Shane Battier

PEAK blog

May 27, 2009

As I sit here watching the Denver Nuggets play the Los Angeles Lakers, I think it is a good time for me to reflect on the season. I know everyone was anxious to hear my feelings after we lost game 7 to the Lakers, but for me to truly reflect on the year that had transpired, I needed a week to decompress, and collect my thoughts. The playoffs are so intense and take so much out of you that I probably would not have made sense if I tried to explain my thoughts and feelings of the year.

The year started out as a very frustrating one for me. I had never had a surgery in the NBA before and I did not know how to alter my training preparations for the season. After I had my ankle joint cleaned out, I tried to complete the same training regimen that I had in previous summers when I was healthy. Big mistake. My ankle was not ready for the serious pounding it must take when I train for the upcoming season. As a result, I could not work as hard and I didn't feel like I was preparing the right way. To make matters worse, I developed a bone bruise on the back side of my ankle. The doctors told me I had to take 6 weeks off to completely heal my ankle. For me, this was devastating. I rarely missed games and played through pain. That is just what I thought I should do. Unfortunately, the doctors had different plans.

I missed the first 20 games of the season to completely heal my ankle. When I came back, our team just could not find a good rhythm. Between me, Tracy, and Ron, we could not find a consistent, healthy lineup. It was frustrating to watch and it was frustrating to play. We knew we had an unbelievably talented team, but we just could not put together a winning streak.

As for myself, I was really frustrated with my play. I felt slow and unathletic (well, that's not saying much, but I felt slow and unathletic even for my standards!). I could not jump or move very well. I felt that it affected both my offense and defense. I thought it was my worst year of my career. I remember at the All-Star break telling my wife that this just was a bad year and maybe next year would be better, I was really down on myself.

After the All-Star break, something magical happened with our team. Tracy announced that he was getting season ending surgery. It seemed like everyone counted us out. They said that without Tracy, we wouldn't have a chance to even make the playoffs. The funny thing was that without Tracy in the lineup, we knew we had to play harder and smarter. And we did. And we started winning. Winning big. Our confidence grew and we started to have a lot of fun competing on the floor together. We became a team in the truest sense. Not only were we in the playoff race, we were fighting for home court advantage! Talk about a turnaround.

As the season went along, I gained more strength and athleticism. I started to feel like the old me. I started to make more shots (although I went through a terrible slump at one point). I began to get praise and notice for my defense again. Before I knew it, I had put together a great season. One that I was proud of. I was able to turn around a bad season and make it one of my more productive seasons, which is very difficult to do. I left the season with a great deal of satisfaction in my turnaround and my ability to fight through anything.

As we entered the playoffs, the pressure was on to get out of the first round. Something that the Rockets had not done in 12 years. The city wanted to cheer for a winner so badly and we wanted to give them something to cheer about. Portland was a worthy adversary in the first round. Again, no one gave us a chance to win the series against them. (but did we listen to those people? NO WAY!) After winning the first game of the series in Portland, we knew we were in control. We were able to finish them off by winning all of our home games. In the process, we won over the city of Houston and made all of our Rocket fans world wide proud.

With Tracy already out, it was a devastating blow to lose Dikembe Mutombo to a season ending injury in the Portland series. We knew we needed him against the Lakers, we just didn't know how badly until we lost Yao after the 3rd game of the Lakers series. Again, (like clockwork), people counted us out, they didn't give us a chance to stand up to the mighty Lakers. Not only did we answer the call in game 4, but we pushed the best team in the Western Conference to 7 games before running out of gas.

Not many people predicted that one.

I was proud of the way our team fought in the face of adversity. We never made excuses. We never pointed fingers. We just played. We just played our butts off. Every night. That is why I am proud to be a member of this Rockets' team. It wasn't the fanciest team or the most talented. What it was, was a tough team of competitors. Give me a team that fights like we did, when the odds were against us every day of the week.

Thanks for reading my blog this year, I hope you were entertained and gained a little insight into my world. I'll be checking in over the summer to fill you in on my golf game and my family time.

I can't wait to come to China in August to see my friends and fans, stay tuned for the details.

