By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-10-01 11:07:19
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。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中回答问题。
奥运会结束后，维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 投身于他的篮球实验室。他在那里潜心钻研的东西既不会改变比赛，也无法点燃万千球迷的激情。
事实上，大多数人可能会觉得文班亚马休赛期的实验成果相当乏善可陈。
但无论如何，这正是他的目标。
要知道，如果说这位新科NBA年度最佳新秀在他联盟的第一个赛季以及随后在巴黎摘得奥运银牌的经历中学到了什么，那就是他不需要再去练习新的集锦式动作了。单手变向过人、绕身传球和自抛板助攻固然精彩，但这些都属于即兴发挥的范畴，对他而言是与生俱来的天赋。
今年夏天，文班亚马想做的事情要精细得多，也科学得多。他在周一马刺队的季前媒体日上表示，他的目标是“从极其简单的局面中创造优势。”
简单来说？
身高7英尺3.5英寸的他，比任何防守者都高。他比他们更靠近篮筐。每一次触球，物理定律都应该站在他这边，即便这会变得单调乏味。
如果这听起来过于简单可笑，好吧，某种程度上确实如此。但这不仅仅是因为文班亚马身材高大。他在这个身高下所具备的史无前例的技术组合——他的投射范围、敏捷性和篮球本能——理应让他无人可挡，尤其是当他掌握了几招可以反复使用的基本杀手锏之后。
这并非某个自以为是的报纸专栏作家的观点。在文班亚马新秀赛季过半时，一位马刺队的资深工作人员就做出了预测。
“当维克托学会了蒂姆·邓肯 (Tim Duncan) 的那套打法时，”这位工作人员说道，“我们的比赛将会变得非常无聊。”
维克托谈论他压力山大的奥运会经历：pic.twitter.com/6Chpw7cfYH
— 汤姆·奥斯本 (@ tom_orsborn) 2024年9月30日
在圣安东尼奥这样的球队文化中，这是至高无上的赞誉。而在他职业生涯的第一年结束后，这位20岁的年轻人已将此铭记于心。
这并不是说他打算完全模仿邓肯的比赛风格。文班亚马仍然会发起快攻，仍然会在35英尺外急停跳投，仍然会从禁区一侧起跳，以某种方式在另一侧完成舒展的扣篮，而且每晚他仍然会即兴上演三四个令人费解的狂野表演，在NBA赛场上营造出那种熟悉的集震惊、敬畏和欢笑于一体的氛围。
但这些并不能让马刺队重返争冠行列。真正标志着球队迈出下一步的，是当文班奇亚马在关键比赛的决胜时刻，在所有人都预知到他将要做什么的情况下，依然能接到球，并用他整晚都在使用的同一招式解决问题。
明知这一招很无聊。
也明知无人能挡。
就像过去的邓肯一样。
周一，文班亚马在谈论他夏天的篮球实验时没有说得那么具体，但他确实强调了简洁性。
“我致力于打磨那些对任何其他球员来说，可能看起来、也确实习以为常的终结技巧。”文班亚马说。
这里的悖论在于，文班亚马所进行的最平凡的课题，可能也正是对手防守他时最恐惧的噩梦。尤其是现在，他将受益于克里斯·保罗 (Chris Paul) ——他这一代最顶级的挡拆控卫——的空接传球，一想到文班亚马正在精进篮下的得分能力，各支球队就不得不思考他们到底该如何阻止他。
队友德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 预测，这个升级版的文班亚马将“让整个联盟不寒而栗”，这与文班亚马自己在八月奥运会上挂着银牌时所说的话不谋而合。那时他说，他“为几年后的对手们感到担心”。
或许用不了那么久，对手们就会开始担心了。在法国队与美国队的金牌争夺战中，法国队最终惜败，但文班亚马独得26分，与勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James)、斯蒂芬·库里 (Steph Curry) 和凯文·杜兰特 (Kevin Durant) 领衔的美国队鏖战到了最后一刻。他展现出了在圣安东尼奥作为NBA新秀时从未面对过的那种压力下的非凡能力。
教练格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 称奥运会“可以说，是他的一个绝佳的小培养皿”。而在那段他称之为“我一生中最紧张激烈的体育经历”中，文班亚马说他学到了重要的一课。
“输掉比赛是件很容易的事，”文班亚马说。
文班亚马解释说，如果你不关注每一个细节，失败可能在弹指之间发生。因此，当全世界都在等待下一个穿裆过人、技惊四座、在社交媒体上疯传的惊叹时刻时呢？
文班亚马看到了依靠更可靠事物的价值。从休赛期的实验室中走出来，他一如既往地准备好点燃大众的激情。
但如果他也能让他们感到“无聊”呢？
那时候，马刺队就知道，他已经迈出了新的一步。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马与新援克里斯·保罗在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片后分享片刻交流。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中回答问题。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中回答问题。
马刺队新球员克里斯·保罗在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队新球员克里斯·保罗在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队新秀斯蒂芬·卡斯尔在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中摆姿势拍照。
马刺队的杰里米·索汉在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中摆姿势拍照。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队新球员克里斯·保罗在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队新球员克里斯·保罗在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中与媒体成员打招呼。
马刺队的哈里森·巴恩斯在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中摆姿势拍照。
马刺队头号秀斯蒂芬·卡斯尔在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
特雷·琼斯在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中面带微笑。
马刺队的朱利安·尚帕尼在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队的哈里森·巴恩斯在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中发言。
马刺队的哈里森·巴恩斯在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中摆姿势拍照。
马刺队的布雷克·韦斯利在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中摆姿势拍照。
