By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News, 2024-06-15 13:52:23
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。
达拉斯——作为一名新秀，这个孩子改变了一切。他从欧洲而来，19岁就已经成熟得超乎寻常，在面对经验丰富的职业球员时已经表现出色，并且以一种前所未有的迷人方式打球，这是这里很少有人敢想的。
在他的第一个 NBA 赛季，他的球队在西部联盟排名倒数第二，但他带给新东家的希望是无处不在的。队友们崇拜他。对手们想和他一起打球。当地人为他创作了歌曲。
除了炒作、潜力和赞美，什么都没有。他似乎无懈可击。
直到世界在卢卡·东契奇（Luka Doncic）身上找到了一个不可忽视、不可饶恕的缺点。
就像世界总是对待年轻巨星那样。
就像它将再次做的那样。
“当你站在最大的舞台上，”小牛队主教练杰森·基德（Jason Kidd）周五说，“总有人会戳个洞。”
在这一年中的这个时候，这些洞很容易找到。NBA 决赛还没有结束，但结果已经基本确定，部分原因是世界一致认为场上最好的球员做不到什么。
东契奇无法防守，或者长时间保持对防守的兴趣。这到底是由于他的身体疼痛，还是因为他在一端的进攻端如此高效地生产而精疲力尽，这并不重要。
大多数夜晚，他都无法抵制对所有不利于他的判罚抱怨的冲动。这往往对他的球队弊大于利。
现在每个人都知道这一点。每个人都在谈论它。有时，每个人都会忘记如果没有一个名列前茅的超级巨星的存在，小牛队甚至不会进入季后赛，更不用说争夺冠军了。
但当小牛队在周五晚上以 122-84 的比分战胜凯尔特人，避免了被淘汰，将系列赛带回波士顿？这并非因为东契奇改变了自己的本性。
“他就是卢卡，”基德说。“他一直都是卢卡。并没有什么不同的卢卡。”
总有一天，另一位教练——也许是一位经验丰富的古稀老人——会对另一位年轻球星说出同样的话，而世界会找到质疑他的理由。维克多·文班亚马（Victor Wembanyama）也不需要在第一次失败的迹象出现时改变自己的本性。
但世界将会找到漏洞。我们现在还不能确定它们会是什么。人们会说他太软弱了吗？还是说他在比赛的关键时刻过于犹豫？他们会说他不够果断吗？他们会说他在常规赛中表现很好，但在关键比赛中却无法取胜吗？
换句话说，他们会像现在谈论东契奇一样，像曾经谈论迈克尔·乔丹、科比·布莱恩特和勒布朗·詹姆斯一样吗？
当然会。
这将是残酷的。
这将是羞辱的。
但这是必要的。
“在尴尬的时刻，在功亏一篑的时刻，”凯尔特人队的杰伦·布朗（Jaylen Brown）本周表示，“失败是成长最快的时刻。”
布朗从经验中汲取教训，他将去年的灾难性失利归咎于第八顺位的热火队——他承担了很大一部分责任——这是凯尔特人即将取得成功的关键。
是的，现在很难想象有人会质疑文班亚马的内心、他的性格、他的求胜欲望，当然也包括他防守的意愿。但除非他直接从西部第 14 名跃升至 NBA 冠军，否则他们会找到一些东西来解释他为什么做不到，而篮球世界将把注意力集中在那上面。
就像这个月对东契奇所做的那样，尽管这已经让他的教练和队友感到厌烦。
“他是一名获胜的篮球运动员，”小牛队前锋马克西·克莱伯（Maxi Kleber）说。“你可以查看他的履历。”
克莱伯已经在这个联盟中待了很长时间，足以领会那份履历的全部细节。克莱伯在东契奇来到达拉斯的时候就在那里，一个改变了一切、似乎无懈可击的孩子。他仍然惊叹于东契奇在承受着如此巨大的压力下如何“超额完成所有任务”。克莱伯认为那些挑毛病的行为是荒谬的。
但东契奇现在明白了。曾经不可战胜的他现在有一个世界无法忽视的缺点。即使他赢了，就像他在周五晚上所做的那样，有些人认为这是因为他弥补了人们戳出的漏洞，而不是因为这些漏洞一开始就没有那么糟糕。
“我不知道我自己学到了什么，”东契奇在周五晚些时候被问及过去几天的教训时说道。“明天再问我吧。我会想出答案的。”
很有可能，另一位年轻球星也将被期望这样做。
达拉斯小牛队后卫卢卡·东契奇（Luka Doncic）因为他的防守和对裁判的抱怨而受到了不少批评。但他同时也让小牛队成为一支冠军球队。
马刺队中锋维克多·文班亚马（Victor Wembanyama）在他的 NBA 生涯中将不可避免地会受到不少批评，除非圣安东尼奥直接从联盟垫底跃升至明年 NBA 决赛的顶峰。
点击查看原文：League fixates on Doncic's flaws, as it will someday with Wembanyama's
League fixates on Doncic’s flaws, as it will someday with Wembanyama’s
DALLAS — As a rookie, the kid changed everything. He arrived from Europe mature beyond his 19 years, having already excelled against seasoned professionals, and he played the game in a new, mesmerizing way few here ever dreamed possible.
