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Yao was really funny, but the thing about Yao’s humor was that you rarely saw it coming.
姚明是一个非常有趣的人，但他的幽默常常出乎你的预料。
You can tell a whole lot about a basketball player by how he practices, and Yao Ming was one of the hardest working guys I ever coached.
你可以从球员训练的方式中看出来这个人的品性，而姚明则是我执教过的最刻苦的球员之一。
And you can tell a lot about a player by how he treats his teammates. If there’s a Mount Rushmore of great teammates, Yao belongs on it.
你也一定能说出很多球员和队友们的趣闻逸事。但如果有一座伟大队友的拉什莫尔山，我敢肯定姚明一定在那里拥有一席之地。
Over the years, I've also learned that you can tell a lot about a person's character by how he deploys humor — not only which jokes he tells or what he laughs at (though that's part of it).
多年以来，我都知道人们可以从一个人抖机灵的方式中看出来他的性格——这里说的可不仅仅是讲个笑话，或者他的笑点（当然这也是其中的一部分）。
It's something harder to describe.
这种东西有点只可意会不可言传的意思。
It's just something you pick up on when you're around a person. It's a vibe. It's not always what's said, but how you feel when you're in a person's presence.
当你和他相处的时候就能轻易感受得到。就像是一种气场。莫可名状，但你在这个人身边的时候就能感受得到。
People tend to judge an NBA player's career solely on how many championships he won. Winning championships is a big factor in the end, but I've always believed that conducting yourself as a champion is more important.
人们常常喜欢只用球员所获得的总冠军数目来判断一名球员的职业生涯。虽然最终赢得总冠军确实非常重要，但我总认为努力追逐总冠军的过程更加重要。
I first saw that trait in Patrick Ewing when I coached him in New York. And I immediately noticed it in Yao.
起先我是在执教纽约尼克斯队的时候，在帕特里克-尤因身上发现了这一点。后来当我接触到了姚明，就立刻发现了两者身上的相似之处。
During Yao's career, he often battled two other Hall of Fame-caliber centers who were each at different points of their careers: Shaq was in his 30s, and he was still the best center in the league; Dwight Howard was the best young center in the game.
在姚明的职业生涯里，他总是与两个名人堂级别的中锋在较量，虽然他们的职业生涯处在不同的状态：沙克当时已经30岁了，但他还是联盟中最棒的中锋；而德怀特-霍华德则是联盟中最棒的年轻大个子。
And then there was Yao, who in his mid-twenties was younger than Shaq, but older than Dwight. Yao was better than Dwight, and the gap between Yao and Shaq was smaller than the gap between Yao and Dwight.
姚明介于两者之间，刚好二十多岁，比沙克年轻，又比德怀特成熟。姚明当时强于德怀特，而且他和沙克之间的差距要小于德怀特与姚明之间的差距。
I've got hundreds of stories about how Yao played. Somehow I think we still don't appreciate how skilled he was.
关于姚明的比赛方式，我能讲出几百个故事来。但我们还是难以领会他的技术究竟有多棒。
(If you're, say, under 25 years old, do me a favor right now: YouTube Yao Ming behind the back dribble.) But, to me, what truly defined Yao's greatness — his basketball “character” — were the moments when he was on the bench or off the court.
（如果你还年轻，不知道这些事儿，那么上YouTube去搜索一下吧，姚明背后运球。）但对我而言，真正能够定义姚明伟大的时刻——至少是他在篮球方面的特质——是他坐在场下或者赛场之外的行为。
I loved the way Tracy McGrady and Yao treated each other as teammates. One thing they showed everyone was that basketball shouldn't be a selfish endeavor.
我喜欢特雷西-麦克格雷迪与姚明的组合。一方面，他们向世人展示了篮球不是单靠一己之力就能成功的运动。
Yao and Tracy were kindred spirits in this way. They never fought over the silly notion of whose team it was.
在这一点上，他们二人一拍即合。他们从来没有为谁是球队老大这种愚蠢的问题而怒目相对过。
Instead, they understood what everyone should remember from kindergarten: to share — the credit, the blame and the responsibility.
相反，他们秉持着一种自从孩提时代就习得了的美德：要学会分享——不管是功劳、批评还是责任。
Much like Tim Duncan and Steve Nash, Yao was a unifying leader.
和蒂姆-邓肯还有史蒂夫-纳什一样，姚明是个当之无愧的领袖。
I believe that if a great player is also a compassionate, caring, unselfish teammate, then his team's chemistry is going to be exceptional. That's what Yao did every day, in every way.
我相信，如果一位伟大的球员拥有怜悯之心，关爱之心，同时他又是一名无私的队友，那么他的球队化学反应一定非同小可，而姚明就这样日复一日地重复这些事情。
As a coach, you always want people to be happy for the success of others, but in reality, that's pretty rare in sports.
