MY TIME MY WAY

San Antonio - Ask NBA millionaire Eduardo Najera to
identify a mentor he owes everything, and his answer
is a slam dunk, but has zero to do with basketball.
請NBA的百萬富翁Eduardo Najera定義一個他常存感恩的心
靈導師，他的答案會是一個灌籃，但是跟籃球完全沒關係。
 
"Mrs. Medina," says Najera, a smile filling his face.
「Medina老師。」Najera笑意盎然地說。
 
Evelyn Medina is a high school Spanish teacher who
cannot sink a free throw.
Evelyn Medina是一個連罰球都不會進的高中西班牙文教師。
 
What she taught Najera is anything's possible in America.
 她教給Najera的是，在美國什麼事情都可能成真。
 
Thirteen miles across town from the arena where the
Nuggets and Spurs are competing in the NBA playoffs,
you can find Medina at Cornerstone Christian Academy,
where students wear uniforms in hues of the U.S. flag,
the Bible is embraced as a textbook and golden statues
of athletes rub elbows in the school's crowded trophy case.
Medina在距離金塊和馬刺比賽的體育館外十三哩遠的基石基督
教學校(Cornerstone Christian Academy )教書，這間學校的
學生制服有著和美國國旗同樣的色系，聖經是教科書而豐富的
校史館裡排滿了選手們的金牌。
 
"This is where my basketball journey began," says Najera,
now paid one Ferrari shy of $4 million per year as a
defensive specialist off Denver's bench.
「這是我籃球生涯開始的地方。」Najera說，身為金塊隊裡專
職防守的板凳，他現在開著法拉利，年收入大約四百萬美元。
 
His annual salary dwarfs the career earnings from Medina's
labors in the classroom.
他的年薪讓Medina在教室裡一輩子的薪水比起來相形見拙。
 
If professional sports teaches us anything, however,
it's that money cannot begin to measure the true value
of work.
如果職業運動有告訴我們什麼，或許那就是金錢開始不能衡量
工作的真實價值。
 
When Najera came to America from Mexico at age 17, leaving
behind his family in Chihuahua, he dreamed of earning a
college scholarship with an English vocabulary limited to
ordering a meatball sandwich at Subway."The number of English
words I knew was almost none," Najera recalls. "Want to
know the truth? I didn't learn English in school. I learned
talking to girls on the telephone. They thought my accent
was cute, so they helped me out.
Najera十七歲離開他在吉瓦瓦的家人，遠從墨西哥到美國的時
候，他夢想著得到大學的獎學金，只是那時候他的英文單字最
多就只有到能Subway點餐的程度。「我那時認識的英文單字大
概是零吧。」Najera回想著。「想知道真相嗎？我沒有在學校
學英文。我是跟女生們在電話裡聊天學來的。她們覺得我的腔
調很可愛，所以她們就幫忙我學了。」
 
A dozen years after enrolling as a senior at Cornerstone
Christian, Najera can boast of becoming only the second
player from his native country to strike it rich in the NBA.
然後他成為基石基督教學校的學生，十幾年之後他自得地成為
NBA裡唯一，歷史裡唯二，到達富有階級的墨西哥球員。
 
Pro sports are booked solid with fairy tales of hitting
the lottery.That's not the point.
職業運動通常被認定是贏得樂透的童話故事，但這不是重點。
 
This is a story about the boundless power in the kindness
of strangers and the unexpected legacies love can inspire.
這個故事是在說陌生人的和藹所帶來的無窮力量以及愛可以引
發的出乎意料傳承。
 
A broken hand prevented Najera from playing in the series
opener against San Antonio, but the 6-foot-8 forward can
still handle a knife and fork. So he reserved time on this
business trip to visit a restaurant with John and Sandra
Schieffer, who embraced him when Najera needed a host
family as a teenager new to Texas.
Najera因為在和馬刺的季後賽裡手斷掉而不能打球，但是這位
六呎八的前鋒還是可以用刀叉。所以他在這趟公事旅程裡預留
了些時間和John、Sandra Schieffer這對夫婦在餐廳吃飯，他
們在Najera還是個青少年，剛到德州，需要一個寄宿家庭的時
候接納了他。
 
When the bellies were full and napkins waved surrender,
Najera reached for the tab, only to be bumped away with
the same intensity felt when beaten to a loose rebound.
在吃飽肚子，餐巾紙也舉白旗的時候，Najera想要拿帳單，但
是卻被推開了，那力道就像一個被無力的籃板球打到。
 
"They wouldn't let me pay for dinner. Can you believe
that?" Najera says. "They still treat me like their own kid."
「他們不願意讓我付錢耶，你相信嗎？」Najera說。「他們依
舊把我當成他們自己的孩子。」
 