That first season in the NBA, his team finished next-to-last in the Western Conference, but the hope he instilled in his new franchise was all-encompassing. Teammates adored him. Opponents wanted to play with him. Locals wrote songs about him.
There was nothing but hype, potential and praise. He could do no wrong.
Until the world found an unignorable, unforgivable fault in Luka Doncic.
Just like the world always does with a young superstar.
And just like it will again.
“When you’re on the biggest stage,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said Friday, “someone’s got to poke a hole.”
This time of year, those holes can be easy to find. The NBA Finals aren’t over yet, but the outcome is all but decided, in part because of what the world agrees the best player on the court cannot do.
Doncic can’t defend, or maintain much interest in doing so for extended stretches. Whether that’s because his body is aching, or because he’s worn down from being so relentlessly productive at the other end of the floor, it doesn’t matter.
Most nights, he can’t resist the urge to complain about every call that goes against him. It often does his team more harm than good.
Everybody knows this now. Everybody talks about it. And sometimes everybody forgets that there’s no way the Mavericks even would have made the playoffs, let alone competed for a championship, had they not been graced with the presence of an all-time, all-world talent.
But when the Mavericks avoided elimination Friday night with a 122-84 Game 4 romp that sent the series back to Boston? It wasn’t because Doncic changed who he was.
“He was Luka,” Kidd said. “He’s been Luka. There wasn’t a different Luka out there.”
Someday, another coach — maybe a grizzled septuagenarian — will say the same thing about another young star the world will find reasons to doubt. Victor Wembanyama won’t need to change who he is at the first sign of failure, either.
But the world is going to find holes. We can’t be sure yet what they’ll be. Will people say he’s too soft, or that he defers too much with games on the line? Will they say he doesn’t defer enough? Will they say he’s fine in the regular season but can’t win the big one?
In other words, will they say strike the same tone they do now about Doncic, the same they once did about everyone from Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant to LeBron James?
Of course they will.
It will be brutal.
It will be humiliating.
And it will be necessary.
“In moments of embarrassment, in moments of coming up short,” Boston’s Jaylen Brown said this week, “falling short is where the most growth takes place.”
Brown speaks from experience, as he attributes last year’s devastating loss to eighth-seeded Miami — a failure for which he took a huge share of the blame — as being the key to what the Celtics are about to achieve.
Yes, right now it’s difficult to imagine anyone questioning Wembanyama’s heart, or his character, or his will to win, or certainly not his desire to play defense. But unless he goes directly from 14th place in the West to an NBA title, they’ll find something to explain why he couldn’t, and the basketball world will focus on that.
Just as it has this month with Doncic, as exasperated as it’s made his coach and teammates.
“He’s a winning basketball player,” Mavs forward Maxi Kleber said. “You can check his resume.”
Kleber has been around long enough to appreciate all the details of that track record. Kleber was in Dallas when Doncic arrived, a kid who changed everything and could do no wrong. He still marvels at how Doncic came in with all that pressure and “overexceeded everything.” Kleber thinks the hole-poking is absurd.
But Doncic knows the deal now. Once infallible, he now has a fault the world can’t ignore. And even when he wins, as he did Friday night, some assume it’s because he covered the holes people poked. Not because those holes weren’t so terrible in the first place.
“I don’t know what I learn(ed) of myself,” Doncic said late Friday when pressed about the lessons of the past few days. “Ask me (another) day. I’ll come up with the answer.”
Chances are, another young star will be expected to do the same.
Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic has drawn his share of criticism for his defense and his complaints over officiating. But he’s also transformed the Mavericks into a winner.
Spurs center Victor Wembanyama will absorb his share of criticism in his career in the NBA, unless San Antonio goes directly from the bottom of the standings to the top of the mountain in next year’s NBA Finals.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News