空洞的高尚

Michael+Baumann

BY TAKING BIG PAY CUTS， KEVIN DURANT AND DIRK NOWITZKI ARENT MAKING ROOM FOR THEIR TEAMMATES. THEYRE JUST SAVING MONEY FOR THEIR EMPLOYERS.

接受大幅降薪，凱文·杜兰特和德克·诺维茨基并没有给队友腾出空间。他们只是在为自己的雇主省钱罢了。

On Thursday， Dirk Nowitzki， the NBAs active leader in games and minutes played， points， free throws， and defensive rebounds， re-signed with the Dallas Mavericks for $10 million over two years. Compared to Nowitzkis $25 million team option for 2017–18， which Dallas declined， its a huge haircut for the future Hall of Famer， but Nowitzki is 39 years old and coming off a season in which he played fewer minutes per game （and fewer games overall）， scored fewer points per game， and attempted fewer shots per game than he had in any season since his rookie year. Nowitzki is certainly on the decline， and far from his MVP form of a decade ago.

周四，在出场次数，上场时间，得分，罚球和防守篮板排名现役第一的德克·诺维茨基，以两年1000万美元的价格与达拉斯小牛完成续约。诺维茨基原本2017-18赛季的合同金额为2500万美元，拥有球队选项的小牛选择了拒绝，对于这个未来的名人堂成员来说，新合同属于巨幅降薪。但诺维茨基已经39岁了，前一个赛季他的场均上场时间（总出场次数），场均得分，和场均出手次数均少于新秀赛季。诺维茨基当然处于下滑阶段，状态也远不及十年前的MVP阶段。

Still， Nowitzki will make less over his two-year deal than free-agent bench guy Amir Johnson will make with the Sixers next season alone. Hell make $8 million less per year than Joe Ingles （career high 7.1 PPG in his age-29 season last year）， less than half as much as Zach Randolph， whos almost as old as Nowitzki， and only a half-million per year more than Justin — not Jrue， Justin — Holiday. But this deal keeps him with the only NBA franchise hes ever played for， and Nowitzki has already made over a quarter of a billion dollars in salary over his career. While some might question the wisdom of taking an 80 percent pay cut to keep living in Texas and playing for a lottery-bound club， hes a grown-up and can do what he likes.

即便如此，诺维茨基两年合同挣到的钱，还不如自由球员阿米尔·约翰逊与76人下赛季的一年合同多。他年均比乔·英格尔斯（29岁的他上赛季场均只有7. 1分）少拿800万美元，他的年薪几乎只有和他差不多大的扎克·兰多夫的一半，也只比贾斯汀——不是朱，是贾斯汀·霍勒迪多50万美元。不过这份合同把他留在了生涯唯一效力过的NBA球队，这些年里，诺维茨基已经挣到了超过2.5亿美元。尽管有些人质疑接受80%降薪，继续生活在德州，为一支注定乐透的球队打球是否明智，但诺维茨基毕竟是成年人，他有权做自己想做的事。

Like Golden States Kevin Durant， whos fresh off a $10 million pay cut of his own， Nowitzki can do whatever he likes， but that doesnt make it admirable.

和勇士队刚刚接受了1000万美元降薪的凯文·杜兰特一样，诺维茨基想做什么都可以，但这并不意味着他的行为值得赞赏。

The putative reason Durant took less money to stay with the Warriors was so that money could be redistributed to his teammates and strengthen the teams roster. To Golden States credit， thats happened： Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala got pay bumps， and Nick Young， the NBAs god of folly， came up the coast from the Lakers at a cost of $5.2 million. The rules that govern NBA salaries and transactions are Byzantine to say the least — just look at all the shifting pieces behind Chris Pauls move to the Rockets from the Clippers — but in short， Durants pay cut didnt make the Livingston and Iguodala extensions possible， it made them cheaper， both in terms of the Warriors overall salary outlay and in terms of their luxury tax bill. Warriors ownership， led by venture capitalist Joe Lacob， could have paid Durant， Livingston， and Iguodala and just gone deeper into the luxury tax， but they chose not to. （Maybe Young doesnt come over as the teams midlevel exception if Durant takes the max， but I dont think Swaggy P is going to be what puts the Warriors over the top in 2017–18.）endprint

杜兰特少拿钱留在勇士公认的原因，就是可以把钱分给队友，强化球队的阵容。勇士值得赞赏的是，他们让这种假设成为了现实：肖恩·利文斯顿和安德烈·伊戈达拉的薪水都出现了上涨，还有尼克·杨这个NBA的荒唐之神，离开湖人转投湾区的他拿到了520万美元薪水。NBA的薪水和交易规则，往小了说也是拜占庭式的——看看克里斯·保罗从快船交易到火箭时动用了多少筹码就知道了——但简而言之，杜兰特降薪并没有让利文斯顿和伊戈达拉的续约具有可能性，无论从勇士的整体薪资还是奢侈税角度看，杜兰特只是让他们两人变得更廉价而已。以风投资本家乔·拉科布为首的勇士老板们本可以付给杜兰特，利文斯顿和伊戈达拉工资，交更多的奢侈税，但他们却没有选择这么做。（假如杜兰特选择顶薪，杨可能不会接受球队的中产特例，但我不觉得是Swaggy P的合同让勇士2017-18的总薪金突破天际）。

Meanwhile， the Mavericks， who finished 11th in the Western Conference last season， are almost certainly not going to make the playoffs this season， and have thus far failed to attract any notable free agents. That shouldnt be Nowitzkis problem， anyway； his job is to use his arsenal of YMCA dad moves to score points， not assemble a competitive roster.