作为一名教练，你总是喜欢这种愿意为其他人的成功喝彩的球员，但实际上这样的人在体育界真的非常少见。
From Day One, Yao was always as happy for his teammate's successes as he was for his own.
从第一天开始，姚明就为自己队友的成功而感到开心，仿佛就像是他自己获得了成功似的。
And when we didn't succeed, Yao took it just as hard as anyone else. What really impressed me was how he responded to those disappointments.either. He didn't blame his injuries. He just went back to work.
当我们没能取胜的时候，姚明会像其他人一样失落，不过真正让我印象深刻的则是他对待这些失望时刻的方式。
Whether it was losing a regular-season game or a blowing a lead in the playoffs, Yao never took defeat easy. But he never made excuses
不管是在常规赛中失利还是在季后赛中被逆转，他都不会随便处理。而且他也从来不为失败找借口，也不为伤病抱怨，他只是回去继续努力。
If there's anything I regret from my time as Houston's coach, it's the two playoff series that we didn't finish off after going up 2–0.
在我的火箭执教生涯中，如果非要说有什么事情令我感到遗憾的话，那就是有两年季后赛我们没能把握住2-0的领先优势，输掉了系列赛。
We never got out of the first round, and so NBA fans didn't get to see Yao's greatness when it mattered most.
我们从未越过季后赛首轮，因此许多NBA的球迷也不认同姚明的伟大，因为他们认为成绩才是最重要的。
I've always liked the quote, “Your actions speak so loudly that I can barely hear what you say.” That was how Yao conducted himself.
一直以来我都喜欢这样一句话，“行胜于言”，这是姚明常常用来激励自己的话。
By the time practice rolled around, Yao had already been at the facility for a couple of hours. The everydayness of his routine is what made his work ethic one of the best I have ever seen.
直到训练开始，姚明已经在体育馆里待了好几个小时了。正是这样日复一日的努力，才塑造出了我执教生涯中最令人钦佩的职业态度。
But as dedicated as he was, Yao always found time to laugh. And he loved giving his teammates the chances to shine whenever possible — and I don't think I've ever seen him laugh harder than when he was around Dikembe Mutombo.
虽然他一直都是一个非常专注的人，但姚明总能找到机会开怀大笑。而且他总是乐于为自己的队友留出闪光的机会--我从没见过姚明比他和迪肯贝-穆托姆博在一起更开心的样子了。
Those are the moments I miss. The games and the seasons run together. But those moments of laughter I will always cherish.
我很怀念这段时光。很怀念我们在一起比赛的日子。但我更珍视这些弥足珍贵的欢乐时刻。
Houston has a history of terrific big men, like Moses Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon. I always thought Yao fit perfectly in the tradition of those icons who had come before him — and that he brought honor to the Rockets organization, and to the game itself.
火箭队拥有引以为傲的中锋历史，比如摩西-马龙，比如哈基姆-奥拉朱旺。我一直都认为姚明很好地继承了球队先驱们的衣钵——而且像他们一样，为球队以及比赛带来了荣耀。
Now his number will hang in the rafters at Toyota Center alongside those legends. I think every teammate who will be there when he gets his number retired will agree what a great and good person he is.
现在，他的球衣将和其他的传奇球星一样，被悬挂在丰田中心的穹顶上。我想，到时前来参加球衣退役仪式的每一位队友都会认同这样一个观点，姚明是一名伟大而出色的队友。
Today, what's most exciting for me, as his coach and friend, isn't his jersey retirement. It's what's next for Yao.
今天，作为他的教练和朋友，最令我感到兴奋的并不是他的球衣退役仪式本身，而是欣喜的看到姚明的未来。
The greatness of Yao Ming will extend well beyond his NBA career — from the causes he's involved in, to his return to school, to his ownership of a team in the Chinese Basketball Association.
姚明在NBA的职业生涯中所铸就的伟大将在其他方面得以延续——他所从事的事业，重返校园，成为了CBA球队的老板。
I'm certain of this: Yao's next 36 years are going to be so much more impactful and important than his first 36. Because the virtues that made him great at basketball weren't just basketball skills.
我非常肯定，在未来的36年里，他一定会比之前的36年展现出更大的影响力。因为真正铸就了这名伟大球员的并不是球技本身。
I could go on and on. (He would've told me to stop a long time ago.) But I do want to say, simply, this: It was a great honor to coach Yao Ming. He was the real deal — a great man, a great player, a great teammate and a great humanitarian.
这样的溢美之词我可以一直不停的说下去（要是在以前他肯定早就喊停了）。但我还是想特别说一点，非常简单的一点：能够执教姚明真的是我莫大的荣幸。他真的是一位了不起的人——一位伟大的人，一位伟大的篮球运动员，一位伟大的队友，一位伟大的人道主义者。
Congratulations, and thank you, Yao, for all that you did for the game, and all that I'm sure you're going to do going forward.
恭喜！为了你曾经在比赛中所付出的一切，也为了你未来会继续投身的事业，谢谢你，姚明。
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