By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News, 2024-05-23 15:34:51
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。
2012 年 2 月 11 日，在新泽西州纽瓦克的保诚中心，圣安东尼奥马刺队的蒂姆·邓肯（#21）和理查德·杰弗森（#24）从替补席上观看了与新泽西篮网队的比赛。
主持人衣着考究，准备充分，手拿笔记本和三件套西装，提出了一个问题。
“在你退役后，”他开始问道，“你对成功的定义发生了怎样的变化？……你如何找到这种渠道？”
嘉宾衣着休闲，但穿着迷彩色工装短裤，僵硬地坐在折叠导演椅上，显得有些拘谨，他给出了一个精彩的回答。
他说：“抚养好孩子。”
这需要进行后续报道。
理查德·杰弗森说：“详细告诉我一下你的孩子。”
蒂姆·邓肯回答道：“不。”
作为一段幽默小品，这简直太完美了，因为采访本身就是一个笑话。
这个千年来最臭名昭著、最隐居的 NBA 超级巨星，自愿在 YouTube 上接受一位老队友的采访？这是一个荒谬的前提，但邓肯的自知之明让它奏效了。
而且，作为马刺队长期以来始终如一的坚毅面孔，提醒我们所有人在一个全面透明的时代他是多么格格不入？
现在越来越明显的是，他的继任者非常适合担任邓肯所不能担任的角色。
作为 ESPN 评论员和前马刺球员的杰弗森，如果在 “理查德与拉里秀” 网剧的第一集中采访文班亚马的话，可能与采访邓肯时大相径庭。首先，文班亚马肯定不会待不到七分钟就离开了。
（旁注：在“理查德与拉里秀”中，拉里是拉里·奥布莱恩 NBA 冠军奖杯，它坐在第三把椅子上，让邓肯成为三人组中第三个最活跃的成员。）
但邓肯的出现本身就令人震惊，尽管他和杰弗森多年来一直是好朋友，尽管他的简短发言是噱头的一部分。在一个每个 NBA 流浪球员都有播客，已退役的边缘球星在令人头昏脑胀的“谁更厉害”辩论中学几个小时昏昏欲睡的世界上，杰弗森肯定知道自己无论如何都无法让邓肯陷入热门话题的生态系统。
2011 年 3 月 4 日星期五，在 AT&T 中心，马刺队的马特·邦纳 (从左至右)、托尼·帕克、理查德·杰弗森、蒂姆·邓肯和马努·吉诺比利在与热火队的比赛即将结束时开着玩笑。马刺队以 125-95 获胜。（摄影：EDWARD A. ORNELAS/eaornelas@express-news.net）（圣安东尼奥快报新闻）
当被要求比较迈克尔·乔丹、科比·布莱恩特和勒布朗·詹姆斯时，邓肯说他会让他们都先发，而自己会坐在替补席上。（在被问到对大卫·罗宾逊、马努·吉诺比利和托尼·帕克的看法时，邓肯兴高采烈地说：“我会抛弃这个法国小子。”）
他没有谈到另一个法国小将，但很难在观看邓肯强忍着在六分三十二秒内经历感觉像是酷刑的时候，不去思考文班亚马。
在联盟中，可能没有比文班亚马更好的潜在播客嘉宾了，他甚至会认真思考最愚蠢的问题，并且很高兴能用掩护和卷切战术的解释或宇宙中假想暗物质的解释来招待喧闹的小学生或经验丰富的体育记者。
文班亚马进入 NBA 不到一年，但他已经以一种邓肯无法想象的方式推销了自己。诀窍在于，文班亚马根本没有把它当作营销。
他只是做自己，而这正是邓肯一直以来的样子。对文班亚马来说，这意味着对任何事情都持开放态度。对邓肯来说，这意味着对任何事情都不持开放态度。正如杰弗森所发现的那样，这尤其适用于他的家人。
要了解邓肯孩子的情况，你需要向格雷格·波波维奇这样的健谈者求助。几个月前，在旧金山的一次公路旅行中，马刺队的主教练透露他的孙子是邓肯女儿的青年联赛队友。当被问及哪位孩子更有可能成为职业球员时，波波维奇惊人地 提供了很多细节。
波波维奇说：“她能在 WNBA 打球吗？他能进入 NBA 吗？” “她的机会比我的孙子大多了，上周我孙子竟然得到了一个技术犯规。我不知道这是不是遗传因素，但这是真的。这是个真实的故事。”
一位好奇的专栏作家问道，这种情况是怎么发生的？
波波维奇说：“那个家伙从他那里抢走了球，然后他把他铲倒了。” “我不是说他撞了他一下。他用胳膊抓住了他，然后把他铲倒在地。”
爷爷对他说了什么吗？
“没有，我让妈妈和爸爸来做这件事情，”波波维奇说。“我不在那里。他们告诉我这个故事。”
但你为他感到自豪，对吗？
波波维奇咧嘴一笑，站起身来准备离开时说：“不，不，不。” “我不会说这些话的。”
他已经说的比任何人预期的都要多了。在他的老家，他以前最出色的球员可能正穿着迷彩工装短裤，一边摇头，一边纳闷为什么有人愿意回答这样的问题。
那么他的新任最佳球员呢？
他对自己身边的人已经产生了影响，他想知道为什么有人会不想回答这样的问题。
点击查看原文：Duncan stonewalls Jefferson, reminding us how Wembanyama is different
Duncan stonewalls Jefferson, reminding us how Wembanyama is different
[Image]
Tim Duncan #21 and Richard Jefferson #24 of the San Antonio Spurs look on from the bench against the New Jersey Nets at Prudential Center on February 11, 2012 in Newark, New Jersey.
