By Lee Dresie | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2024-11-25 10:04:23
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。
过去值得马刺球迷感恩的事情有很多，而现在，这份感恩也延伸到了当下这支球队。
我正在处理的一桩案子的对方律师周五给我发了这样一封邮件：“如果我们在那之前没有联系，祝你感恩节快乐！”这种有条件的祝福一直困扰着我。他的意思是，他只希望我在“如果我们在那之前没有联系”的情况下感恩节快乐吗？也许他是在两边下注：如果我们真的谈了，他会根据谈话的结果来决定他的祝福是否依然有效。我不知道该如何回应，于是把这个难题又抛回给了他——我说“你也一样”。这会让他明白的。
他奇怪的祝福也让我开始思考感恩节的意义，特别是对我们马刺球迷而言。所以我决定再写一篇“感恩成为马刺球迷”的文章。今年的主题是：过去、现在和未来的感恩。
我在 2014 年秋天写了我的第一篇“感恩”文章，那是我在 Pounding the Rock 的第一个赛季。在那篇文章中，我是这样结尾的：
尤其考虑到体育世界里发生的一切，我很喜欢听到鲁迪·汤姆贾诺维奇(Rudy Tomjanovich) 对我们所支持的球队的评价。他用了“好人”这个词。在感恩节所有值得感恩的事情中，能够为一群好人的马刺队加油助威也位列其中。不是每个人都能这么说，但我们可以。感恩节快乐，马刺国度。
那篇文章写于 2014 年救赎之战总决赛之后。那届总决赛给了马刺球迷无数值得感恩的理由，包括第五场定胜局第二节和第三节的 58-22 的进攻狂潮，帕蒂·米尔斯(Patty Mills) 的三分雨，以及我的偶像马努·吉诺比利(Manu Ginobili) 飞越克里斯·波什(Chris Bosh) 的雷霆暴扣，这至今仍是马刺的精彩瞬间。
最重要的是，救赎之战总决赛令人欣慰地关上了 2013 年总决赛痛苦结局的大门。正如我当时所写：
2014 年的马刺队，没有沾沾自喜，也没有捶胸顿足，他们看起来是真心快乐，这是一件非常好的事情。他们不需要沾沾自喜或捶胸顿足。他们只需看看记分牌，大笑，微笑，拥抱，并在彼此耳边说些有意义的话。然后感到平静。
正因为马刺队有这种感觉，马刺球迷也一样。包括我。现在，当我想到雷·阿伦(Ray Allen) 在第六场的那个三分球时，我立刻就会想到 2014 年的总决赛。然后会心一笑。
我还要感谢 2013 年的总决赛，因为它给了我们丹尼·格林(Danny Green) 投中 27 个三分球的精彩集锦。我仍然会在每周两次的比赛前观看这段视频，只是为了偷取一点 DG 的自信，然后出手投篮。
当然，除了这两届总决赛，马刺球迷在过去还有更多值得感恩的事情。他们拥有过像乔治·格文(George Gervin)、肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)、大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson) 和 GDP 三巨头这样的球星，以及众多优秀的非明星球员，例如艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)、迈克尔·芬利(Michael Finley)、米尔斯、加里·尼尔(Gary Neal)、鲍里斯·迪奥(Boris Diaw)、蒂亚戈·斯普利特(Tiago Splitter)、博班·马扬诺维奇(Boban Marjanovic) 等等。这些球员，无论是球星还是非球星，带来了五座总冠军奖杯。谢谢你们！所有这些都是在史上最佳教练格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich) 和一众优秀的助理教练的带领下取得的，其中许多人现在都是联盟各队的 主教练。
马刺球迷也对现在的球队有很多值得感恩的地方。PtR 的另一位作者查理·萨迪厄斯(Charlie Thaddeus) 在马刺逆转战胜爵士队后总结道，甚至是在周六晚上逆转战胜更强大的勇士队之前：
他们很出色吗？他们有竞争力吗？他们准备好与联盟中的强队进行真正的对话了吗？我不知道这些问题的答案。他们可能不是很出色。他们可能没有竞争力。他们可能还没有准备好被认真对待。那么他们是什么？现在，我觉得“有趣”就足够了。
我同意。现在的马刺队就像一个充满活力、快乐的小孩子。我们不知道这个孩子将来会成为什么样，但我们知道他充满了潜力。这支年轻球队没有压力，这更增添了乐趣。没有人预测 2024-2025 赛季的马刺队能赢下哪怕一半的比赛，更不用说进入季后赛了。但现在，球队的胜率超过了 50%，在竞争激烈的西部联盟中，仅以微弱的胜率差排在第十名，也就是最后一个附加赛名额之外。是的，现在就开始关注这些事情还为时过早——但凭借着三连胜，我们可以偷偷地瞄一眼排名。
是的，马刺球迷可以非常感谢现在拥有这支像小孩子一样的球队，尤其是当球队展现出过去马刺队美丽篮球的闪光点时，例如这场逆转战胜勇士队的比赛中的这个配合：
团队篮球 pic.twitter.com/u6JGxgdo9h
—— 圣安东尼奥马刺 (@ spurs) 2024 年 11 月 24 日
