夢想進行式–石博恩 Dream coming true–Brendon Smart

林俊吉在切入禁區時面對的是身長兩公尺的榮毅燊，將近20公分的差距讓他不得不加大力道出手以閃避榮毅燊的封蓋；不過事與願違，皮球擦的高了些，連籃框都沒碰到。眼看計分板上的十五分差無法得到縮小，又要讓對手掌握一波球權，一抹黑色身影飛身殺入，在高空中接住彈出的球，接著.......

When Jun-Ji Lin drives to the paint, he was faces a 6’7 Yi-Sen Rong, an 8 inch height gap forced Lin to shoot the ball higher to prevent from getting blocked. But unfortunately, the ball went higher and didn’t even touch the rim. When their enemy’s going to get another possession, a shadow strikes in and catches the ball in the air…..

我知道這傢伙很會跳，不過，他到底是打哪來的？

I know this guy CAN jump, but where does he came from?

「石博恩」Brendon Smart到底是哪來的？

Where does 「Bo-En Shi」Brendon Smart come from?

聖文森是中南美州許多群島中的其中一座。這地方比台灣小的多，也不似台灣高樓林立，但是對於在這裡度過童年的Smart來說，這裡無比美麗而且全年都一樣的溫暖，而在他記憶裡只有一些對掌上遊戲機和電腦遊戲的印象，更多是小時候與朋友一起玩彈珠和板球的美好記憶。在十六歲那年，從小一起居住的媽媽為了工作要移居到別的地方，留下Smart的爸爸與正值青春期的他一起生活。一個人要擔起養育的責任的父親，盡全力讓他遠離麻煩，並且無時無刻以身作則，激勵他成為一個更好的人；而在遠方工作的母親，則一有空就會打視訊電話回家與Smart聊聊生活上的事情。他與他的表兄弟也常常開著叔叔的車子到處亂晃，也會看著兩家的的狗狗一起打鬧作為消遣。

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is one of the many islands in the Caribbean near Central America and South America. This place is much smaller and less developed as Taiwan. But for Smart who spent his childhood on the island, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is amazingly beautiful and warm throughout the year. There are just little memories of video games, but more of them are great memories of him playing marbles and crickets with friends when he was younger.

At the age of sixteen, his mother who lived together since growing up moved somewhere else for work, leaving Smart's father and younger brother living with him. His father who took the responsibility to raise him did everything to keep him away from trouble, lead him by setting a good example and encourages him to become a better person everyday. For his mother who works far away, they chat by video calls when she had free time,He and his cousin often drive his uncle's car to go for a ride and they watch their dog play for fun.

Akeme Smart，不僅僅是一個曾經參加NCAA二級聯賽和NBA夏季聯盟的職業球員，他更是啟發小Smart走上籃球這條道路的人。看著哥哥藉由籃球去到美國大學讀書，也讓他放下曾經嘗試的排球與板球，專注在籃球場。當小Smart為了紓解生活的壓力和社交而開始尋求藥物，也是哥哥及時跳了出來並把他的生活導回正軌。

Akeme Smart isn't just a professional basketball player who played in college and NBA Summer League, he's also the person who inspired his younger brother to play basketball. Watching Akeme earning the opportunity to go abroad by playing basketball, brendon decided to give up volleyball the he played nationally for his country and crickets, he started to focus on basketball. when brendon started to smoke and getting off of track, it's his brother and parents who came and put him right back on track.

每個月就要修理一次的破爛籃框，粗糙而且看起來像月球表面的地板，這是Smart的籃球路開始的地方。另外一個球場離家裡有一大段的距離，他與死黨Enrico和朋友們別無選擇，只能在這麼惡劣的環境下打籃球。現在是一名專業健身教練的Enrico與Smart形影不離，他們一起訓練，不斷的挑戰彼此，而且不管做甚麼事情都在一起。即使球場環境差到讓鞋子一個月就磨穿而常常必須光著腳打球，但他們仍舊每天放學就來到籃球場報到，直到天黑看不見籃框才離開，並且樂此不疲。「即使在下雨天我們也會去那裏，」Smart低頭看了看自己膝蓋上的傷疤。「我身上的這些傷痕都是因為在雨天打球而來的，而即使是在晴天，場地有時候也會搞得我們受傷。」。

The floor is so rough that looks like the surface of the moon, and the broken rim had to be fixed every month; the shabby court is where everything started for Smart. The other courts was too far away from home, smart and his friends had no choice but to play in such a terrible court. Enrico-who is now a professional fitness trainer is Smart's best friend, they workout together, challenged each other and does everything together, even though the court is so bad that makes a shoe completely broken in a month ,they still play on the court everyday after school until the sky is too dark that they can't see the rim. They never got tired of this. “We go there to play even on rainy days” Smart looks at his scars on his body. “All of my scars came from playing basketball in the rain, and even when it's dry the game was so rough it's bloody sometimes.

