By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-12-21 12:32:50
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 12 月 19 日星期四，在圣安东尼奥进行的一场 NBA 篮球比赛中，圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) 在加时赛中扣篮得分。马刺以 133-126 击败老鹰队。(美联社照片/Kin Man Hui)
维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)本可以慢慢来。
他被嘲讽、侮辱、不尊重。等他重新站稳在他那 52.5 码的大脚上时，他本可以把这一切都记在心里，慢慢地酝酿，等待一个完美的时机，再冷冷地报复德安德烈·亨特(De’Andre Hunter)和亚特兰大老鹰队。
然而，这位马刺队瘦削、礼貌的二年级中锋选择了立即复仇。
而他最火爆的队友对此一点也不感到惊讶。
“人们不知道，但文班他内心深处拥有那种野性，”马刺队前锋杰里米·索汉(Jeremy Sochan)说道。“他不会向任何人低头。我爱死他这点了（脏话）。”
周四晚上，弗罗斯特银行中心欣喜若狂的球迷也爱死了这一点，因为马刺队 133-126 的胜利是文班亚马的又一个例证，他向球迷们展示了，有时满足感可以来得很快。
上个赛季，作为一名新秀，当谈到这支 60 负的马刺队正在构建的东西时，他一直强调耐心。这个孩子看到了大局。没有必要操之过急。
但在周四晚上，在亨特飞跃过一个踉跄的文班亚马完成一记凶狠的扣篮，将比赛拖入加时赛，然后跨过他，一边咆哮一边握紧双拳之后呢？
文班亚马站了起来，也咆哮了回去。然后，他下定了决心。
“感觉就像我们必须马上把事情搞定，”文班亚马说道。“并且要有点生气。”
2024 年 12 月 19 日星期四，在圣安东尼奥弗罗斯特银行中心举行的 NBA 比赛下半场，圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)试图阻止亚特兰大老鹰队前锋德安德烈·亨特(De’Andre Hunter)。圣安东尼奥在加时赛中以 133-126 击败亚特兰大。
他做的远不止这些。在加时赛开始后，文班亚马打出了他职业生涯中最无情的一波进攻狂潮。他砍下了马刺队的前八分，在进攻时间即将结束时投进一记三分球，随后在一次挡拆配合中接克里斯·保罗(Chris Paul)的传球，飞身扣篮，然后又用另一记三分球让圣安东尼奥队取得了最终的领先。
文班亚马全场得到 42 分、6 个篮板、5 次助攻和 4 次盖帽。对主队来说更令人鼓舞的是，他得到了很多帮助。在文班的带领下，保罗、索汉和德文·瓦塞尔(Devin Vassell)都在最后时刻发挥了重要作用。
到了晚上比赛结束时呢？不仅仅是年轻球员在称赞速战速决的好处。
“我们不必等到明年或后年，”39 岁的保罗说道。“我们需要现在就努力赢球。”
保罗承认他并没有预料到会发生这种情况。他在七月份与马刺队签约，主要是因为他们是唯一一支给他首发机会的球队。圣安东尼奥队预计会有所进步，但取得 34 或 35 场胜利似乎是最好的情况。如果保罗在二月份被交易到一个真正的竞争者，很少有人会感到惊讶。
但现在，这种前景已经改变了。是的，马刺队在周六对阵波特兰的比赛之前，在西部联盟中排名第 11 位，这将使他们落在最后一个附加赛名额之外。但由于西部大部分球队仍然混战，马刺队 14 胜 13 负的战绩仅落后排名第六的丹佛掘金队一场，落后排名第四的达拉斯独行侠队三场。
附加赛——或者季后赛——之旅并非不可想象。一方面，马刺队到目前为止受益于主场密集的赛程，但还有 31 场客场比赛要打。另一方面，他们只打了三场对阵实力普遍较弱的东部联盟的比赛——比任何竞争者都少——而且还有 27 次机会在对阵这些球队时大展身手。
低迷期可能会到来。即使是最终赢得总冠军的强队，也几乎总是如此。
但即使是对最老练的愤世嫉俗者来说，像周四这样的比赛——马刺队再次赢得了近年来他们一次又一次错过的拉锯战——也为人们带来了乐观的理由。
“伙计，我尽量保持冷静，”保罗说道，“只是因为我们真的很好。”
这并不意味着“要么进季后赛，要么一无所有”。对于一支以 20 岁的文班亚马为核心打造的球队来说，其首要目标是从 2027 年到 2034 年左右，争夺每一个总冠军。
马刺队不会在接下来的几个月里进行赢在当下的交易。如果他们最终未能进入附加赛，他们仍然可以说取得了真正的进步。
但越来越清楚的是，他们也不必满足于整个赛季的道德胜利。
“我们必须要有耐心，不能跳过步骤，但同时，（我们）也不能花太多时间去迈出一步，”文班亚马说道。“所以，我喜欢现在的情况。我喜欢每个人都期待着赢得比赛。我们没有期待其他的事情。”
在周四晚上亨特握紧拳头跨过他之后呢？文班亚马只期待着接下来发生的事情。
他没有慢慢来。
他没有等待更好的机会。
他直接回击了亨特和老鹰队，释放了索汉坚持认为大多数人还没有意识到、但很快就会意识到的那种野性。
“他一直都会有这种野性，”索汉说道。“这就是为什么他会成为最伟大的球员之一。”
而且，也许比你想象的要快。
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) dives for a loose ball during the second half of the Spurs NBA game with the Atlanta Hawks at the Frost Bank Center on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024 in San Antonio. San Antonio beat Atlanta 133-126 in overtime.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) looks to shoot over Atlanta Hawks center Clint Capela (15) during the first half of their NBA game at the Frost Bank Center on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024 in San Antonio. San Antonio beat Atlanta 133-126 in overtime.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots and makes a three-point basket against Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels (5) during overtime of an NBA basketball game in San Antonio, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. Spurs defeated the Hawks, 133-126. (AP Photo/Kin Man Hui)
点击查看原文：As Victor Wembanyama unleashes inner animal, Spurs don't have to wait
As Victor Wembanyama unleashes inner animal, Spurs don’t have to wait
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) dunks for a score during overtime of an NBA basketball game in San Antonio, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. Spurs defeated the Hawks, 133-126. (AP Photo/Kin Man Hui)
Victor Wembanyama could have taken his time.