Best,

Shane

当我坐在这里看着掘金和湖人的比赛，我想是时候来思考和反省一下过去的这个赛季了。我知道在我们第七场输给湖人之后，每个人都想听听我心里的感受，可是对我来说想要实实在在的去思考这整个赛季，我需要一周的时间让自己减压，然后好好的组织一下思维。因为季后赛是如此的激烈，在我还没有意识到的时候已经从我的身边带走了很多的东西，所以尝试去解释我的感受以及总结这一年来的想法都是需要时间的。

   这个赛季的开始我便遭遇巨大的挫折，因为此前我的职业生涯中从未经历过手术，我也不知道该如何调整和改变训练来迎接这样的一个赛季。当我清除了踝关节上的问题之后，我想要完全的恢复训练，就像夏天我健康的时候一样。可这是个巨大的错误。我的脚踝完全经不住这样强度的训练。结果，我并不能很好的继续工作，而且我也感觉到自己准备的方法有问题。更严重的是，我还伤到了脚踝背面的骨头，医生告诉我想要完全治愈我的脚踝至少需要6周的时间。这是让我极度沮丧的消息。要知道我很少缺席比赛，也经常忍着伤痛去比赛。我觉得那是我应该去做的，不幸的是，医生的计划可不是这样的。

 
   就这样，为了完全治愈我的伤病，我缺席了赛季开始的20场比赛。当我回来的时候，我的球队还没有找到一个好的节奏。而我、特雷西和罗恩之间也找不到应有的默契，没有一个健康的阵容。这样的状况让人很灰心，也让我们将这样的挫败感带进了比赛中。我们知道自己是一支拥有令人难以置信的天赋的球队，可是就是还没有团结在一起，还没有一直的去赢球。

 
   从我自身而言，我对于自己的比赛失望极了。我觉得自己变慢了，也不是那么的有对抗性。（可能这样的观点并没有被经常的提到，可是我觉得我距离自己的标准很远！）我不能很好的起跳和移动，我觉得攻防两端的状态都受到了很大的影响。这大概是我职业生涯最糟糕的一年。我还记得全明星期间休息的时候我对妻子说，这只是很坏的一年，或许来年就会好起来，我真的很瞧不起自己。

 
   全明星之后，球队发生了一些不可思议的改变。特雷西宣布他要手术，整个赛季结束了。看起来每个人都认为我们今年没戏了。他们说，没有了特雷西，我们甚至打不进季后赛。可是有意思的是，没有了特雷西，我们知道自己必须打得更加的努力和聪明。我们做到了，我们开始赢球，赢下漂亮的比赛。随后我们的自信得到增长，并且开始在球场有一些有趣的竞争。火箭成为了一支脚踏实地的理性的球队。我们不仅仅赢下了季后赛名额的争夺，还有机会为了主场优势而战。这是一个巨大的转折。

 
   赛季一路向前，我的力量和对抗能力也得到了恢复，我开始感觉到昔日自己的回归。我也开始尝试更多的投篮，（尽管我的命中率下降的很厉害）。我开始得到赞扬，也更加注重自己在防守上的表现。我参与了一个伟大的赛季，我觉得很骄傲。要知道我让一个原本看起来糟糕至极的赛季发生了转变，它甚至成为我更加多产的一年。这是很难做到的。我觉得这个赛季是如此的令人满意，巨大的转变也证明我有足够的能力和任何困难作战。

   当我们进入季后赛之后，突破第一轮的压力随之而来。火箭已经12年没有尝过季后赛第二轮的滋味了。这个城市希望为胜利者欢呼，而我们需要给他们欢呼的理由。波特兰是第一轮中值得尊敬的球队，再一次的，没有人认为我们能够击败他们。（但是我们真的听这些人所说么？绝不！）当赢下这个系列赛的第一场之后，我们知道自己可以控制一切。我们能够在主场击败他们。此前，我们在休斯顿一直是赢球的，让这个城市的球迷成为了世界上最自豪的人。

特雷西还是没有回来，更具毁灭性的是我们还失去了穆托姆博，他在这个系列赛中受伤从而告别了整个自己的职业生涯。我们知道在面对湖人的时候需要他，可是直到和湖人的第三场我们接着失去了姚明，才知道什么是世界末日。再一次的，人们开始预言我们的出局，他们甚至不给我们和强大的湖人对抗到底的机会。可是我们不仅仅用第四场比赛作为回击，火箭甚至将全联盟最好的球队推进了西部半决赛的第七场。

这是大部分人所没有想到的。

我为球队在灾难面前的战斗精神而自豪。我们没有找借口，没有指责任何人，我们只是去战斗。我们只是竭尽全力。每一个夜晚。这就是为什么我为自己是火箭的一员而骄傲的原因。这不是一支自负的或者最有才华和天赋的球队。但是我们是一支强硬的球队，每一个人都是竞争者。当不平等每周每晚都在与我们较劲的时候，请你给我一支球队能像我们这样去战斗。

谢谢你们这一年以来阅读我的博客，我希望你们都很享受也从中了解到我的世界。暑假的时候我也会回来，告诉你们我的高尔夫比赛以及家庭的趣事。

我迫不及待的想要在八月去中国，去看看我的朋友和球迷们。请静候我进一步的详细消息吧。

肖恩