By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-11-04 16:50:35
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30日星期三，在俄克拉荷马城举行的NBA篮球比赛下半场，圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)向他的球员们发出指示。（美联社照片/内特·比林斯）
洛杉矶——两年前，在马刺队周一晚上即将造访的球馆不远处，格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)的助理教练们像往常一样赛前从更衣室走向球场。
从球员通道出来后，布雷特·布朗(Brett Brown)回头看了看，期待着看到他的老板。
波波维奇不在那里。
“当这种事情发生时，”布朗当时说，“你会感到担心。”
2022年11月的那个晚上，马刺队制定了一个没有NBA历史上胜场最多的主教练的应对计划，就像他们现在所做的一样。当时，在波波维奇赛前出现了一个小健康问题后，布朗替补执教了一晚。本周，马刺队表示米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)将无限期接任主教练一职。
“无限期”涵盖了广泛的可能性，唯一可以确定的是，这将是波波维奇名人堂职业生涯中最长的常规赛缺席。他错过了周六主场战胜森林狼队的比赛，并且不会跟随马刺队参加客场对阵快船队和火箭队的比赛。
除此之外呢？
如果球队对波波维奇的回归有任何具体预期，他们目前还没有透露。
只要波波维奇不在？
人们自然会感到担忧，哪怕仅仅是因为75岁的波波维奇已经反复明确表示，他多么想继续自己的工作。
至少十年来，人们一直在问他关于他可能退休的问题，这个话题偶尔会让他恼火，有时也会让他感到好笑，这可以追溯到2014年NBA总决赛期间的一次赛前采访。2022年，在马刺队对阵湖人队的比赛开始前不久，他突然病倒的那个晚上，就在90分钟前，他还谈到是什么让他即使在重建球队连败的情况下依然坚持回来。
“这是世界上最好的工作，”波波维奇说。“所以如果你抱怨，你就是个白痴。”
对于已过古稀之年的波波维奇来说，这远非个例的乐观。六年来，马刺队一直没有成为真正的冠军争夺者，而且他们大部分时间都输多赢少，但经历了这一切，他看起来和听起来都比在五次夺冠期间更享受现在的工作。
曾经有一段时间，波波维奇发誓说蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)离开的那天他就会辞职。但他比马刺队的基石球员待得更久，然后他又比球队“三巨头”中的另外两名成员待得更久。然后，他坚持了下来，经历了疫情泡沫重启，并在带领美国队获得奥运金牌后回归，并在连续两个赛季60负的比赛中，以联盟中最年轻的阵容执教，不知何故，他几乎在每一次失利中都找到了积极的一面。
因此，他想要体验至少一部分看起来不可避免的与维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)一起的上升期，这是很自然的。波波维奇可能并没有设想过自己会再次举起奖杯。但是再执教一次季后赛系列赛，或者哪怕只是一场附加赛？
这似乎并非不切实际。
我们还不知道这种想法是否已经改变。波波维奇在2012年和2016年都连续错过了两场比赛，并在2018年季后赛期间，在他妻子艾琳(Erin)去世后离开了球队。这次缺席有所不同。从上到下，马刺队对波波维奇的健康状况以及他们预计他何时回归的细节都保持了可以理解的沉默。
在这里不要妄下结论是明智的。周六晚上，马刺队没有任何迹象表明他们担心他们的主教练。有一次，文班甚至开了一个关于约翰逊的比赛中“行为”和波波维奇的“行为”之间差异的玩笑。如果波波维奇在本周晚些时候对阵波特兰或犹他的比赛中回到他通常在弗罗斯特银行中心场边的座位上，这也不会令人感到意外。
但就目前而言，也不应该想当然地认为他会很快回归。两年前，波波维奇在错过与湖人队的比赛后几乎没有受到任何影响。这一次呢？
和以前一样，马刺队已经制定了计划。和以前一样，他的助手们希望再次看到波波维奇跟随他们来到球场。
至于这将在什么时候发生？
这一次，是无限期的。
Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich talked with San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle (5) during the second half against the Houston Rockets at Frost Bank Center on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. The Spurs defeated the Rockets, 109-106, in their first home game of the season.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich yells at his team during the second half against the Houston Rockets at Frost Bank Center on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. The Spurs defeated the Rockets, 109-106, in their first home game of the season.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, left, greets Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama as he walks off of the court during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, right, speaks with Spurs guard Chris Paul, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA - OCTOBER 30: Head Coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs talks with his team during a timeout during the second half of a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center on October 30, 2024 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Thunder defeated the Spurs 105-93.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - OCTOBER 31: Head coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs yells to his team during the second half of a game against the Utah Jazz at Delta Center on October 31, 2024 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul has a word with Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich reacts after a call by the official, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)
点击查看原文：With few details on Gregg Popovich's absence, key word is 'indefinite'
With few details on Gregg Popovich’s absence, key word is ‘indefinite’
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich gives instructions to his players during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
LOS ANGELES – Two years ago, in an arena just down the freeway from the one the Spurs were set to visit Monday night, Gregg Popovich’s assistant coaches made their typical pregame walk from the locker room to the court.
