By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-10-10 11:04:58
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 10 月 9 日，圣安东尼奥马刺队教练格雷格·波波维奇在 AT&T 中心举行的与奥兰多魔术队的 NBA 季前赛上半场与后卫克里斯·保罗（3 号）和中锋维克托·文班亚马（1 号）交谈。圣安东尼奥以 107-97 击败了奥兰多。
这段视频现在看起来有些过 old-fashioned 了，像是 NBA 过去时代的产物，仿佛只能以黑白的形式呈现。
一位年轻、富有爆发力的大个子刚刚得知，他即将与联盟中传球最好的控球后卫之一并肩作战。
时间回到 2011 年，球迷们用视频记录下了洛杉矶快船队前锋布雷克·格里芬得知球队刚刚交易来一位名叫克里斯·保罗的空接传球大师时的反应。
格里芬抑制不住兴奋，一个新的绰号由此诞生。
“我们要成为‘空接之城’了！”格里芬和快船队中锋德安德烈·乔丹一起跳上跳下，兴奋地喊道。
十三年后，保罗来到了圣安东尼奥，与另一位年轻的、能够摧毁篮筐的精英大个子联手。
当现年 39 岁的保罗在 7 月份与马刺队签约时，维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) 发誓说，他并没有像其他人那样想。
与 2011 年的格里芬不同，文班亚马说，他没有在保罗即将到来的时候，满脑子都是空接扣篮的画面。
“这是球队想要防守住我们的首要目标之一，”文班亚马难得地泼了一盆冷水。“所以传空接并没有看起来那么容易。”
尽管如此，这仍然无法阻止马刺球迷的梦想。
在他们一起参加的第一场季前赛的 11 分 8 秒，保罗和文班亚马终于为圣安东尼奥奉献了过去四个月来一直期待的精彩时刻。
THROW
IT
— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) October 10, 2024
在马刺以 107-97 战胜奥兰多的比赛的第一节末段，保罗和文班亚马在底线附近打了一个挡拆配合。当两名魔术队防守球员在他们之间的无人区陷入困境时，保罗将球高高抛向篮筐，然后……
瞧！“空接之城”来了。
“我跳到空中，感觉有点麻烦了，”保罗说。“很高兴能看到他在那里。”
文班亚马在空中接住球，双手大力扣篮，让 AT&T 中心 16962 名观众陷入疯狂。
是的，文班亚马说，他可以习惯保罗给他传出更多这样的球。
“感觉很自然，”文班亚马说。
至少在那一刻，感觉就像“新空接之城”的第一块砖已经奠基。
作为该项目的工头，保罗在这里告诉所有愿意听的人，事情并不像看起来那么简单。
这种默契需要时间来培养，即使是 7 英尺 3 英寸的超级扣将和同时代最好的挡拆控球后卫之间也是如此。周三是保罗和文班亚马在公开场合第一次完成空接扣篮。保罗承诺，在训练的闭门造车阶段，到目前为止，这样的配合也并不多。
“我不骗你，”保罗说。“也就只有两次吧。”
随着快船队“空接之城”时代的推进，格里芬和其他人开始后悔当初给自己起的这个绰号。他们认为这让快船队看起来华而不实。
保罗之所以抵制“空接之城”在圣安东尼奥的复兴，还有另一个原因：一直传空接球很困难。他说，要让它看起来毫不费力，需要付出很多努力。
“比赛很艰难，”保罗说。“很多人认为就是空接、空接、空接。但我们还有很多常规的基本功篮球要打，希望能有机会打到那一步。”
圣安东尼奥对文班亚马的空接扣篮的痴迷是可以理解的。
在上个赛季马刺队努力适应文班亚马的到来时，很多 NBA 观察家都公开提出了一个真诚的问题：为什么不直接把球高高抛向球场上最高的那个人，让他扣篮呢？
在文班亚马的新秀赛季，每一场马刺队的比赛都会出现至少一次队友错失机会，没有将球传给这位法国巨人，让他完成精彩绝伦的扣篮。
这种脱节是可以理解的。其他马刺球员需要一段时间才能学会如何与文班亚马这样的球员配合，他总是能以一种违反时间和空间法则的方式打球。
“整个赛季我们都在努力适应这一点，”替补控球后卫特雷·琼斯说。“但我认为，对于他真正的能力，人们仍然有些不确定。”
有时候，把球高高抛向球场上最高的那个人是合理的。有时候则不然。
保罗的到来就是为了帮助马刺队区分这两者之间的区别。
“我们所有人在这里的首要任务都是赢得比赛，”保罗说。“如果空接出现了，我们也赢球了，那就这样吧。有时候，它们会发生，因为他就是他。从根本上说，我知道这里的每个人都在努力做出正确的选择。”
目前，保罗和文班亚马在相互了解的过程中相处得很愉快。
周三的比赛中，两人都显得有些生疏，因为他们在两天前马刺队与俄克拉荷马雷霆队的季前赛揭幕战中都没有上场。
文班亚马自 8 月份的巴黎奥运会以来就没有参加过正式比赛了。保罗自 4 月份以来就没有打过比赛了，当时他的金州勇士队在西部附加赛中被萨克拉门托国王队淘汰出局。
周三中场休息后，两人慢跑回球场时，文班亚马向保罗透露了一点关于自己的信息。
“你会看到的，”文班亚马告诉他，“我学东西很快。”
在他们短暂的相处时间里，保罗在 20 岁的文班亚马身上发现了一种篮球上的共鸣。
“这就是和维克这样优秀、聪明的球员一起打球的乐趣所在，”保罗说。
这种默契是否会转化为一个赛季的空接扣篮盛宴——让之前的“空接之城”看起来像是一个名不见经传的小村庄——还有待观察。
对于他和文班亚马之间新建立的伙伴关系，保罗只有一件事可以保证。
“这会很有趣，”他说。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马和新援克里斯·保罗在周一上午于维多利亚资本表演中心举行的马刺队媒体日活动中合影留念。
2024 年 10 月 7 日，在德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥的 AT&T 中心举行的 NBA 季前赛下半场，圣安东尼奥马刺队后卫克里斯·保罗（3 号）、中锋维克托·文班亚马（1 号）、前锋哈里森·巴恩斯（40 号）和前锋凯尔登·约翰逊（0 号）一边观看队友与俄克拉荷马雷霆队的比赛，一边聊天。马刺队以 107-112 不敌雷霆队。
