其他女人生的。
He lives alone.
他一个人住。
He talked about his recent emergency quadruple-bypass surgery but insisted that the epiphanies of a life-threatening illness had eluded him.
他谈到了他最近的紧急四重搭桥手术，但坚称他并没有意识到自己患有危及生命的疾病。
On Fifth Avenue, we were shepherded into a restaurant on the first floor of the Empire State Building.
在第五大道上，我们被带到帝国大厦一楼的一家餐厅。
Abdul-Jabbar folded himself into a corner booth — a process that required him to stick his legs out from underneath the table at a 45-degree angle — and ordered a cheeseburger.
阿卜杜尔·贾巴尔 (Abdul-Jabbar) 蜷缩在角落的一个摊位上——这个过程要求他将双腿从桌子下面以 45 度角伸出——然后点了一个芝士汉堡。
When the food arrived, Abdul-Jabbar ate like a bird, all pecks and careful dissections.
当食物送来时，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔像小鸟一样吃起来，都是啄食和仔细的解剖。
But his mood had brightened.
但他的心情却变得开朗起来。
He chuckled at Morales’s giddy stream of non sequiturs, praised her business acumen, even smiled.
他对莫拉莱斯一连串令人眼花缭乱的不合逻辑的言论咯咯地笑起来，称赞她的商业头脑，甚至笑了。
He spoke enthusiastically about his admiration for John le Carré and for Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’’ and about his own writing, which he works on for about three hours each morning before, as he put it, ‘‘my head gets contaminated with other concerns.’’ When he’s writing fiction, he told me, he reads Elmore Leonard and Ross Thomas for dialogue.
他热情地谈到了他对约翰·勒卡雷和埃德加·爱伦·坡的《莫格街谋杀案》的钦佩，以及他自己的写作，他每天早上都会花大约三个小时写作，用他的话来说，“我的头脑被其他问题污染了。”他告诉我，当他写小说时，他会读埃尔莫尔·伦纳德和罗斯·托马斯的对话。
When he turns his attention to style, he reads writers as diverse as Gillian Flynn, who wrote ‘‘Gone Girl,’’ and the offbeat experimentalist Miranda July.
当他把注意力转向风格时，他阅读了各种各样的作家作品，比如《消失的爱人》的作者吉莉安·弗林和另类实验家米兰达·朱莉。
All of Abdul-Jabbar’s books have been written with a co-author.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔的所有书籍都是与合著者共同撰写的。
He worked with the poet Anthony Walton on the history of the black tank battalion.
他与诗人安东尼·沃尔顿合作研究黑色坦克营的历史。
The process of writing a book with Abdul-Jabbar, Walton told me, involved breaking down boxes of Abdul-Jabbar’s research — videotapes, old photographs, contact lists and bibliographies — into a narrative.
沃尔顿告诉我，与阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔一起写书的过程包括将阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔的研究成果——录像带、旧照片、联系人名单和参考书目——分解成一个叙述。
‘‘I remember when I realized that the story was going to be the story of one platoon,’’ Walton said.
“我记得当我意识到这个故事将是一个排的故事时，”沃尔顿说。
‘‘That’s one of the oldest stories of all time.
“这是有史以来最古老的故事之一。
It goes back to the Iliad.
这可以追溯到《伊利亚特》。
I remember how excited Kareem was when we talked about that.
我记得当我们谈论这个时卡里姆是多么兴奋。
‘‘Just imagine what it was like to be him,’’ Walton added.
“想象一下成为他会是什么样子，”沃顿补充道。
‘‘It was 50 years of him being 18 inches taller than everyone and having the brain that he had.
“50 年来，他比所有人都高 18 英寸，并且拥有他所拥有的大脑。
Imagine being this jazz head coming up during black power.
想象一下这位爵士乐领袖在黑人权力时期出现。
This is just a dude who has a different head.’’
这只是一个头脑不同的家伙。”
In recent years, Abdul-Jabbar has turned his attention toward the Internet, where he has found an unexpected role among the online commentariat.
近年来，阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔将注意力转向了互联网，并在网络评论员中找到了意想不到的角色。
He has written on Lena Dunham, Ferguson, the body-shaming Serena Williams has endured, the Charleston shootings and Donald Trump.
