由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准
Baxter Holmes，ESPN 高级撰稿人2024 年 5 月 6 日，美国东部时间下午 05:41
关闭Baxter Holmes（@Baxter）是 ESPN 数字与印刷版的高级撰稿人，专注于 NBA。他已报道过湖人队、凯尔特人队，此前曾效力于波士顿环球报和洛杉矶时报。
编辑注：本报道最初发布 3 月 21 日。
更新：拍卖于 5 月 3 日结束。活动组织者出售了两批圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇的私人标签葡萄酒，每批都包含 2005 年至 2017 年的瓶装酒以及 2019 年收获的酒。这些批次分别被不同的竞标者购买，第一批售价为 30,000 美元，第二批售价为 31,000 美元。这些数字远远超出了预期。总体而言，此次拍卖筹集了超过 220 万美元——创下纪录。
数十年来，圣安东尼奥马刺队的主教练——著名的葡萄酒鉴赏家——格雷格·波波维奇一直慷慨地与周围的人分享难得一见的葡萄酒。
但他提供的最令人垂涎欲滴的葡萄酒瓶也许是他的私人标签，一种名为 Rock & Hammer 的小产量俄勒冈州黑皮诺葡萄酒，不对公众出售。
“如果您不喜欢，我不在乎——因为我们不卖它，”波波维奇在 2008 年圣安东尼奥举办的葡萄酒活动上曾对一群鉴赏家说过，引得人群大笑。
波波维奇没有将葡萄酒商业出售，而是将其捐赠给 NBA 周围的慈善事业、密友和教练同行。
“太棒了！”曾化身波波维奇被动攻击性地试图哄骗他送给自己更多葡萄酒的印第安纳步行者队的主教练里克·卡莱尔说。
“非常好，”前 NBA 教练拉里·布朗说。“我认为波波不希望有其他办法。”
“多年来，他给了我和我的助理教练好几个箱子，”曾在波波维奇领导下夺得冠军的勇士队主教练史蒂夫·科尔说。“这是一个很棒的黑比诺，这些年来我和家人都很享受它。波波将他酿制的葡萄酒当作礼物赠送给联盟中的教练和朋友，真是太好了。友情的完美礼物。他是一个不可思议的男人。”
2015 年执教洛杉矶快船队时，密尔沃基雄鹿队主教练多克·里弗斯给它打了高分。杰里·科兰杰洛是一位同样品尝葡萄酒的鉴赏家，同时也是奈史密斯篮球名人堂的主席，他同样给予了积极的评价。前丹佛掘金教练乔治·卡尔曾拥有一箱，据悉在他的圣安东尼奥办公室外的走廊里还摆放着几箱。
这种葡萄酒每年只生产 45 箱，是与俄勒冈州的雷克斯山酒庄合作酿造的，波波维奇是该酒庄的长期投资人。
在极少数情况下，有些单瓶葡萄酒进行拍卖——2011 年份的签名酒瓶在 2013 年以 760 美元的价格售出——而且十多年前，波波维奇在俄勒冈州拍卖会上主持了 Rock & Hammer 所有年份的垂直品鉴，每张门票售价为 750 美元。
但是，ESPN 得知，完整的系列葡萄酒将首次在 5 月份的拍卖会上拍卖，以支持堪萨斯城的纳尔逊-艾金斯艺术博物馆。
此次拍卖将作为 ShuttleCork 活动的一部分举行，这是一项为博物馆筹集年度最大资金的多日活动，该博物馆对公众免费开放。
其中一批葡萄酒包含 2005 年至 2017 年生产的每一年份的 Rock & Hammer葡萄酒，其中几瓶由波波维奇签名。
竞标将于 5 月 3 日晚上 8 点 CST 左右在现场拍卖会上进行。可以通过直接向博物馆发送电子邮件进行远程竞标。
“我们非常幸运能够在今年的 ShuttleCork 上拍卖 Rock & Hammer 黑皮诺葡萄酒。”纳尔逊-艾金斯博物馆馆长兼首席执行官朱利安·祖加扎戈蒂亚告诉 ESPN。
据活动组织者称，这些葡萄酒是由波波维奇以及迈克尔和南希·蒂森两位堪萨斯城当地人捐赠的，他们是这位马刺队主教练的长期好友。
这款葡萄酒的名字是对 20 世纪初的记者和改革家雅各布·里斯的一句话的致敬，这句话已经成为波波维奇领导下的马刺队的代名词。这句话以框架形式出现，并在圣安东尼奥球队的设施中被翻译成多种语言：
“当似乎没有任何帮助时，我就会去看一位石匠用石锤敲打他手中的石头，也许一百次都没有什么裂纹出现。然而在第一百零一次的时候它就会裂成两半，而我知道让它裂开的那一下并不是那一下——而是之前的所有。”
这句话还出现在瓶子的背标上，并附有波波维奇的名字。
尽管波波维奇与 NBA 的教练们分享了这款酒，但他也将其赠送给了餐饮业人士——连同手写便条——以感谢他们在外出时候奉上的盛宴。
几十年来在波莫纳-皮泽学院（Pomona-Pitzer）为波波维奇效力的迈克·布利兹在庆祝自己的 25 周年结婚纪念日时，收到了一张来自波波维奇的便条和一瓶 Rock & Hammer。
在与波波维奇曾执教过的同一级别联盟中执教的加州理工学院篮球教练多克·埃斯林格在 2011 年打破了长时间的连败纪录后，波波维奇给他寄了一箱 Rock & Hammer。
时至今日，埃斯林格只有一瓶了。
“也许我永远不打开它，”埃斯林格说。“它就是这么特别。”
原文如下：
Complete collection of Gregg Popovich’s private wine label auctioned
[Image] Baxter Holmes, ESPN Senior WriterMay 6, 2024, 05:41 PM ET
CloseBaxter Holmes (@Baxter) is a senior writer for ESPN Digital and Print, focusing on the NBA. He has covered the Lakers, the Celtics and previously worked for The Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published March 21.