Which makes sense, when you think about it.
如果你仔細去想想，其實還滿有道理的。
 
Better than anyone, Najera knows it's impossible to
repay the debt he owes the Schieffers. Love runs deeper
than any wallet.
Najera比任何人都還要明瞭他是永遠不能還清Schieffer夫婦對
他的恩情。愛是任何的錢包都還要重的。
 
"More than language or culture, I can tell you what that family
meant to me," Najera says. "I am a better person because of
them. I came to them as a 17-year-old who was at a rebellious
age, a wild kid without much discipline. Yet they opened their
doors and their hearts to me. That changed me as a person.
Forever. For the good."
「在語言和文化之外，我可以跟你說家庭對我來說的意義。」
Najera表示，「我因為有了他們而變成一個更好的人。我十七
歲時遇到他們時，我還處於一個叛逆的年紀，是一個沒有教養
的小孩。但是他們卻敞開了心門，接納了我。那讓我整個人永
遠改變了，變的更好。」
 
At noon in the recently built gym at Cornerstone Christian,
boys play hoops. Shots rattle the rim. The sound of dribbling
echoes off walls. Bodies sweat.
中午，在基石基督教學校新蓋好的體育館裡，男生們玩著籃球。
投籃刷著籃框，運球的聲音在牆間迴盪著，大家都流著汗。
 
One of the glistening faces belongs to junior Michael
Schieffer, who was a 5-year-old prepping for his first
solo bike flight when his parents introduced Najera as
his big brother."He got me into the sport," Schieffer says.
其中一個閃亮的臉龐是五歲的小 Michael Schieffer，在他準備
第一次騎雙輪腳踏車時，他的父母介紹了Najera，他是他的大哥
哥。「是他讓我想要來玩這種運動喔。」Schieffer說。
 
Najera can bounce a basketball on an invisible string
from foot to thigh to head, juggling like a soccer
magician. His athletic skills were never in doubt.
A high school of 500 students gave him the faith he
could pass college entrance exams, even after
failing once, twice, three times.
Najera可以從他的大腿玩籃球讓他跳到頭頂，就像有一條隱形
的線。就像一個足球魔術師這樣玩把戲。從來沒有人懷疑過他
的技術。一間有五百名學生的學校給了他可以通過大學入學考
試的信心，即使是失敗了一次、兩次、三次。
 
While Najera admits, "I was scared," Medina recalls a
student who sought her out every morning before first
bell, asking her to explain the mysteries of a culture
where Bart and Homer Simpson were as famous as any president
named Bush. When Najera finally passed his SAT to the
satisfaction of college recruiters, his father called
a trusted friend, expressing concern that the intrepid
dream of a Mexican basketball pioneer could get swallowed
whole and spit out in America
Najera承認，「我那時很怕。」而Medina回想起一個每天早上
第一堂鐘聲之前都來找她的學生。要她解釋Bart和Homer Simpson
與任何一個叫做Bush的總統齊名的文化裡的疑難雜症。當Najera
終於通過了大學徵招所需要的分數時，他爸爸打電話給一個信任
的朋友，跟他訴說，他不知道這一個墨西哥籃球先鋒的夢是不是
會在美國被吃的一根骨頭都不剩。

Not to worry, replied the friend. This Najera possesses
a rock head. Which turned out to be a good thing. What a
young immigrant had learned at Cornerstone Christian is
talent and ambition might not suffice, but resolve of granite
never shatters.
他朋友的回答是，不需要擔心。這個Najera擁有的是一個堅強
的頭腦，而這是一件好事。他在基石基督教學校學到的是，才
能和野心可能不足，但是岩石般的決心卻不能被摧毀。
 
"Students ask me all the time: 'Should I be a teacher?'
And I always tell them the same thing," Medina says.
"The beauty of teaching is how many lives you can impact
in a positive way.But you don't get to see the results
immediately and never really know the full impact until
many years down the line, when some little thing happens
to remind you it was all worthwhile."
「學生常常會問我他們是不是該當老師，我的回答總是一樣的。
」Medina說，「教書的美好是因為你可以正面地影響許多的生命
。但是你不會馬上看到效果，總是要多年後，當有小小的事情發
生時，才可以讓你完全體會，你所做的一切都是值得的。」

In Mexico, a new youth league, already populated by 8,000 children,
has been created through the generosity of a Nuggets forward.
在墨西哥，這位金塊前鋒以他的慷慨創立了一個新的青年聯盟。
這個聯盟已經有八千個小朋友。
 
All the basketball Najera really needed to know in life he
learned from Mrs. Medina.
該知道的生命裡有關籃球的東西，Najera都在Medina老師那裡學到了。
 
PLAY IT FORWARD
讓愛傳出去