Smart並不滿足於在聖文森的籃球場；他也曾經有過美國夢。但是在高中時的比賽沒有錄影，只能寄送自己訓練的影片，不足以讓他進入NCAA打球。某一天，他的哥哥通知了他一個即將改變他人生的消息：嘿，台灣有所學校對你有興趣。

Smart isn't satisfied with playing ball only on the court of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines he also dreamt of play in United States But the only official tournament he had played in is the local high school league and the game hadn't been recorded for him to schools and coaches, so the only videos he had to send is workout videos and that's not enough for the colleges to recruit him.

One day, his brother told him something that's going to change his life forever: “Hey, a school in Taiwan is interested in you.”

“等等，台灣？我可對那地方一無所知”。

“Wait, Taiwan? I don't know anything nothing about that place.”

同樣來自聖文森，曾經在銘傳大學參與UBA賽事並且現在是GDS的一員的Craig Sam此時聯繫上了Smart。作為一位與Smart的哥哥同樣藉由籃球去到海外的球員，Sam藉由自己手邊的資源，在嘗試著招募家鄉裡那些充滿天賦的年輕人來到台灣打球。在與聖文森的籃球協會總長和Smart本人交談過後，Smart對於來到台灣產生了濃厚的興趣，更重要的是，他願意為了成為更好的球員付出一切。

Craig Sam, the leader of GDS( GDS is a taiwan company that teaches youngster basketball and hold some league games. They send some high school players to USA for a training camp every year, Who is also from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and had played in the UBA, being as a player that also went abroad by basketball like Akeme, Sam was recruiting talented players in his hometown to come play basketball in Taiwan. After he talked with the president of basketball of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Smart himself, Smart became very interested in coming to Taiwan to play. The most important thing Is: he is willing to give everything to become a better player.

為了能順利地來到台灣的大學打球，Smart無論在台灣或是聖文森都有一大堆的文件需要準備。在那些幫助他的人裡，有一位在他生命中有著舉足輕重的地位：那就是他現今已經交往近兩年的女友。「我曾經為了她想要放棄籃球，但是她不斷的激勵我讓我不要放棄。」Smart的雙眼裡盡是對女友的愛意與感謝。「我感謝妳為了我做的每一件事情，總有一天我會報答你為了我從一開始所做的這些......我愛你！」

To come to Taiwan to play, Smart had a lot of documents to be prepared. And with those people that helped him on the documents, there’s a person who means a lot to him, that’s his girlfriend. ”I wanted to give up basketball at a point, but she motivated me to believing and hanging in there.” There’s some truest love in Smart eyes. “ I really thank you for everything that you’ve done for me and I hope one day i’ll get to show how much it means to me one day, to let you know that I love you.”

剛開始來到台灣的生活並不容易。在家鄉時吃的米飯都是經過調味的，但來到台灣，我們日常生活所吃的白米飯卻是一點味道也沒有，他更是受不了臭豆腐這種小吃的味道。還有台灣隨處可見的廟宇，讓從大部分都是基督徒的聖文森來的Smart感到不習慣，在比賽結束後全隊依同前往廟宇時他也無法一同進入參拜。在那些人山人海的地方他有時也會感到緊張，最重要的是，語言上的隔閡是一到難以跨越的巨大鴻溝。

The life when he first came to Taiwan isn’t easy. The rice he ate in his hometown is seasoned, but here in Taiwan the rice has no taste and he just can’t take the taste of the local foods such like stinky tofu. Being a christian, Smart can’t go into the temples with his teammates either. Sometimes he gets nervous in crowded place, and to him communication is a huge problem.