与此同时，上赛季排名西部第11的小牛本赛季几乎没有打进季后赛的希望，他们因此未能吸引任何有名气的自由球员。不管怎么说，这不该是诺维茨基的问题；他的任务是利用老大爷打法不断得分，而不是组建一个有竞争力的阵容。

But as The Ringers Danny Chau wrote when Durant first signed，“Durants decision makes it painfully clear that it will always be the players who have to make sacrifices， never the owners.”

可正如The Ringer的丹尼·周在杜兰特签约时所写，“杜兰特的决定让人痛苦地明白，需要做出‘牺牲的永远是球员，永远不是老板”。

On the grand scale of global economic injustice， Durant making $25 million next year and not $34.5 million isnt even a drop in the bucket. Since time immemorial， people have complained about how much athletes get paid， and to be totally frank， those complaints arent without merit. Durant is a godlike basketball figure， a former league MVP， last years Finals MVP， a two-time Olympic gold medalist， a four-time scoring champion， and an eight-time All-Star. Countless millions of people， including me， love watching him play basketball， and while theres great value in entertaining the public， hes not healing the sick， teaching people to read， or performing any function thats strictly essential to society as we know it. On some level， Charlotte Observer columnist Scott Fowlers much-pilloried take about Steph Curry making the equivalent of 1，000 schoolteachers salaries is spoton. We probably would be better off if we took $40 million from either Lacob or Curry and spent it on teachers.

與更广大的全球经济不公相比，杜兰特明年只拿2500万而非3450万确实不值一提。一直以来，人们总是抱怨运动员的收入，说实话，这些抱怨并非毫无根据。杜兰特是个神奇球员，他拿过MVP，是上赛季的FMVP，两夺奥运金牌，四次拿下得分王，八次入选全明星。包括我在内的数以百万计的人喜欢看他打球，尽管娱乐大众具有重要价值，但他没有治愈病患，没有教人读书，也没有做出社会并不可缺的贡献。某种程度上说，《夏洛特观察家》专栏作家斯科特·富勒针对斯蒂芬·库里的收入等于1000名教师的广受批评的评价，其实相当到位。也许从拉科布或库里那里拿走4000万，分给教师们是更好的做法。

Of course， thats not the choice Durant or Nowitzki made. In an egalitarian utopia， sports teams would be public utilities， like a parks department or a library system， provided by a city for the emotional and intellectual well-being of its citizens. Sports teams are essentially civic institutions now anyway， and average people take great pride in their success， to the point where we root for the institution， sometimes — specifically when it comes to salary negotiations — against the individual athletes who make it successful.endprint

当然，那不是杜兰特或诺维茨基做出的选择。在一个绝对平等的乌托邦里，运动队也会是公共事业，就像公园部门或图书馆系统一样，由城市提供，满足市民的情绪与智慧需求。不论怎样，体育球队如今已经成为关键的公共设施，普通人从它们的成功中感受到了巨大骄傲。我们支持这样的公共设施，有时候——特别是薪水谈判时——我们会站在让球队取得成功的个体的对立面。

Sports owners have co-opted that civic pride and are squeezing not only their workers but us fans. Civic pride causes us to support "Dallas" or"Golden State" or "New York，" but sports owners， who will charge you $11 for beer because they can， have insinuated themselves into that relationship， to their great profit.

球隊的老板们共同享受着那样的成功，他们不止压榨自己的员工，还压榨我们这些球迷。城市共有的骄傲导致我们支持“达拉斯”，“金州”或者“纽约”，可只要想就能一杯啤酒收11美元的老板们却慢慢让这种关系为他们带去了巨额利润。

Make no mistake， the Warriors arent a public utility， but a for-profit business， so their labor savings here arent being passed on to the consumer. The average Warriors ticket cost 69 percent more in 2015–16 than it did the year before. Now that Durants taking a pay cut， Lacobs organization is raising the cost of season tickets 16.9 percent in 2017–18. As little as $10 million means to Durant， or $20 million to Nowitzki， it means even less to Lacob and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

不要搞错了，勇士不是公共事业，而是一个追逐利润的企业，所以他们在劳资上节省的钱并不会传导给消费者。勇士在2015-16赛季的平均票价比前一赛季上涨了69%。杜兰特降薪了，拉科布的球队却把2017-18赛季的季票价格提高了16.9%。尽管1000万美元对杜兰特和2000万对诺维茨基来说都是小意思，但这些钱对拉科布和小牛老板马克·库班来说更是九牛一毛。

So we， the fans， the citizens who buy tickets and jerseys and overpriced hot dogs and pay the taxes that fund arena construction， arent getting that money back，. Its either going to Durant and Nowitzki， who are what make basketball compelling， or the owners， whose function in society is to turn millions of dollars into billions of dollars.

