1998-03-20, By Jerry Briggs
关于摩尔 - 马刺的00号“永不放弃”
约翰尼·摩尔(Johnny Moore) 坚韧如牛排，执着如骡子，从未允许任何人定义他篮球梦的范围。
不是他的批评者。不是他的教练。当然也不是那些站在他病床边，摇头叹息的医生。
“如果有人告诉约翰尼他做不到，他会反驳说‘不，我能行’，”马刺队史上得分王，也是摩尔的前队友乔治·格文(George Gervin)说。
在今晚马刺队对阵夏洛特黄蜂队的比赛中，球队将举办仪式，在退役摩尔的球衣号码 (00) 时，将让怀旧情绪洋溢。
摩尔与家人站在一旁，将会看到他的球衣被升至阿拉莫穹顶的蓝色幕布上，与格文 (44) 和詹姆斯·塞拉斯 (13) 的球衣并列。
“很难用语言来表达这对我意味着什么，”摩尔说。“我经常半夜醒来思考这个问题。但实际上，最重要的是，我认为这代表着一种接纳。”
摩尔说，他不觉得自己被低估了。事实上，他很感谢马刺队在 1993 年聘请他担任社区关系代表，给了他一个机会走出去，成为一名公众演讲者。
但是，当他作为球员身穿银黑球衣时，摩尔的比赛很少能像一些队友那样受到关注。
“我和一些伟大的球员一起打球，像乔治·格文和阿蒂斯·吉尔莫(Artis Gilmore) 这样的炫丽球员，”他说。“所以在某种程度上，我觉得自己没有得到应有的认可。但这没关系，因为我觉得球员们尊重我，也尊重我为球队做出的贡献。”
摩尔是一名拼命的控球后卫，在他效力马刺队的九年中，场均仅得到 9.4 分。
“我不是顶级得分手，”摩尔说，他是球队史上助攻王，总计 3865 次助攻。“我在场上的许多贡献都是无形的。现在，能和‘冰人’和吉米·西并肩站在那里，就像赢得了一座总冠军一样。没有多少球员能体验到这样的时刻。”
前马刺队主教练科顿·菲茨西蒙斯(Cotton Fitzsimmons) 曾经说过，他从不担心摩尔会运球失误。
“他只会拼命跑到对方球场去抢回来，”菲茨西蒙斯说。
这，本质上，就是摩尔的遗产。
他在新秀赛季的训练营中被马刺队裁掉，后来，在他职业生涯的黄金时期，一场危及生命的“沙漠热”脑膜炎把他赶出了 NBA。
两次，他都回到了联盟，让那些可能质疑他的人感到困惑。
“约翰尼的故事太棒了，”格文说。“经历过那场疾病，还能回来打球，这真是对他性格的赞美。”
从摩尔第一次患上沙漠热病已经过去了十多年。
1985 年 12 月的一个寒冷的早晨，马刺队战胜了快船队后，他坐在洛杉矶国际机场，突然感到一阵头痛。
“我出去买了一些必理痛，”他回忆道。“我只是以为是那种必理痛可以治好的头痛。”
摩尔在那天晚上在丹佛打了比赛，并帮助马刺队爆冷击败了卫冕分区冠军掘金队。
但第二天早上，当球队回到圣安东尼奥时，他无法摆脱疼痛。
“当疼痛持续时，我知道情况不妙，”他说。
圣诞假期对摩尔的家人、球队和球迷来说变成了噩梦。他接受了手术，以减轻大脑的压力。摩尔在 27 岁的职业生涯巅峰期，再也没有在那赛季打过球。
令人惊叹的是，他奋力拼搏，在下一个赛季回到了马刺队。但他再也不是那个球员了，最终在 1990 年告别篮球。
摩尔说，他已经接受了夺走他作为球员最佳岁月的疾病。
“我经常想知道为什么（会发生这样的事），”摩尔说。“但我们永远不会真正知道。有时我怨恨它。我曾经为此感到愤怒。但我现在已经把它抛之脑后了。我克服了它。它只是我人生的一部分。”
作为 1979 年从德克萨斯大学毕业的新秀，摩尔没有熬过他在马刺队的第一个训练营。教练道格·莫伊(Doug Moe)裁掉了 er，直到一年后，他才能在新教练斯坦·阿尔贝克(Stan Albeck) 的带领下，获得了一个位置。
“约翰尼从未放弃，”格文说。“他保持专注，在下一年回来了，并进入球队。他最终成为我们的首发球员，并在 1981-82 赛季成为联盟助攻王。”
摩尔作为控球后卫首发的马刺队，是 NBA 中最好的球队之一。他们两次杀进了西部决赛。在 1982-83 赛季，马刺队距离 NBA 总决赛只有两场胜利。
两次，他们都被魔术师·约翰逊(Magic Johnson) 领衔的洛杉矶湖人队淘汰。
在 1985 年，摩尔和后场搭档阿尔文·罗伯逊(Alvin Robertson) 在联盟中引起轰动，他们带领马刺队——人们预测他们在分区中垫底——登上了积分榜榜首。
人们都在谈论他们。丹佛的一位作家称他们为“双胞胎恐怖”，证明了他们在防守中闪电般的动作，可以扰乱对手。
格文在 1985 年训练营中被交易到芝加哥，他说，如果摩尔没有患上这种疾病，他会变得成熟，并成为联盟中最优秀的球員之一。
“我认为约翰尼会一直保持联盟前五控卫的水平，只要他还打球，”格文说。“他会是助攻和抢断榜上的佼佼者，也是最好的防守球员之一。而且，在那段时间，他刚开始投篮变得更好了。”