Emerging from the tunnel, Brett Brown looked back over his shoulder, expecting to see his boss.
Popovich wasn’t there.
“When something like that happens,” Brown said then, “you’re concerned.”
That night in November 2022, the Spurs had a plan for what to do without the winningest head coach in NBA history, just as they do now. Back then, Brown filled in for one night after what turned out to be a minor, pregame Popovich health episode. This week, the Spurs say Mitch Johnson is taking over indefinitely.
“Indefinitely” covers a broad range of possibilities, with the only certainty being that this will be the longest regular-season absence of Popovich’s Hall of Fame career. He missed Saturday’s home victory over the Timberwolves, and will not join the Spurs on a trip that includes road games at the Clippers and the Rockets.
Beyond that?
If the team has any specific expectations for a return, it isn’t revealing them yet.
And as long as Popovich isn’t around?
It’s only natural there will be concern, if for no other reason that the 75-year-old Popovich has made it clear, over and over again, how much he wants to keep doing his job.
For at least a decade, people have been asking him about his potential retirement, a conversation topic that occasionally irks and sometimes bemuses him, dating back to a pregame interview session during the 2014 NBA Finals. In 2022, on that night he fell ill shortly before tipoff of a Spurs game against the Lakers, he’d been talking only 90 minutes earlier about what kept bringing him back even during losing streaks with a rebuilding team.
“It’s the greatest job in the world,” Popovich said. “So if you complain, you’re an idiot.”
For Popovich in his septuagenarian era, this was far from an isolated instance of optimism. The Spurs have not been serious championship contenders in six years, and they’ve spent much of that time losing far more often than they win, but through it all he’s looked and sounded like he’s enjoying the work now more than he did in the midst of five title runs.
There was a time when Popovich vowed he would quit the day Tim Duncan walked out of the building. But he outlasted the Spurs’ franchise cornerstone, and then he outlasted two other members of the team’s “Big Three.” Then he stuck around through a pandemic bubble restart, and came back after coaching Team USA to an Olympic gold medal, and somehow found a bright side to almost every defeat while overseeing the youngest roster in the league in back-to-back 60-loss seasons.
It was only natural, then, that he’d want to experience at least part of what looks like an inevitable upswing with Victor Wembanyama. Popovich probably didn’t envision himself hoisting another trophy. But coaching in another playoff series, or even one more play-in game?
That didn’t seem so unrealistic.
We don’t know yet if that calculus has changed. Popovich missed back-to-back games in both 2012 and 2016, and left the team during the 2018 playoffs following the death of his wife, Erin. This absence is different. From top to bottom, the Spurs have been understandably tight-lipped about not only the details of Popovich’s health status, but also about when they expect him to return.
It would be wise not to jump to any conclusions here. Saturday night, the Spurs did not give any indications that they were worried about their head coach. At one point, Wembanyama even cracked a joke about the difference between Johnson’s in-game “behaviors” and Popovich’s. If Popovich settles into his usual Frost Bank Center courtside seat later this week against Portland or Utah, it wouldn’t necessarily come as a shock.
But for now, a speedy return shouldn’t be taken for granted, either. Two years ago, Popovich barely skipped a beat after missing the Lakers game. This time?
Like before, the Spurs have a plan in place. Like before, his assistants hope to see Popovich following them to the court again.
As for when that will happen?
This time, it’s indefinite.
Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich talked with San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle (5) during the second half against the Houston Rockets at Frost Bank Center on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. The Spurs defeated the Rockets, 109-106, in their first home game of the season.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich yells at his team during the second half against the Houston Rockets at Frost Bank Center on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. The Spurs defeated the Rockets, 109-106, in their first home game of the season.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, left, greets Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama as he walks off of the court during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, right, speaks with Spurs guard Chris Paul, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA - OCTOBER 30: Head Coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs talks with his team during a timeout during the second half of a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center on October 30, 2024 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Thunder defeated the Spurs 105-93.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - OCTOBER 31: Head coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs yells to his team during the second half of a game against the Utah Jazz at Delta Center on October 31, 2024 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul has a word with Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich reacts after a call by the official, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News