Update: The auction closed May 3. Event organizers sold two lots of San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s private-label wine, with each containing bottles from 2005 to 2017 as well as the 2019 vintage. The lots were purchased by separate bidders, with the first lot selling for $30,000 and the second for $31,000. Those figures far exceeded expectations. Overall, the auction raised more than $2.2 million – a record.
For decades, San Antonio Spurs head coach – and noted oenophile – Gregg Popovich has generously shared hard-to-find wines with those around him.
But perhaps the most coveted bottle he provides is his private label, a small-production Oregon pinot noir called Rock & Hammer that isn’t available to the public.
“If you don’t like it, I don’t give a damn – because we don’t sell it,” Popovich once told a group of connoisseurs at a 2008 wine event in San Antonio, leading to laughs from the crowd.
Rather than sell the wine commercially, Popovich donates it to charitable causes, close friends and coaching peers around the NBA.
“Excellent!” said Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle, who once impersonated Popovich in a passive-aggressive attempt to coax his peer into sending him more of the wine.
“It was great,” said former NBA coach Larry Brown. “Don’t think Pop would have it any other way.”
“He’s given me, and my assistant coaches, several cases over the years,” said Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who played under Popovich – and won a championship – in San Antonio. “It’s a great pinot, and my family and I have enjoyed it very much over the years. It’s such a great thing that Pop gifts his wine to his coaches and friends around the league. Kind of the perfect gift of friendship. He’s an incredible man.”
Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers gave it top marks in 2015, when he was coaching the LA Clippers. Jerry Colangelo, a fellow wine connoisseur and chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, likewise returned positive reviews. Former Denver Nuggets coach George Karl once possessed a case, and cases of it have been known to line the hallway outside Popovich’s office in San Antonio.
Only 45 cases of the wine are produced per year, which is made in partnership with the Oregon-based Rex Hill Winery, where Popovich was a longtime investor.
On rare occasions, individual bottles have been auctioned off – an autographed bottle of the 2011 vintage sold for $760 in 2013 – and, more than a decade ago, Popovich hosted a vertical tasting of every Rock & Hammer vintage at an Oregon auction, with tickets costing $750 apiece.
But, ESPN has learned, a complete collection will soon be available for the first time ever during a May auction to support the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.
The auction will be held as part of ShuttleCork, a multiday event that’s the largest annual fundraiser for the museum, which is open for free to the public.
One of the lots includes a bottle of every vintage Rock & Hammer produced from 2005 through 2017, with several bottles signed by Popovich.
Bidding will take place during a live auction May 3 around 8 p.m. CST. Bids can be made remotely by emailing the museum directly.
“We are extremely fortunate to be able to auction Rock & Hammer Pinot Noir at ShuttleCork this year,” Julián Zugazagoitia, Director & CEO of the Nelson-Atkins Museum, told ESPN.
According to event organizers, the bottles were donated by Popovich and Michael and Nancy Thiessen, two Kansas City natives who are longtime friends of the Spurs head coach.
The name of the wine is an ode to the quote from early 1900s journalist and reformer Jacob Riis that has become synonymous with the Spurs under Popovich. The quote is framed and translated into several languages throughout the team’s facilities in San Antonio:
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it ‐‐ but all that had gone before.”
The quote is also featured on the back label of the bottle, along with Popovich’s name.
While Popovich shares it with coaches around the NBA, he has also gifted bottles to those in the restaurant industry – along with hand-written notes – to thank them for their hospitality after lavish dinners on the road.
When Mike Blitz, who played for Popovich at Pomona-Pitzer decades ago, celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary, he received a note from Popovich and a bottle of Rock & Hammer.
When Caltech basketball coach Doc Eslinger, who coaches in the same division Popovich once did, snapped a long losing streak in 2011, Popovich shipped him a case of Rock & Hammer.
Today, Eslinger has one bottle left.
“Maybe I’ll never open it,” Eslinger said. “That’s how special it is.”
via ESPN