尽管大多数人记得摩尔是一位身体强壮的球员，他以耐力和速度弥补了不如明星球员的才华，但现任马刺队解说员罗兰多·布莱克曼(Rolando Blackman) 表示，他的篮球知识和感觉不容小觑。
“他是一位凶猛而激烈的竞争者，”布莱克曼说，他曾在达拉斯小牛队效力期间与摩尔打过很多场比赛。“但他也是一位头脑冷静的球员。
“他有能力突破防守，他知道如何把球传给队友。他能够评估球场上的局势，然后做出反应，（这一点）我一直很佩服他。你总是要做好准备应对他的挑战。”
摩尔，一位永远不会接受“不”的答案的竞争者，他说，他只希望球迷记住，每当他穿上球鞋，他都竭尽全力打球。
“我认为自己是一名蓝领工人，”他说。“我一直想要的，就是凭自己的努力获得一份诚实的报酬。”
点击查看原文：More on Moore - Spurs' 00 'never gave up'
More on Moore - Spurs’ 00 ‘never gave up’
Tougher than a nickel steak and more stubborn than a pack mule, Johnny Moore never allowed anyone to define the scope of his basketball dreams.
Not his detractors. Not his coaches. And surely not the doctors who stood over his hospital bed, shaking their heads.
“Johnny was a guy who, if you told him he couldn’t do something, he’d come back and say, ‘Yes, I can,’” said George Gervin, the Spurs’ all-time scoring leader and a former teammate of Moore’s.
In ceremonies scheduled for tonight’s Spurs-Charlotte Hornets game, the franchise will let the nostalgia roll when they retire Moore’s jersey number (00).
Moore, with his family at this side, will see his jersey hoisted onto the blue curtain at the Alamodome alongside those of Gervin (44) and James Silas (13).
“It’s hard to sum up what this means to me,” Moore said. “I’ve been waking up at night some thinking about it. But really, more than anything, I think it means acceptance.”
Moore said he does not feel underappreciated. In fact, he is grateful that the Spurs hired him as a community relations representative in 1993 and gave him a chance to step out and work as a public speaker.
But when he wore the silver and black as a player, Moore’s performances rarely caught the spotlight of attention that some of his teammates received.
“I played with some great players, flamboyant players like George Gervin and Artis Gilmore,” he said. “And so in that sense I don’t feel like I got all the recognition I deserved. But that was all right, because I do feel like the players respected me and what I did for the team.”
Moore, a hustling point guard, averaged a modest 9.4 points in his nine seasons as a Spur.