马刺队的德文·瓦塞尔在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中摆姿势拍照。
马刺队的凯尔登·约翰逊在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中摆姿势拍照。
马刺队的杰里米·索汉在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中。
马刺队的梅西·巴恩斯在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中摆姿势拍照。
在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的马刺队媒体日活动中。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队的马拉奇·弗林在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中。
马刺队的内森·门萨在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中。
马刺队的布兰登·波士顿在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中。
马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中发言。
马刺队的桑德罗·马穆克拉什维利在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中。
马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中发言。
马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中发言。
马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中发言。
马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍完照后露出笑容。
在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的马刺队媒体日活动中。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马与新援克里斯·保罗在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队新球员克里斯·保罗在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中拍摄照片。
马刺队的朱利安·尚帕尼在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中为队友特雷·琼斯拍照。
马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇在周一上午于Victory Capital表演中心举行的媒体日活动中发言。
点击查看原文：Victor Wembanyama's next step? Be as boring as Tim Duncan was.
Victor Wembanyama’s next step? Be as boring as Tim Duncan was.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama answers question during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
After the Olympics, Victor Wembanyama went into the basketball laboratory. What he worked on developing there will not change the game, nor will it electrify the masses.
In fact, most people might find the results of Wembanyama’s offseason experimentation thoroughly unexciting.
That’s the goal, anyway.
See, if the reigning NBA rookie of the year learned anything during his first go-round in the league and his subsequent silver medal-winning performance in Paris, it was that he doesn’t need to practice a new highlight-reel move. One-handed crossovers, wraparound passes and self-serve off-the-glass assists are great, but they’re all examples of improvisation, which comes naturally to him.
What Wembanyama wanted to do this summer was much more meticulous, much more scientific. His purpose, he said Monday at the Spurs’ preseason media day, was “making an advantage out of really simple situations.”
In layman’s terms?
At 7-foot-3 ½, he’s taller than every defender. He’s closer to the rim than they are. Physics should work in his favor, each and every time he touches the ball, even if it gets monotonous.
If this sounds laughably oversimplistic, well, it is, but only to a certain degree. It’s not just that Wembanyama is tall. His unprecedented set of skills at that height – his shooting range, his quickness, his instincts – should make him unstoppable, especially if he masters a few fundamental moves he can go to over and over again.
This is not just the opinion of some know-it-all newspaper columnist. Midway through Wembanyama’s rookie year, a longtime Spurs staffer made a prediction.