最棒的是，马刺球迷可以对这支球队的未来充满感激。马刺球迷不会用这支球队的未来去交换任何其他球队的未来。除了神奇的维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)，我还非常感谢马刺管理层在 2025 年选秀大会上用第四顺位选中了斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)，此前他们还在选秀中成功选中了特雷·琼斯(Tre Jones)（二轮秀）、凯尔登·约翰逊(Keldon Johnson)、德文·瓦塞尔(Devin Vassell)和杰里米·索汉(Jeremy Sochan)，以及通过 waivers 签下了像朱利安·尚帕尼(Julian Champagnie) 和桑德罗·马穆克拉什维利(Sandro Mamukelashvili) 这样的球员（这也是马刺的优良传统！）。
我感谢临时主教练米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson) 在对阵勇士队的比赛最后时刻展现出的自信，他派上了二轮秀琼斯、waivers 签下的尚帕尼、刚满 20 岁的新秀卡斯尔和 20 岁的文班，以及唯一的老将哈里森·巴恩斯(Harrison Barnes)。约翰逊教练显然是在为马刺的未来押注。
感恩节就要到了，我也非常感谢这支球队延续了马刺队一个非常重要的传统。就像十年前引出我第一篇马刺感恩文章的那些马刺球员一样，这支球队看起来真的很喜欢彼此——这是一个很好的迹象，表明这支马刺队也是由“好人”组成的。这也让我非常感恩能成为一名马刺球迷，过去、现在和未来都是如此。
点击查看原文：Past, present and future thankfulness for Spurs fans
Past, present and future thankfulness for Spurs fans
There’s still plenty of past Spurs to be thankful for, but the current ones are starting to join the party.
The opposing attorney in a case I am handling sent me this email on Friday: “If we don’t talk before then, I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!” A conditional good wish like this has always bothered me. Does he mean that he wants me to have a Happy Thanksgiving only “if we don’t talk before then”? Perhaps he is hedging his bets: if we do speak, he will decide after our conversation if his good wishes remain intact. Not knowing how to respond, I threw the conundrum right back at him — I said “You too.” That will show him.
His odd wish also got me thinking about Thanksgiving in general, and my fellow Spurs fans in particular. And I decided to write yet another “Thankful to be a Spurs fan” post. This year’s theme: Past, present and future thankfulness.
I wrote my first “Thankful” post all the way back in the fall of 2014, my first season with Pounding the Rock. In that post, I ended with:
Especially in light of everything going on in the sports world, I loved to hear Rudy T’s [Rudy Tomjanovich] comments about the team we all root for. He used the words ‘good people’. Among all the things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, the list includes the ability to cheer on a Spurs team that is a group of good people. Not everyone can say that, but we can. Happy Thanksgiving, Spurs nation.
