By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News, 2024-06-13 13:28:43
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。
2024年1月17日星期三，在波士顿的一场NBA篮球比赛中，圣安东尼奥马刺队的中锋维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) (1) 运球推进 (美联社照片/查尔斯·克鲁帕)
达拉斯——首先，从圣安东尼奥驱车前往。在抵达美国航空中心之前，先到媒体总部领取你的NBA总决赛资格证。
然后，准备好迎接你遇到的每一位篮球记者，他们会用同样的笑话来迎接你，一遍又一遍。
“哦，”他们会笑着告诉你。“你来参加这场比赛真是太好了，在我们每年都开始来你这里之前。”
你会听到他们这么说时会笑，因为这是一个相当不错的段子，无论他们是不是半认真，而且因为他们预测的未来似乎是如此遥远。
但是，你越听到同样的前提，你就越会去思考它，很快你就会开始怀疑：如果没有人开玩笑呢？
如果整个联盟甚至比你想象的更早地恢复到六月定期访问南德克萨斯州呢？
你会试图提醒自己这是疯狂的言论。你会承认，你无法保证你会看到另一场比在达拉斯举行的这场更接近家的总决赛，你会记得，如果真的发生了，这将需要至少五年或更长时间的缓慢而稳定的建设。
你会告诉自己，即使是马刺队也不认为他们可以在2027年之前，更早地举办一场总决赛。你会确信他们不会做任何事情来加快他们的时间表，或者牺牲他们在维克多·文班亚马预计将进入巅峰期时所期望的灵活性以及选择权。
但随后你会观看达拉斯小牛队，一支由一位超凡但并不完美的超级巨星领衔，并由一位极具天赋但反复无常的搭档支持的阵容不佳的球队，你就会问自己一些问题。
如果你看到这支球队在西部联盟中脱颖而出，而西部联盟看起来前所未有地深厚而强劲，你会问，那么一支60场失利的球队能否从第14位升至第一位，而不必进行太多停留，这是否如此不可想象？
当然，你告诉自己，这是不可想象的。你会注意到尼古拉·约基奇仍然存在于丹佛，安东尼·爱德华兹仍然存在于明尼苏达，你那位老相识萨姆·普雷斯蒂在俄克拉荷马城组建了一座年轻才华和资产的山峰，他们似乎都不会在一段时间内离开。
你会记得像斯蒂芬·库里、勒布朗·詹姆斯、凯文·杜兰特和卡怀·莱昂纳德这样的老家伙仍然在那里，这使得即使从垫底位置上升到中游位置也变得更加困难。你会意识到你甚至还没有考虑萨克拉门托、新奥尔良和休斯顿。
但随后你会观看更多卢卡·东契奇——是的，他行动不便，而且像往常一样在进攻端表现出色，但他仍然是一个完全的防守漏洞，波士顿凯尔特人试图利用这一点来攻击他每一次控球，并且非常成功。你会看到东契奇和凯里·欧文要求小牛队为他们做的事情远远超过了任何双人组理应做的，你会看到，在总决赛中最好的七、八名球员中，西部球队可能只有两名。
因此，你再次会想知道：如果像达拉斯这样的球队能够走到这一步，即使是在有点偶然的季后赛中，我们真的确定文班亚马必须等到他20多岁吗？
你会知道马刺队总经理布莱恩·赖特、首席执行官R.C. 布福德和教练格雷格·波波维奇会如何回应这种想法。他们会说他们不是在为一次意外的总决赛做准备，在这场比赛中，来自东部的更强大的对手在三场比赛中都超越了他们。他们会说，他们的目标是成为那种更强大的球队，一年又一年，年复一年。
你会承认这可能是一种明智的做法。
但是，当你在达拉斯总决赛的时间越来越长时，你会不断被同事问到，马刺队什么时候才能做出他们的重大举动。你会开始习惯这样的想法，即使马刺队比以往任何时候都更愿意透露他们自己的计划，但联盟的其他球队似乎都沉迷于圣安东尼奥是否会抢购克利夫兰的达里厄斯·加兰德、亚特兰大的特雷·杨或德琼特·穆雷。
你会开始接受这种噪音永远不会停止，只要马刺队使用这位高大的法国小伙子，而每个人都可以看到，他与联盟中任何其他冉冉升起的新星都不一样。
当一位联盟官员发现你时，他微笑并调侃说你一定是在总决赛上重温例行公事，为其不可避免地重返圣安东尼奥做准备，当然你会再次发笑。
即使这个笑话听起来越来越像一个预言。
*圣安东尼奥马刺队维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) (1) 得分超过波士顿凯尔特人德瑞克·怀特(Derrick White) (9) 。波士顿凯尔特人在2023年12月31日星期日以134-101战胜圣安东尼奥马刺队
2024年1月17日星期三，在波士顿的一场NBA篮球比赛中，圣安东尼奥马刺队的中锋维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) (1) 投篮 (美联社照片/查尔斯·克鲁帕)
波士顿凯尔特人前锋奥谢·布里塞特(Oshae Brissett) (12) 对圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) 投篮，时间是2024年1月17日星期三，地点是波士顿的一场NBA篮球比赛 (美联社照片/查尔斯·克鲁帕)
达拉斯小牛队后卫卢卡·东契奇(Luka Doncic) (77) 和圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) (1) 在2024年3月19日星期二圣安东尼奥的一场NBA篮球比赛的下半场争抢篮板 (美联社照片/埃里克·盖伊)
马刺队的球迷们对Whataburger的社交媒体活动感到失望，因为这家连锁店在社交媒体上为达拉斯小牛队和俄克拉荷马城雷霆队加油，而不是为马刺队的明星维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)加油。
圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) (1) 和达拉斯小牛队后卫卢卡·东契奇(Luka Doncic) (77) 在2024年3月19日星期二圣安东尼奥的一场NBA篮球比赛的下半场争抢篮板 (美联社照片/埃里克·盖伊)
达拉斯小牛队前锋P.J. 华盛顿(P.J. Washington) (25) 的投篮被圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) (左) 封盖，时间是2024年3月19日星期二，地点是圣安东尼奥的一场NBA篮球比赛 (美联社照片/埃里克·盖伊)
圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) (1) 运球突破达拉斯小牛队中锋德雷克·莱夫利二世(Dereck Lively II) (2)，时间是2024年2月14日星期三，地点是达拉斯的一场NBA篮球比赛 (美联社照片/L.M. 奥特罗)
圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) (左) 准备投篮，对手是波士顿凯尔特人中锋艾尔·霍福德(Al Horford) (42)，时间是2024年1月17日星期三，地点是波士顿的一场NBA篮球比赛 (美联社照片/查尔斯·克鲁帕)
点击查看原文：Even at NBA Finals, Spurs' future with Wembanyama looms large
Even at NBA Finals, Spurs’ future with Wembanyama looms large
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) dribbles up court during an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
DALLAS — First, make the drive up from San Antonio. Before hitting American Airlines Center, stop by the media headquarters to claim your credential for the NBA Finals.