马刺队的维克托·文班亚马和新援克里斯·保罗在周一上午于维多利亚资本表演中心举行的马刺队媒体日活动中合影留念。
2024 年 10 月 9 日，圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马在 AT&T 中心举行的与奥兰多魔术队的 NBA 季前赛上半场扣篮。圣安东尼奥以 107-97 击败了奥兰多。
2024 年 10 月 9 日，圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马（1 号）在 AT&T 中心举行的 NBA 季前赛上半场带球突破奥兰多魔术队前锋保罗·班凯罗（5 号）。圣安东尼奥以 107-97 击败了奥兰多。
2024 年 10 月 9 日，圣安东尼奥马刺队后卫克里斯·保罗（3 号）在 AT&T 中心举行的 NBA 季前赛上半场运球突破奥兰多魔术队后卫杰伦·萨格斯（4 号）。圣安东尼奥以 107-97 击败了奥兰多。
2024 年 10 月 9 日，圣安东尼奥马刺队教练格雷格·波波维奇在 AT&T 中心举行的与奥兰多魔术队的 NBA 季前赛上半场与后卫克里斯·保罗交谈。圣安东尼奥以 107-97 击败了奥兰多。
2024 年 10 月 9 日，圣安东尼奥马刺队后卫克里斯·保罗（3 号）在 AT&T 中心举行的 NBA 季前赛上半场运球突破奥兰多魔术队后卫杰伦·萨格斯（4 号）。圣安东尼奥以 107-97 击败了奥兰多。
点击查看原文：Is San Antonio the New Lob City? Not so fast says Spurs PG Chris Paul
Is San Antonio the New Lob City? Not so fast says Spurs PG Chris Paul
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich talks to guard Chris Paul (3) and center Victor Wembanyama (1) during the first half of their NBA preseason game with Orlando at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Oct 9, 2024. San Antonio beat Orlando 107-97.
The footage seems kitschy now, like something out of a bygone era of the NBA, like something that might as well come in black and white.
A young, explosive big man had just learned he was about to be teamed with one of the best passing point guards in the league.
Back in 2011, fans captured the instant on video that high-flying Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin received news that his team had just traded for an alley-oop throwing maestro named Chris Paul.
In Griffin’s unbridled excitement, a new nickname was born.
“It’s gonna be Lob City!” Griffin exclaimed, hopping up and down alongside Clippers center DeAndre Jordan.
Thirteen years later, Paul has come to San Antonio to join forces with another elite rim-destroying force of a young big man.
When the now 39-year-old Paul signed with the Spurs in July, Victor Wembanyama swears he was not thinking what everyone else was thinking.
Unlike Griffin in 2011, Wembanyama says he did not greet Paul’s impending arrival into his life with visions of alley-oop dunks dancing in his head.
“This is one of the first things that teams think about to guard,” Wembanyama said, in a rare wet blanket moment. “So it’s not as easy as it seems to throw lobs.”
Still, that hasn’t stopped Spurs fans from dreaming.
And 11 minutes and eight seconds into their first preseason game together Wednesday, Paul and Wembanyama at last delivered the highlight San Antonio had been awaiting for the past four months.