“I was not one of the elite scorers,” said Moore, the franchise’s all-time assists leader with 3,865. “A lot of the things I did on the floor were intangibles. Now, to be up there with the Iceman and Jimmy Si, it’s like (winning) a championship. Not too many players get to experience something like this.”
Former Spurs coach Cotton Fitzsimmons once said he never worried when Moore would lose the ball on the dribble.
“He’d just hustle down to the other end and get it back,” Fitzsimmons said.
That, in essence, was Moore’s legacy.
He was waived by the Spurs in the training camp of his rookie season, and later he was driven out of the NBA during the prime of his career by a life-threatening case of “Desert Fever” meningitis.
Both times, he returned to the league, confounding those who may have doubted him.
“Johnny’s got a helluva story,” Gervin said. “To go through what he did with that illness and still come back and play, it’s just a tribute to his character.”
More than a dozen years have passed since Moore first encountered Desert Fever.
Sitting in the Los Angeles International Airport on a cold December morning in 1985 after the Spurs defeated the Clippers, a headache hit him between the eyes.
“I went and got me some Excedrin,” he recalled. “I just thought it was one of those Excedrin headaches.”
Moore played later that night at Denver, and helped the Spurs upset the defending division champion Nuggets.
But by the next morning, as the team returned to San Antonio, he couldn’t shake the pain.
“When it persisted, I knew something else was going on,” he said.
The Christmas holidays turned into a nightmare for Moore’s family, the franchise and the fans. He underwent surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain. Moore, in the prime of his career at age 27, didn’t play again that season.
Remarkably, he battled back to make the Spurs the next season. But he was never the same player, finally bowing out of basketball in 1990.
Moore said he has come to terms with the illness that robbed him of his best years as a player.
“I’ve often wondered why (it had to happen),” Moore said. “But we’ll never really know. At times I resented it. I used to get angry about it. But I’ve put it all behind me now. I’ve moved past it. It’s just a part of my life.”
As a rookie out of the University of Texas in 1979, Moore didn’t last through his first Spurs training camp. Coach Doug Moe cut him, and it wasn’t until a year later that he secured a spot on the roster under new coach Stan Albeck.
“Johnny never gave up,” Gervin said. “He kept his focus, came back the next year and made the team under Stan. He ended up starting for us and leading the league in assists (in 1981-82).”
The Spurs teams for which Moore started at point guard ranked among the best in the NBA. They reached the Western Conference finals twice. In 1982-83, the Spurs came within two victories of the NBA Finals.
Both times, they were knocked out of the playoffs by the Magic Johnson-led Los Angeles Lakers.
In 1985, Moore and backcourt mate Alvin Robertson created a stir around the league when they led the Spurs - picked to finish last in the division - to the top of the standings.
People were talking about them. One writer in Denver nicknamed them “The Twin Terrors,” a testament to their ability to make lightning defensive moves and disrupt the opposition.
Gervin, traded to Chicago in the 1985 training camp, said Moore would have matured and blossomed into one of the elite guards in the league if he had not contracted the illness.
“I think Johnny would have stayed one of the top five guards in the league for as long as he played,” Gervin said. “He would have been one of the top guys in assists and steals, one of the best defenders. Also, at that time, he had just started shooting the ball better.”
Even though most remember Moore as a physical player who made up for less-than-all-star talent with stamina and quickness, current Spurs broadcaster Rolando Blackman said his knowledge and feel for the game could not be underestimated.
“He was a fierce and intense competitor,” said Blackman, who played many games against Moore as a member of the Dallas Mavericks. "But he was also a cerebral player.
“He had the ability to break down a defense, and he knew how to get the ball to his teammates. His ability to assess what was happening on the floor and then react, (that) was something I always admired about him. You always had to prepare for him.”
Moore, a competitor who could never take “no” for an answer, said he only hopes fans remember that he played as hard as he could every night he laced up his sneakers.
“I considered myself a blue- collar worker,” he said. “All I ever wanted was an honest-day’s pay for an honest-day’s work.”
By Jerry Briggs, via San Antonio Express-News