He’d been taunted, insulted, disrespected. Once he climbed back onto his size-20.5 feet, he could have filed all of that away, put it on a slow burn in the back of his mind, and waited for the perfect moment to serve his retribution on De’Andre Hunter and the Atlanta Hawks cold.
Instead, the Spurs’ skinny, polite second-year center chose immediate vengeance.
And his feistiest teammate wasn’t surprised one bit.
“People don’t know, but Vic has it in him,” Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan said. “That animal. He doesn’t back down from anybody. I love that (bleep).”
A delirious crowd at Frost Bank Center on Thursday night loved it, too, because the Spurs’ 133-126 victory was another example of Wembanyama showing fans that sometimes gratification can come quickly.
All last season, as a rookie, he preached patience when it came to what the 60-loss Spurs were building. The kid saw the big picture. There was no need to rush it.
But Thursday night, after Hunter soared over a stumbling Wembanyama for a vicious dunk to force overtime, then stepped over him while barking and clenching both fists?
Wembanyama stood up and barked back. Then he made up his mind about something.
“It felt like we had to take things, like, right now,” Wembanyama said. “And get a little pissed.”
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) tries to stop Atlanta Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter (12) during the second half of their NBA game at the Frost Bank Center on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024 in San Antonio. San Antonio beat Atlanta 133-126 in overtime.
He did more than that. To start the extra period, Wembanyama delivered one of the most ruthless flurries of his young career. He scored the Spurs’ first eight points, swishing a 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer, following that by soaring down the lane for a dunk on a pick-and-roll feed from Chris Paul, then giving San Antonio the lead for good on another 3-pointer.
Wembanyama finished with 42 points, six rebounds, five assists and four blocks. Even more encouraging for the home team, he had plenty of help. Following his lead, Paul and Sochan and Devin Vassell all came up big down the stretch, too.
And by the end of the night? It wasn’t just the young guys extolling the virtues of a shorter timeline.
“We don’t have to wait til next year or the year after,” the 39-year-old Paul said. “We need to be trying to win right now.”
Paul has conceded he didn’t necessarily see this coming. When he signed with the Spurs in July, it was mainly because they were the one team that offered him a chance to start. San Antonio expected to improve, but getting to 34 or 35 victories seemed like a best-case scenario. Few would have been surprised if Paul wound up getting traded in February to a legitimate contender.
Now, though, that outlook has changed. Yes, the Spurs entered Saturday’s game against Portland in 11th place in the Western Conference, which would land them outside the last play-in spot. But with most of the West still a jumble, the Spurs’ 14-13 record placed them only one game behind sixth-place Denver, and three behind fourth-place Dallas.
A play-in – or playoff – run is not unthinkable. On one hand, the Spurs benefited so far from a home-heavy schedule, and have 31 road games remaining. On the other, they’ve played only three games against the mostly abysmal Eastern Conference – fewer than any contender has so far – and still get 27 chances to make hay against those teams.
A slump probably is coming. One almost always does, even for powerhouses that wind up winning championships.
But even for the most grizzled of cynics, games like Thursday’s – in which the Spurs again prevailed in the type of back-and-forth affair they let slip away over and over in recent years – provide reasons for optimism.
“I’m trying to keep my cool, man,” Paul said, “just because we are so good.”
This doesn’t mean it’s “playoffs or bust.” The overarching goal for a franchise built around the 20-year-old Wembanyama is to compete for every championship from, say, 2027 to 2034.
The Spurs aren’t going to make a win-now trade in the next couple of months. And if they wind up falling short of the play-in mix, they still can claim to have made genuine progress.
But what’s becoming clear is they don’t have to settle for a season-long moral victory, either.
“We have to be patient, can’t skip steps, but at the same time, (we) can’t take too much time to take a step,” Wembanyama said. “So I like how it’s going now. I like the fact that everybody’s going into games expecting to win it. We’re not expecting to anything else.”
And after Hunter stepped over him with those clenched fists on Thursday night? Wembanyama wasn’t expecting anything other than what happened.
He didn’t take his time.
He didn’t wait for a better opportunity.
He went right back at Hunter and the Hawks, unleashing that animal that Sochan insists most people aren’t aware of yet, but will be soon.
“He’s always gonna have that in him,” Sochan said. “That’s why he’s gonna be one of the greatest.”
And maybe sooner than you think.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News