他写过关于莉娜·邓纳姆、弗格森、塞雷娜·威廉姆斯遭受的身体羞辱、查尔斯顿枪击事件和唐纳德·特朗普的文章。
(Trump recently responded to one of Abdul-Jabbar’s columns by printing it out and writing across the text with a marker: ‘‘Kareem: Now I know why the press always treated you so badly.
（特朗普最近对阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔的一篇专栏做出了回应，将其打印出来并用记号笔在文本上写下：“卡里姆：现在我知道为什么媒体总是对你如此恶劣了。
...
...
You don’t have a clue about life and what has to be done to make America great again!
你对生活一无所知，也不知道必须做什么才能让美国再次伟大！
Best wishes.’’) A bit stiff and laden with quotations from Toni Morrison and Ernest Hemingway, the columns demonstrate a change in Abdul-Jabbar’s politics: He has become a pragmatist who sees the path toward ‘‘racial harmony’’ as a continuum along which one is either moving forward or moving backward.
祝愿。”）这些专栏有点生硬，充满了托妮·莫里森和欧内斯特·海明威的引言，展示了阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔政治上的变化：他已经成为一个实用主义者，他将通向“种族和谐”的道路视为一个连续体，沿着这个连续体，一个人要么前进，要么后退。
His column on Rachel Dolezal, the N.A.A.C.P.
他关于 N.A.A.C.P. Rachel Dolezal 的专栏
chapter president who deceived people into thinking she was a black woman, struck a conciliatory tone.
欺骗人们以为她是黑人女性的分会主席，语气和解。
‘‘She has been fighting the fight for several years and seemingly doing a first-rate job,’’ Abdul-Jabbar wrote.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔写道：“她已经为这场斗争奋斗了好几年，而且看起来做得非常好。”
‘‘Bottom line: The black community is better off because of her efforts.’’
“底线：黑人社区因为她的努力而变得更好。”
I found myself wondering what Abdul-Jabbar’s career might have been like if it had happened 30 years later.
我发现自己在想，如果这一切发生在 30 年后，阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔的职业生涯会是什么样子。
Social media has given athletes a direct avenue to their fans that has cut the sports reporter out of his job as translator, and it has emboldened professional athletes to make political statements they might not have made five years ago.
社交媒体为运动员提供了直接接触粉丝的途径，这让体育记者摆脱了翻译的工作，也让职业运动员更有勇气发表五年前可能不会发表的政治声明。
During the Ferguson protests last fall, players for the St. Louis Rams walked out onto the field with their hands raised in protest.
去年秋天弗格森抗议期间，圣路易斯公羊队的球员举手抗议，走上球场。
In December, during the Eric Garner protests in New York, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and several other N.B.A.
12 月，在纽约埃里克·加纳 (Eric Garner) 抗议期间，勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James)、凯里·欧文 (Kyrie Irving) 和其他几位 NBA 球员
players wore ‘‘I Can’t Breathe’’ T-shirts during pregame warm-ups.
赛前热身时，球员们穿着印有“我无法呼吸”字样的 T 恤。
These protests were meaningful, but they pale in comparison to the risks Abdul-Jabbar took during his playing career.
这些抗议是有意义的，但与阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔在球员生涯中所冒的风险相比，它们显得苍白无力。
His refusal to play in the Olympics and his pride in the face of reporters may not be replayed in every Lakers retrospective, but they still linger in the public’s memory.
他拒绝参加奥运会和面对记者的骄傲也许不会在每次湖人队回顾中重演，但它们仍然萦绕在公众的记忆中。
By throwing himself straight into the muck of online opinion-making, where his name can be tweeted, shared and liked, Abdul-Jabbar has dusted off his legacy.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔直接投入到网上舆论制造的泥潭中，他的名字可以在推特上被发布、分享和点赞，阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔已经重新拾起了他的遗产。
The odd man with the discomforting, unrelenting opinions seems finally to have found an audience.
这个提出令人不安、无情观点的奇怪人似乎终于找到了听众。
Abdul-Jabbar is a thoughtful and deliberate dresser.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔是一位深思熟虑、深思熟虑的着装者。
Nearly every piece of clothing he owns must be custom-ordered or tailored.
他拥有的几乎每件衣服都必须是定制或量身定制的。
In 1967, Life magazine photographed him being measured at a men’s wear shop.
1967年，《生活》杂志拍到了他在一家男装店测量身体的照片。
The tailor, whose arms are wrapped around Abdul-Jabbar’s waist, is standing on a chair.