That piece was written in the afterglow of the Redemption Finals in 2014. Those Finals gave Spurs fans numerous reasons to be thankful, including the 58-22 run in the second and third quarters of the clinching Game Five, Patty Mills’ flurry of threes to blow open the game, and My Man Manu’s thunderous dunk over Chris Bosh that remains a Spurs highlight even now.
And most of all, the Redemption Finals thankfully closed the door on the painful ending of the 2013 Finals. As I wrote at the time:
The 2014 Spurs, without preening or pounding their chests, looked genuinely happy, and that was a very good thing. They didn’t need to preen or pound their chests. They could just look up at the scoreboard, laugh, smile, hug and say meaningful things in each other’s ears. And feel at peace.
And because the Spurs felt that way, so did Spurs fans. Including this one. Now when I think of Ray Allen’s three-pointer in Game Six, I immediately think of the 2014 Finals. And smile.
I am thankful for the 2013 Finals for another reason. Those Finals gave us this highlight reel of DannyGreen!!’s Twenty Seven Three-Pointers. That is something I still watch before I go out to play in my two weekly games, just to steal just a little bit of the DG confidence to Let it Fly.
Of course, Spurs fans have much more in the past to be thankful for than just those two Finals. They have been blessed with stars such as George Gervin, Sean Elliot, David Robinson, and the Big Three — and numerous other great non-star teammates such as Avery Johnson, Michael Finley, Mills, Gary Neal, Boris Diaw, Tiago Splitter, Boban Marjanovic and many more. These players, stars and non-stars, brought the five championships. Thank you! And all were achieved under the best coach ever, Gregg Popovich and the rotating cast of wonderful assistant coaches, many of whom are now head coaches throughout the league.
Spurs fans also have much to be thankful for with the present team. Fellow PtR writer Charlie Thaddeus summed it up after the Spurs’ comeback win over the Jazz, even before Saturday night’s remarkable comeback win over the much more formidable Warriors:
Are they great? Are they contending? Are they ready to be in a real conversation with serious teams in this league? I don’t know the answer to any of those questions. They probably aren’t great. They probably aren’t contending. They probably aren’t quite ready to be taken seriously yet. So what are they? For now, I’ll settle for fun.
I agree. The present Spurs are like having a small child, enthusiastic about life and happy. We don’t know what that child will become, but we know the child is full of potential. The fun is enhanced by the absence of pressure on this young team. No one predicted the 2024-2025 Spurs to win even half of their games, let alone to make the playoffs. But here we are, with the team over .500 and only percentage points out of 10th place and the final play-in spot in the uber-competitive Western Conference. Yes, it is much too early to actually start paying attention to such things — but with a three-game winning streak in hand, we can enjoy a sideways peak at the standings.
Yes, Spurs fans can be very thankful to have this small child of a team in the present, especially when the team shows flashes of the Beautiful Game Spurs teams of the past, such as this play from the comeback win over the Warriors:
team ball pic.twitter.com/u6JGxgdo9h
— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) November 24, 2024
Best of all, Spurs fans can be very thankful for this team’s future. Spurs fans would not trade this team’s future for that of any other team. Beyond the wondrous Victor Wembanyama, I am very thankful that the Spurs front office absolutely nailed the number 4 pick in the 2025 draft (Stephon Castle), after successful earlier drafts of Tre Jones (a second round pick), Keldon Jonhson, Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, plus waiver wire pick-ups (a thankful Spurs tradition!) of players such as Julian Champagnie and Sandro Mamukelashvili.
I am thankful that interim head coach Mitch Johnson showed the self-confidence to go down the stretch in the Warriors game with second round pick Jones, waiver wire Champagnie, just turned 20-year old rookie Castle and 20-year old Victor, along with just one vet, Harrison Barnes. Coach Johnson showed is clearly banking on the Spurs’ future.
With Thanksgiving coming this week, I am also very thankful that this team carries on a very important Spurs tradition. Just like the Spurs players that led to my very first Spurs thankfulness post ten years ago, this team really seems to like each other — a great sign that this version of the Spurs is also comprised of “good people”. That too makes me very thankful to be a Spur fan, past, present and future.
By Lee Dresie, via Pounding The Rock