所以我们这些球迷，我们这些购买球票，球衣，花大价钱买热狗，交税支持场馆建设的市民，是不会拿回那些钱的。这些钱要么进了杜兰特和诺维茨基这些能让篮球变得更有吸引力的人的腰包，要么进了老板口袋，他们在社会中的作用，不过是把百万美元变成亿万美元。

Without players， the owners would have no product at all. Without owners， players would have to hire their own administrative and marketing arms， which probably wouldnt cost anywhere near the 50 percent of basketball-related revenue the owners get. I like watching Durant and Nowitzki play basketball， but I dont know what function owners serve that couldnt be filled more cheaply and effectively by hired-gun administrators in a league owned by the players. Meanwhile， Lacob is a venture capitalist. Cuban is a relic of the dot-com bubble turned reality television heel. For as much as Durant and Nowitzki arent healing the sick， though， Lacob and Cuban dont even make you smile — unless youre a fan of Shark Tank or throwing money at a 3-D orthodontics company.endprint

没有球员，老板们便拿不出任何产品。没有老板，球员可以聘用管理人员和营销团队，这些成本根本不可能达到老板们得到的篮球相关收入的一半。我喜欢看杜兰特和诺维茨基打球，但我不觉得老板的职能不能被球员拥有的联盟所聘用的管理人员取代，这些人还会便宜，工作效率更高。拉科布是风投资本家，库班则是互联网时代的产物，现在转变为电视明星。就算杜兰特和诺维茨基无法治愈伤病，可拉科布和库班甚至无法为你带来笑容——除非你是《创智赢家》的粉丝，或者投资了3D正牙公司。

Thats more than you could say for Clippers owner Steve Ballmer， who as the former CEO of Microsoft was complicit in making Internet Explorer your default web browser， even though it doesnt work that well. Some NBA owners， like the Lakers Jeanie Buss and the Knicks James Dolan， did nothing more to deserve their billion-dollar piece of the basketball pie than being born into the right family.

關于快船老板史蒂夫·鲍默，能说的就更多了，他是微软前CEO，是他把IE变成了你的默认浏览器。还有一些NBA老板，比如湖人的珍妮·巴斯和尼克斯的詹姆斯·多兰，除了生在了好家庭，他们没做出什么配得上分享篮球这个数十亿美元大蛋糕的事。

After all， Durant and Nowitzki could have demanded to be paid what theyre worth. Nowitzki in particular， as the immensely popular face of a franchise thats treading water， is the rare athlete who could win the PR battle in a contract dispute against the abrasive Cuban.

不管怎么说，杜兰特和诺维茨基本可以要求符合自己身份的薪水。尤其是诺维茨基，作为“划水”球队里广受爱戴的球员，他是少数几个能在与令人讨厌的库班的合同纠纷中赢得公关大战的运动员之一。

In todays American labor culture， demanding to be paid the value of your labor is frequently painted as "not being a team player，" which is a cardinal sin for a team sport athlete. Athletes are trained not only to play a game， but to be obedient and to respect people in power just because theyre powerful， and regardless of whether theyre shown the same respect in return. When Durant or Nowitzki — themselves both worth hundreds of millions of dollars — gets mesmerized by that power， its not a huge deal. But when the lessons of those relationships get translated to ordinary worker-employer relationships， it is. When was the last time your boss used the phrase "be a team player" and gave you good news？ Why should you sacrifice for your employer？

Suffice it to say， Id rather the odd $10 million go to the players， and not the owners. And unless youre in the business of ripping off housewives or saddling college kids with lifelong debt or kicking people out of their homes， so should you.

在如今美国的劳工文化中，要求得到与劳动价值相当的报酬，通常会被定义成“不是团队球员”，对于一个团体项目的运动员来说，这算得上罪大恶极了。运动员不仅接受比赛训练，他们还要学会顺从和尊重有权力的人，仅仅因为对方有权力，而不论对方是否回报了同等的尊重。当杜兰特和诺维茨基——他们都价值数亿美元——被那样的权力迷惑，这并不是什么大问题。可是当这些关系转移到日常工作/雇佣关系时，那就是问题了。上一次你的老板用“做一个团队选手”做借口，告诉你所谓好消息，是什么时候呢？你为什么要为雇主做出牺牲？

这么说吧，我宁愿球员得到那1000万，也不愿意让钱进老板的腰包。除非你的职业是抢劫家庭主妇，让大学生背上一辈子的债务，或者把其他人赶出家门，你也应该支持我。endprint