Then get ready for every basketball reporter you see to greet you with some version of the same joke, made over and over and over.
“Oh,” they’ll tell you with a smile. “Nice of you to come to this one, before we all start coming to your place every year.”
You will laugh when they say this, because it’s a pretty good bit, whether or not they’re even half-serious, and because the future they’re predicting seems so absurdly far away.
But the more you hear the same premise, the more you’ll think about it, and pretty soon you’ll start to wonder: What if nobody’s joking at all?
And what if the whole league resumes its regular June visits to South Texas even sooner than you think?
You will try to remind yourself that this is crazy talk. You will acknowledge there are no guarantees you’ll ever see another Finals closer to home than this one in Dallas, and you will remember that if it does happen, it will require at least a half-decade or more of slow, steady building.
You will tell yourself that not even the Spurs think they can host a Finals before, say, 2027 at the earliest. You will be certain that they’re not going to do anything to rush their timeline or to sacrifice the flexibility and options they expect to have when Victor Wembanyama figures to be entering his peak.
But then you’ll watch the Dallas Mavericks, a flawed team led by a transcendent but imperfect superstar, supported by a wildly talented but mercurial sidekick, and you will ask yourself a few questions.
If this is the team that can emerge from the Western Conference during a season in which the West looked as deep and as rugged as ever, you’ll ask, then is it so unthinkable that a loser of 60 games could climb from 14th place to first without making many stops in between?
Of course it’s unthinkable, you’ll tell yourself. You’ll note that Nikola Jokic still exists in Denver, and that Anthony Edwards still exists in Minnesota, and that your old acquaintance Sam Presti has assembled a mountain of young talent and assets in Oklahoma City, and that none of them appear to be going anywhere for a while.
You’ll remember that old guys like Steph Curry and LeBron James and Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard are still hanging around too, making it that much more difficult to even make the modest jump from the bottom of the pack to the middle. You’ll realize you haven’t even thought about Sacramento and New Orleans and Houston yet.
But then you’ll watch more of Luka Doncic — hobbled, yes, and as spectacular on offense as always, but still a complete defensive liability that the Boston Celtics seek to exploit on every possession, with great success. You will watch how Doncic and Kyrie Irving are asked to do far more for the Mavericks than any duo reasonably should, and you will see that of the best seven or eight players in the Finals, the team from the West probably has only two.
And so you will wonder again: If a team like Dallas can make it this far, even in a bit of a flukish postseason, are we really sure Wembanyama has to wait until his mid-20s?
You will know how Spurs general manager Brian Wright and CEO R.C. Buford and coach Gregg Popovich would respond to this line of thinking. They would say they’re not trying to plan for one out-of-nowhere Finals appearance in which a superior opponent from the East outclasses them in three consecutive games. They would say their goal is to be that superior team, year after year after year.
And you’ll admit that’s probably the wise approach.
But then, as your time at the Finals in Dallas wears on, you’ll keep getting asked by colleagues when the Spurs finally are going to make their big move. You’ll start getting used to the idea that even if the Spurs divulge any secrets about their own plans any more than they ever have, the rest of the league seems obsessed with whether San Antonio is going to pounce on the market for Cleveland’s Darius Garland, or for Atlanta’s Trae Young or Dejounte Murray.
You’ll start to accept that this noise never is going to stop, as long as the Spurs employ the tall French kid who everyone can see is unlike any other up-and-coming star in the NBA.
And when a league official spots you, smiles, and quips about how you must be at the Finals getting reacquainted with the routine in preparation for its inevitable return to San Antonio, you will laugh again, of course.
Even as the joke sounds more and more like a prediction.
San Antonio Spurs Victor Wembanyama (1) scores past Boston Celtics Derrick White (9). Boston Celtics defeated the San Antonio Spurs 134-101 on Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots during an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Boston Celtics forward Oshae Brissett (12) shoots against San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama during an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) and San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) reach for a rebound during the second half of an NBA basketball game in San Antonio, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Spurs fans felt dunked on by Whataburger for the chain cheering on the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder on social media instead of Spurs star Victor Wembanyama.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) vie for a rebound during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Dallas Mavericks forward P.J. Washington (25) has his shot blocked by San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) dribbles the ball against Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II (2) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Dallas, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, left, sets to shoot against Boston Celtics center Al Horford (42) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News