裁缝站在椅子上，双臂搂着阿卜杜勒·贾巴尔的腰。
When I met him again at the Langham, about a month after our trip to the zoo, he was dressed for the night in a simple, impeccably pressed white shirt and a pair of narrow-legged black slacks, stomping around the room in search of his blazer.
当我在朗廷酒店再次见到他时，大约是我们去动物园一个月后，他穿着一件简单的、熨烫得无可挑剔的白衬衫和一条窄腿黑色休闲裤，在房间里跺着脚寻找他的西装外套。
We were about to head to the Village Vanguard, where he was scheduled to meet a film crew that was finishing up a biographical documentary titled, appropriately enough, ‘‘Kareem: A Minority of One.’’ Abdul-Jabbar, the basketball player, is from Los Angeles, but Lew Alcindor, the kid who hopped around jazz clubs, played pickup games at the famed Rucker Park in Harlem and hung out at parties with Wilt Chamberlain, is a cosmopolitan New Yorker.
我们正要去“Village Vanguard”，他计划在那里与一个电影摄制组会面，该摄制组正在拍摄一部名为“卡里姆：少数派”的传记纪录片。阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔是一名篮球运动员，来自洛杉矶，而卢·阿尔辛多，这个经常在爵士乐俱乐部里跳来跳去、在哈莱姆区著名的洛克公园打比赛、与威尔特·张伯伦一起参加派对的孩子，则是一位国际化的新人。约克。
I asked Abdul-Jabbar if he sometimes wished he had played in the era of social media, if Twitter and Instagram might have given him a more ideal way to communicate with fans.
我问阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔有时是否希望自己在社交媒体时代打球，Twitter 和 Instagram 是否能给他提供一种更理想的与球迷沟通的方式。
‘‘That would have been great,’’ he said.
“那就太好了，”他说。
‘‘It would’ve been nice to really be able to explain myself in the way I wanted to explain myself.’’
“如果能够真正以我想要的方式解释自己，那就太好了。”
He began to talk about Magic Johnson, who, despite the years and their divergent paths, is still cast as Abdul-Jabbar’s opposite.
他开始谈论“魔术师”约翰逊，尽管经历了这么多年，两人的道路也各不相同，但魔术师约翰逊仍然被视为阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔的对手。
Where Kareem was dour, Magic was outgoing and friendly.
卡里姆性格阴郁，而魔术师则外向、友善。
Where Abdul-Jabbar was mechanical, Magic was creative.
阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔是机械性的，而魔术师则是创造性的。
For better or worse, Abdul-Jabbar, basketball’s scarecrow, was uprooted and stored away, forever defined by how much like Magic he wasn’t.
无论好坏，阿卜杜尔·贾巴尔这个篮球界的稻草人被连根拔起并被藏起来，永远被定义为他与魔术师的不同程度。
‘‘I understood why people liked him,’’ Abdul-Jabbar told me.
“我明白人们为什么喜欢他，”阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔告诉我。
‘‘He had that great smile, so white people thought his life was O.K.
“他有着灿烂的笑容，所以白人认为他的生活还不错。”
They thought that racism had not affected him.
他们认为种族主义并没有影响到他。
They were wrong, of course.
当然，他们错了。
But that’s what they saw when they saw him.
但这就是他们看到他时所看到的。
Magic made white people feel comfortable.
魔法让白人感到舒服。
With themselves.’’
和他们自己。”
I asked Abdul-Jabbar if he regretted the way he had treated the press, if he ever wished that he had humored them a bit more in the hope that they might help the public get to know him.
我问阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔是否对自己对待媒体的方式感到后悔，是否希望自己能多幽默一点，希望他们能帮助公众了解他。
‘‘Oh, yes,’’ he said.
“哦，是的，”他说。
‘‘I just didn’t realize back then how much it was hurting me.’’ He turned away.
“我当时并没有意识到这对我造成了多大的伤害。”他转过身去。
‘‘But it cost me dearly.’’
“但这让我付出了惨重的代价。”
Jay Caspian Kang is a contributing writer for the magazine.
Jay Caspian Kang 是该杂志的特约撰稿人。
He last wrote about how black social-media activists have built the nation’s first 21st-century civil rights movement.
他最后写了一篇关于黑人社交媒体活动人士如何发起美国第一个 21 世纪民权运动的文章。