THROW
— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) October 10, 2024
Late in the first quarter of the Spurs’ 107-97 victory over Orlando, Paul and Wembanyama ran a side pick-and-roll near the baseline. As two Magic defenders got caught in no-man’s land between them, Paul lofted the ball toward the rim and …
Voila! Lob City.
“I got caught in the air and I was in trouble,” Paul said. “It was nice to just look over there and see him.”
Wembanyama snatched the ball in midair and threw down a two-handed dunk that sent a crowd of 16,962 at the Frost Bank Center into a frenzy.
Yes, Wembanyama said, he could get used to more of this from Paul.
“It felt very natural,” Wembanyama said.
It also felt, at least for a moment, as if the first brick in the construction of New Lob City had been laid.
As the foreman of the project, Paul is here to tell anyone who will listen that it isn’t as simple as that.
These kinds of connections take time, even between a supernatural 7-foot-3 dunker and the best pick-and-roll point guard of his generation. Wednesday marked the first public lob dunk thrown between Paul and Wembanyama. Behind the closed doors of practice, Paul promises there haven’t been many more to this point.
“I ain’t gonna lie to you,” Paul said. “There ain’t been but like two.”
As the “Lob City” era of the Clippers franchise progressed, Griffin and others began to regret the self-bestowed nickname. They thought it made the Clippers seem as if they were more flash than substance.
Paul is resisting the revival of Lob City in San Antonio for a different reason: Throwing lobs all the time is difficult. It takes a lot of hard work to make it look easy, he said.
“The game is tough,” Paul said. “A lot of people think it’s just going to be lob, lob, lob. But there’s a lot of regular, fundamental basketball we’ve got to play to hopefully at some point get to that.”
San Antonio’s Wemby-fueled obsession with the lob dunk is understandable.
As the Spurs struggled to adjust to the arrival of the Wembanyama last season, many an NBA observer wondered aloud the honest question: Why not just throw the ball high in the air to the tallest man on the court and let him dunk it?
No Spurs game from Wembanyama’s rookie season was complete without a least one clip of a teammate missing a chance to lob the ball to the French Goliath for a highlight-reel slam.
The disconnect was understandable. It took a while for other Spurs to learn how to play with a player who consistently bends the laws of time and space the way Wembanyama does.
“Throughout the entire year we were trying to adjust to that,” backup point guard Tre Jones said. “But I think there is still that unsureness of what he really can do.”
There are times when throwing the ball high in the air to the tallest man on the court will make sense. There are times when it won’t.
Paul is here to help the Spurs decipher the difference.
“Everybody here, our first priority is to win games,” Paul said. “If the lobs come and we win, so be it. At times, they are going to happen because he is who he is. Fundamentally, I know everybody here is trying to make the right play.”
For now, Paul and Wembanyama are having a good time in the get-to-know-you stage of their relationship.
Both were a bit rusty Wednesday, having each sat out the Spurs’ preseason opener against Oklahoma City two nights earlier.
Wembanyama had not played in a competitive game since the Paris Olympics in August. Paul had not played since April, when his Golden State squad was bounced from the Western Conference play-in by Sacramento.
As the two were jogging back to the court after halftime Wednesday, Wembanyama offered Paul a tidbit about himself.
“You’re going to see quick,” Wembanyama told him, “I learn fast.”
In their short time together, Paul has found something of a kindred basketball spirit in the 20-year-old Wembanyama.
“That’s what’s cool about playing with someone as good and smart as Vic,” Paul said.
Whether that connection results in a season-long onslaught of alley-oop dunks – one that makes the previous incarnation of Lob City look like a mere unincorporated Lob Village by comparison – remains to be seen.
Paul can only guarantee one thing about his newfound partnership with Wembanyama.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said.
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.
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3), center Victor Wembanyama (1), forward Harrison Barnes (40) and forward Keldon Johnson (0) talk as they watch their teammates take on the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second half of a pre-season NBA match-up at Frost Bank Center on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. The Spurs fell to the Thunder, 112-107.
Spurs Victor Wembanyama and new addition Chris Paul are being photographed during Spurs Media Day activities Monday morning at the Victory Capital Performance Center.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama dunks a ball during the first half of their NBA preseason game with Orlando at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Oct 9, 2024. San Antonio beat Orlando 107-97.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots over Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero (5) during the first half of their NBA preseason game at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Oct 9, 2024. San Antonio beat Orlando 107-97.
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3) passes the ball past Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs (4) during the first half of their NBA preseason game at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Oct 9, 2024. San Antonio beat Orlando 107-97.
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich talks to guard Chris Paul during the first half of their NBA preseason game with Orlando at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Oct 9, 2024. San Antonio beat Orlando 107-97.
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3) brings the ball upcourt past Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs (4) during the first half of their NBA preseason game at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Oct 9, 2024. San Antonio beat Orlando 107-97.
By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer, via San Antonio Express-News