The host, looking dapper and well-prepared with his notecards and three-piece suit, asks an excellent question.
“Since you’ve retired,” he begins, “how has your definition of success changed? … How do you find that outlet?”
The guest, looking casual but familiarly uncomfortable wearing camouflage cargo shorts while stiffly seated in a folding director’s chair, gives an excellent answer.
“Raising good kids,” he says.
BLOCKED: Victor Wembanyama denied spot on All-NBA team
This demands a follow-up.
“Tell me more about your children,” Richard Jefferson says.
“No,” Tim Duncan replies.
As a comedy bit, this is dead solid perfect, because the interview itself is the joke.
The most notoriously reclusive NBA superstar of the millennium, volunteering to talk to an old teammate on YouTube? It’s a preposterous premise, but Duncan’s self-awareness makes it work.
And as the ever-stoic longtime face of the Spurs reminds us all how out of place he looks in an all-access era?
It becomes all the more apparent how well his successor is suited to be what Duncan wasn’t.
Had Jefferson, the ESPN commentator and former Spur, interviewed Victor Wembanyama in the first episode of his “Richard & Larry Show” web series, it probably would have gone much differently than it did with Duncan. For one thing, Wembanyama would have stayed longer than seven minutes.
(Side note: The Larry of “Richard & Larry” is the Larry O’Brien NBA championship trophy, which was seated in the third chair, and made Duncan the third-most animated member of the trio.)
But the fact that Duncan showed up at all was jarring, even though he and Jefferson have been good friends for years, and even though the brevity was part of the gimmick. In a world where every NBA journeyman has a podcast, and where retired marginal stars drone on for endless hours during mind-numbing “who was better?” debates, Jefferson had to know there was no way he’d be able to suck Duncan into the hot-take ecosystem.
[Image]
Spurs’ Matt Bonner (from left), Tony Parker, Richard Jefferson, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili joke on the bench near the end of the game against the Heat Friday March 4, 2011 at the AT&T Center. The Spurs won 125-95. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/eaornelas@express-news.net) (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)
Asked to compare Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, Duncan said he would start them all and bench himself. (Asked the same question about David Robinson, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, Duncan did take some glee in saying, “I’ll cut the French boy.”)
The subject of a different French youngster did not come up, but it was hard not to think about Wembanyama while watching Duncan grit his teeth through six minutes and 32 seconds of what had to feel to him like torture.
There might not be a better potential podcast guest in the league than Wembanyama, who answers even the dumbest questions with earnest thoughtfulness, and who is happy to entertain either rambunctious grade-schoolers or grizzled sports writers with explanations of pick-and-roll drop coverage or hypothetical dark matter in the cosmos.
Wembanyama has been in the NBA less than a year, and he’s already marketed himself in a way Duncan would’ve found unimaginable. The trick of it is that Wembanyama doesn’t think of it as marketing at all.
He’s just being himself, which is exactly what Duncan always has been. For Wembanyama, that means being open about everything. For Duncan, it means being open about nothing. As Jefferson found out, that especially applies to his family.
For details about Duncan’s kids, you need to go to a more talkative source, like Gregg Popovich. A couple of months ago, on a road trip in San Francisco, the Spurs coach let it slip that his grandson was a youth-league teammate of Duncan’s daughter. When asked which kid is a better pro prospect, Popovich surprisingly provided plenty of details.
“Can she be in the WNBA? Can he be in the NBA?,” Popovich said. “She has a hell of a lot more chance than my grandson, who actually got a technical foul last week. I don’t know if it’s in the blood or what, but it’s true. It’s a true story.”
How did that happen, a curious columnist asked.
“The guy stole the ball from him and he tackled him,” Popovich said. “I don’t mean he bumped him. He wrapped his arms around him and tackled him to the floor.”
Did grandpa say anything to him?
“No, I let mom and dad do that,” Popovich said. “I wasn’t there. They told me the story.”
But you are proud of him, right?
“Nooooo,” Popovich said, grinning as he stood up to walk away. “I’m not gonna say that.”
He’d already said more than anybody expected him to. Somewhere back home, his old best player probably was sitting in camouflage cargo shorts, shaking his head while wondering why on earth anyone would want to answer questions like that.
And his new best player?
Already rubbing off on those around him, he wonders why anyone wouldn’t.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News