雖然一開始難以適應，但台灣比起家鄉是更為安全的地方，小時候曾經被持槍搶劫的事情在這裡不太可能遇到。還有健行科大的Charles老師會在課餘時間帶他去吃飯，四處遊覽，也曾帶他到台北的中正紀念堂來參觀，讓他感覺到學習與自己生長環境不同的文化與歷史是一件很有趣的事情。也正所謂「台灣最美的風景是人」，在出外買飯時碰到困難，常常有周圍的人對他伸出援手，讓他感受到台灣人的熱情。「食物那些我大致上也習慣了，」正在控制飲食的Smart笑著說道。「最喜歡的食物應該是炒飯吧，我還是比較喜歡有調味的米。」。

Although it is difficult to adapt at first, Taiwan is a more secured place than his hometown. “I got robbed once with my friend because the guy showed us his gun,” Says Smart.” but i don’t think it’s going to happen here.”. Teacher Charles, who is a teacher of Chen Hsin University, takes him to get Taiwan local food in his spare time and go visit other places. He once took Smart to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei , it made him feel that learning a different culture and history from his own its an interesting thing. The so-called "Taiwan's most beautiful scenery is the people", when he got problems with communication, there's often people that reaches out to help him, so that he felt the enthusiasm of the people of Taiwan. "I'm getting used to the food," said Smart, who is on a diet. "My favorite food is probably fried rice, I still prefer the seasoned rice."

在家鄉，Smart和朋友們在破舊的球場上打的是三對三還有四對四的比賽，「No blood，No foul」的兇悍比賽風格更曾經讓他於比賽中弄碎下巴。在這裡碰到的大多都是他完全不熟悉的五對五正規比賽，與家鄉相對同身形對手對位時的速度優勢在面對台灣刁鑽的後衛時也消失的無影無蹤；而從習慣的前鋒轉換到中鋒更是一大課題。所幸從小在惡劣場地培養出的韌性讓他展現出超人般的毅力和上進心，不光光是在練球結束後的加練，其他人在休息時他更是常常泡在重量訓練室加強自身的肌力。在他自己的Instagram帳戶裡，滿滿都是他努力的證明。對於台灣盛行的公園籃球文化，他也只曾經在教練陪同下去與公園與阿伯鬥牛一次，而且完全把在那打球的阿伯虐爆。如果你在中壢的哪個公園看到有一座被肆虐的支零破碎的籃框，也許那就是出自Smart之手。

In his hometown, Smart and his friends played 3 on 3 and 4 on 4 games at the old court, the “no blood, no foul” game style even had his chin broken. But what he has to play here is the 5 on 5 full court game that he doesn’t know much about, the speed advantages when he faces the player as his size dissapear when he has to match up with smaller players. Another big challenge is, he has to change his position from forward to center. Fortunately, growing up playing in the rough court gave him the toughness and perseverance that he needed to deal with the challenges . He practices alone after the team practices and when others are resting at home, he’s often in the weight room or on the court improving himself. For Taiwan's popular park basketball culture, he had only went to the park with the assistant coach couple times, and he killed the elders. If you saw a broken rim at a park in Zhongli, maybe that’s Smarts artwork.

在他的背後，還有健行科大的團隊支撐著他。在談到隊友與整個團隊時，Smart是這麼說的：「在我眼中，他們是一群無私的人，如果你受傷了，他們會過來照顧你；雖然我們的默契因為語言的關係還不是太好，但是我相信時間會讓我們更團結。」而這支球隊的領導者在他的眼中，無疑是大四的學長黃泓瀚。「大瀚在我眼中是全UBA最優秀的球員。」Smart的口氣裡，聽得出他對這位學長的尊敬。「他的各項技術，還有對比賽時全力以赴的態度，讓我覺得無人能出其項背。在隊友低潮時，他也總是主動來激勵我們，這讓我對他感到無比的敬重。」

And there’s UCH team that got his back. When talking about his teammate and the coaching staff, this is what Smarts says: “To me, they’re a group of unselfish people. When you’re injured, they’ll come and look after you. Our chemistry still isn’t too good because of the language, but i believe we’ll get more united.” To smart, the leader is definitely the senior Hung- Han Huang.”Han(Huang’s nickname) to me is the best player in the UBA.” We can hear how much Smart respects Huang. ”His techniques, skills and the attitude he brings to the game made me think that he’s the best player. When we’re down, he’ll come and cheer us up and put your mood back on swing. I respect him a lot for that.”