“When Victor learns what Tim (Duncan) did,” the staffer said, “our games are going to be really boring.”
Victor on his pressure-packed Olympics: pic.twitter.com/6Chpw7cfYH
— Tom Orsborn (@ tom_orsborn) September 30, 2024
In an organization like San Antonio’s, that is the ultimate compliment. And a year into his career, the 20-year-old has taken it to heart.
It’s not that he intends to model his entire game after Duncan. Wembanyama still is going to lead some fast-breaks, and he’s still going to pull up from 35 feet, and he’s still going to take off from one side of the paint and somehow finish an outstretched dunk from the opposite block, and every night he’s still going to ad-lib three or four inexplicably wild plays that create that familiar mix of shock and awe and laughter in NBA arenas.
But those aren’t the plays that are going to turn the Spurs into contenders again. What will truly mean the team has taken the next step is when, with big games on the line, and with everybody knowing what’s coming, Wembanyama gets the ball and uses the same move he’s used all night.
Knowing it’s boring.
And knowing it can’t be stopped.
Just like Duncan used to do.
Wembanyama wasn’t that specific Monday when talking about his summer hoops lab work, but he did emphasize simplicity.
“I worked on finishing things that might look and be natural to any other player,” Wembanyama said.
The paradox here is that the most mundane project Wembanyama could have undertaken might also be the most terrifying for the opponents who have to guard him. Especially now that he will have the benefit of lob passes from Chris Paul, the premier pick-and-roll point guard of his generation, the thought of Wembanyama fine-tuning his shot-making at the rim has to make teams wonder how they’re ever going to stop him.
Teammate Devin Vassell predicted this improved version of Wembanyama will be “scary for the league,” and that echoes something Wembanyama himself said with a silver medal hanging from his neck at the Olympics in August. Back then, he said he was “worried for the opponents in a couple of years.”
It might not take that long for the opponents to start worrying, too. In Team France’s gold-medal loss to Team USA, when Wembanyama scored 26 points and took LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant down to the wire, he showed what he can do under pressure he never faced as an NBA rookie in San Antonio.
Coach Gregg Popovich called the Olympics “a wonderful little Petri dish for him, so to speak.” And during what he called “the most intense sports experience of my life,” Wembanyama said he learned something important.
“It’s very easy,” Wembanyama said, “to lose games.”
If you’re not paying attention to every detail, Wembanyama explained, that can happen in the snap of a finger. So while the world waits for the next between-the-legs, over-the-moon viral wow moment?
Wembanyama sees the value of depending on something more reliable. Having emerged from the offseason laboratory, he’s ready to electrify the masses, as always.
But if he can bore them, too?
That’s when the Spurs will know he’s taken another step.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama and new addition Chris Paul share a mpoment after being photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama answers question during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama answers question during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
New Spurs player Chris Paul is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
New Spurs player Chris Paul is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs rookie Stephon Castle gets poses for pictures during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Jeremy Sochan poses for pictures during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
New Spurs player Chris Paul is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
New Spurs player Chris Paulgreets media members during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Harrison Barnes poses for pictures during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs top draft pick Stephon Castle has his picture taken during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Tre Jones smiles during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Julian Champagnie gets his picture taken during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Harrison Barnes speaks during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Harrison Barnes poses for pictures during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Blake Wesley poses for a photo during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Devin Vessell poses for a picture during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Keldon Johnson poses for pictures during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Jeremy Sochan during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Maiski Barnes poses for pictures during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Malachi Flynn during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Nathan Mensah during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Brandon Boston during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs head coach Greggg Popovich speaks during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Sandro Mamukelashvili during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs head coach Greggg Popovich speaks during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs head coach Greggg Popovich speaks during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs head coach Greggg Popovich speaks during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spur Head Coach Gregg Popovich smiles after having his picture taken during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama and new addition Chris Paul are being photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
New Spurs player Chris Paul is photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs Julian Champagnie takes pictures of teammate Tre Jones during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
Spurs head coach Greggg Popovich speaks during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News