older and wiser

今日はNBAオールスターゲームの日でした。その試合を翌朝見ていて今日はマイケル・ジョーダンの誕生日という事を知ったので、彼関連の記事を見てみました。

Editor's Note: David Aldridge has covered the NBA for more than 20 years and is a reporter for the NBA on TNT and a columnist for NBA.com. Watch TNT's extensive coverage of NBA All-Star 2013. The 2013 NBA All-Star Game airs exclusively on TNT at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, February 17.

(CNN) - To contemplate Michael Jordan turning 50 on Sunday is to witness one's youth floating out with the tide, the water as merciless in its mission as Jordan was in his prime. He is in the sweet spot of the old "Saturday Night Live" sketch featuring Mike Myers, "Middle Aged Man," about a guy who was older and wiser, and who obsessed about people looking at his gut.

Jordan has been laid low these days because the team he owns, the Charlotte Bobcats, are one of the NBA's worst, and because he has been terrible at building a franchise.

There is no doubt some schadenfreude at work here, with those who couldn't defeat Jordan as rival players or executives, or those who covered the league and watched the deferential treatment Jordan and the Bulls received. They now delight in burying him.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/15/opinion/michael-jordan-50th-birthday

older and wiserは「人生経験を積んで知恵がついて, 年の功で」という意味(『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』研究社)です。日本語で言うと「老獪な」という訳があてはまるでしょうか。どんなスーパースターも年には敵わないもので、2003〜2004年シーズンのオールスターゲームに出場した時は全盛期の時のプレーはできていない時が多かったですが、double overtimeの際のフェイダウェイ気味のショットはまさにwiser and olderなプレーだったと思います。バスケファンでもない私ですが、彼のファンが多い事はそのプレーと記事を読んで納得出来ました。(EnDough)