爆滿的新莊體育館，雙方啦啦隊熱情的加油聲，台灣師大隊上健行科大的UBA冠軍賽對Smart來說是個瘋狂又神奇的回憶。「那是我第一次在一個場上感受到如此多的能量！」Smart回憶道。只是剛開始，一切對他來說並不順利。「我一開始可能有點太緊張了。教練交代我做的事我沒有一項做好；我連卡位擋住對手都做不到。」一開始的無力表現，也讓劉孟竹教練不得不把他暫時換下場，並告訴他他在場上幾乎沒有甚麼貢獻。「坐在板凳上的時候我思考了一下，只過了一小段時間，我就下定決心要在這場比賽付出我的一切，不管會發生受傷還是任何事情，我都決定要豁出去了。」於是回到場上，將緊張的心情拋諸於腦後的Smart，在那個撼動整個場館的爆扣過後，重新真正回到了比賽裡。

Inside the packed Hsin-Chuang stadium, the fans are rooting for their schools. The UBA championship of NTNU(National Taiwan Normal University) versus UCH is a crazy and amazing experience to Smart.” It’s the first time i felt that much energy in one place!” Smart recalls. But at first, things wasn’t going as planned.” I was a little bit too nervous at the starting of the game; I didn’t do anything that coach told me to do, I couldn't even box out well.” The lacking performance made the head coach Meng-Zhu Liu place him on the bench and told him that he isn’t doing anything to help his team. “ When I’m on the bench i thinked for a while, and in a very short time, I knew that I’m going to give everything in this last game, I didn't care if I got injured, I’m just going to do why I have to.” After the dunk that shocked the whole stadium, Smart got back in the game and helped the team overcome a huge margin and got the first champion for his school.

「我的夢想是打進NBA!」目前21歲的Smart，有著與全世界成千上萬的籃球員一樣的夢想。即使他堅信著自己可以，只是他知道，考量到各種因素，還有等到他畢業之後，他可能已經太晚了。雖然有時仍掛念著千里之外的家鄉和那裏的人們，但他的目標卻從未動搖，因為他知道這些人曾經為了他做過多少的努力。從聖文森的破舊球場，到台灣的UBA，即使仍與自己的最終夢想有著一大段距離，他仍對現在所得到的滿懷感恩，並且日復一日的努力訓練。

"My dream is to play in the NBA!" The 21-year-old Smart has the same dream with every basketball player around the world.. He still believes that he can ,but he knows that after he graduates from school it might have been too late. Although he still misses his home and family sometimes, his goals never waves because he knew how much effort these people had done for him. From St. Vincent's dilapidated court to UBA in Taiwan, even if he’s still very far from his dream, he is still grateful for what he gets and is working hard day after day.

從剛開始來到台灣對全場觀念一竅不通的門外漢，到賽季末段單場２０＋１０的比賽，宛如灌籃高手裡櫻木花道的成長歷程，唯一不同是，如果Smart在一開始也被問到喜不喜歡籃球這種問題，他絕對會馬上發自內心的回答你非常喜歡。我們不知道他最後會到達甚麼高度，但我們可以知道的是，「石博恩」Brendon Smart正一步一步的走在他的夢想大道上。

When he first came, he still doesn’t know much about full court basketball; but at the end of the season, he’s already putting up 20+ points and double digit rebounds. His story is similar to the character Sakuragi in the Japanese comic Slam Dunk, but the differences between the two of them is if you asked Smart does he love basketball or not, he’ll tell you yes from the deepest of his heart. We don’t know where will Smart's career ends, but we can be sure that he’s working hard everyday to make his dream come true.

編者後記：

當初會想寫這篇文章是想讓大家瞭解一下除了「洋將」這個身分之外的石博恩，會用兩種語文血也是因為想讓在家鄉的人知道他在這邊的生活。第一次見到Smart的時候原本有點擔心，他會不會是很不好親近的人？不過在開始訪問之後，講著帶有濃厚口音英文的Smart很快就跟我們聊起來。說他是工作狂絕對不誇張，我們能感覺出來他對籃球的熱愛，就連採訪也是在健行科大的重量訓練室進行的。整篇文章在撰寫完成後，也有再讓Smart本人看過，所以像要把聖文森的國名完全打出來自己的要求。

筆者自己對球員們的故事很有興趣；在知道一個球員的故事之後看他的比賽會有一種完全不一樣的感覺。不知道看完這篇文章之後，大家看健行科大的比賽實會是什麼樣的感覺呢？

If you’re intersted to play in Taiwan, you could contact Craig Sam, and here’s his email below:

[email protected]