By Devon Birdsong | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-01-24 22:00:00
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。
形式、理念和柏拉图
古希腊哲学家柏拉图(Plato)喜欢讲述一个关于天堂岛的故事，岛上居住着一个理想而先进的社会，但在一次地震和火山爆发的 crescendo 中被海水吞没。
这个关于一个原本完美社会因傲慢和自然灾害的某种结合而衰落的故事，几乎只是柏拉图后期对话录《蒂迈欧篇》(Timaeus)和《克里提阿篇》(Critias)中的一个脚注，然而，它的一些内容却在近两千五百年的时间里，捕捉并保持着人类的好奇心。
在那段时间里，无数的作品（涉及各种主题）都在沉思亚特兰蒂斯岛，而其他故事和历史则在被忽视中腐朽，从人类的记忆中消失。
作为一名历史系学生，我一直对此感到困惑。为什么是亚特兰蒂斯？是因为故事的简略模糊吗？是因为考古学无法证实它吗？是因为在缺乏确切答案的情况下，想象力可以恣意驰骋吗？
我不敢说我期望在一场圣安东尼奥马刺的比赛中找到答案。在我可能发现的事情中，我可以坦诚地说，这绝对不在我的清单上。
然而，看着圣安东尼奥马刺击败印第安纳步行者，我不禁想到了亚特兰蒂斯——不是它的衰落，而是它作为一种潜力的愿景的本质。马刺队就像那座神话城市的居民一样，正在 striving toward 一些非凡的东西，一些触手可及的东西。
维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)是这个故事的核心人物，一个 towering wonder ，他的天赋似乎对这个世界来说太过 grand 。他的30分、11个篮板、6次助攻和5次盖帽不仅仅是数字；它们是一个有朝一日可以重新定义比赛的球员的证据。
终于回到他的故土，他无处不在：大胆地改变投篮，突破防守队员，并以老将的沉着指挥进攻。在比赛的某些阶段，他似乎体现了篮球的理想形态：一个7尺4寸的 prodigy ，拥有后卫的视野，射手的触感，以及经验丰富的超级巨星的直觉。
他的 brilliance 不仅仅体现在他的数据上，也体现在他的决策上。在比赛初期，他用外线投篮拉开了防守。当步行者调整防守后，他也随之改变，以一种让他们手忙脚乱的凶猛进攻篮筐，利用错位和空档，并展示了根据比赛的 flow 快速调整打法的能力。
当文班处于那种状态时，马刺队即使在他们最受困扰的情况下，也很容易赢得比赛，就像本赛季大部分时间的情况一样。在比赛开始之前，我预计我们可能会看到文班有这样的表现，但正是他的队友们近乎完美的配合，让球迷和对手都看到了未来，因为整个阵容都展现了他们本赛季最 complete 的努力之一。
我经常说正负值充其量只是一个不稳定的统计数据，但值得注意的是，每个上场的马刺球员都以正值结束了比赛，其中八人达到了两位数。你很难要求一支三分球命中率50%，投篮命中率60%，罚球命中率100%的球队打出更好的比赛，同时他们在第三节砍下45分，驱除了最近第三节低迷的阴影，并将他们通常高分的对手（得分第11，进攻效率第11）限制在只有23分。
这并不是柏拉图式的篮球理念——为了见证这一点，我建议你第无数次观看这个视频——但它 确实是 这套阵容的柏拉图式篮球理想，因为他们用漫长而积极的身体覆盖了外线，并像比利·霍伊尔赌女友的钱一样猛攻篮筐。十名不同的马刺球员投进了三分球，全队共送出43次助攻，只比队史纪录少了6次（算上季后赛少了8次）。
马刺队轻松赢得了比赛，但真正的胜利在于他们的团队合作方式。德文·瓦塞尔(Devin Vassell)流畅的得分，杰里米·索汉(Jeremy Sochan)被 sorely missed 的全面性，以及凯尔登·约翰逊(Keldon Johnson)不知疲倦的活力，与文班亚马的 brilliance 无缝衔接。这是一场团队的胜利，是朝着 transcendent 篮球迈出的集体一步。
马刺队正在学习如何走向伟大，他们的团队合作是更宏大目标的基础——如果加以培养，有朝一日可能会像一支NBA球队的最 euphoric 愿景。
尽管如此，我们还不知道周六会是这支球队的哪个版本出场比赛。我想这就是重点。
篮球，就像生活一样，拒绝完美。进步没有保证。它需要谦逊、自我认知和适应的意愿。马刺队将面临挫折，也会有那么一些夜晚，他们的潜力带来的压力更像是一种负担而不是一种馈赠。然而，在他们的 striving 中，他们为我们提供了一些比完美更引人注目的东西：见证一个愿景成形的机会。
在过去的一百年里，一个脆弱的共识获得了动力。柏拉图关于亚特兰蒂斯的故事是一个捏造的，一个与考古和地质记录相冲突的寓言故事，这种感觉已经站稳了脚跟。“柏拉图式理想”的概念源于他的理论：我们对形式和理念的感知和理解与我们无法理解、更无法维护的现实相去甚远——事物的理想形式比事物本身更完美。
看着这支马刺队，我发现很难不认同这一点。
然而，我们记住的是亚特兰蒂斯。在我们的集体意识中，它存在于那里，一个埋藏在水下的原始乌托邦。它是哲学家、作家、探险家，甚至纳粹的 obsession 。
我想有时我们更关注故事而不是寓意——我们迷失在细节中，失去了线索。也许我们只是情不自禁。
马刺队昨天很完美。也许我们可以就这样吧。
要点
- 很高兴看到德文·瓦塞尔继续他的上升轨迹，因为他开始看起来像上赛季受伤前的那个球员了。在过去的五场比赛中，他场均得到22分，命中率为52/52/77。是的，你没看错：他的投篮命中率和三分球命中率几乎相同。这不仅仅是 hot ，这比希特勒的屁股还热。如果他能继续保持这种状态，或者仅仅是保持下去，我想赛季初关于他合同的所有抱怨都会减少。
德文的压哨球再看一遍 pic.twitter.com/geIqxlfkwi
— 圣安东尼奥马刺 (@ spurs) 2025年1月23日
- 同样也很高兴看到杰里米·索汉在这场比赛中看起来既健康又充满侵略性，因为在缺少可靠的替补大个子（以及文班亚马的三分球尝试期间），他的篮板和防守对马刺至关重要。背伤有一种讨厌的方式挥之不去和/或在随机的时间点突然出现，所以希望他能在短期和长期都保持健康。不管你对他的投篮缺陷怎么看，毫无疑问，他在场上时，球队的态度是不同的，这同样重要。
@JeremySochan的复出之战真棒！
13分 | 9个篮板 | 3次助攻 pic.twitter.com/seANSazzTP— 圣安东尼奥马刺 (@ spurs) 2025年1月23日
- 话虽如此，流畅的球运转不仅仅是因为索汉的空切和无球 brilliance ，因为米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)似乎限制了扎克·科林斯(Zack Collins)和查尔斯·巴斯(Charles Bassey)的上场时间，转而选择了备受喜爱（并且传球犀利）的桑德罗·马穆克拉什维利(Sandro Mamukelashvili)，他像往常一样，在有限的上场时间里几乎做了马刺队需要的一切。这是否是一个新趋势的开始，或者仅仅是约翰逊及时直觉的结果，这将很有趣，但这支马刺队肯定需要更多这样的表现。
— 圣安东尼奥马刺 (@ spurs) 2025年1月23日
今晚的主题曲：
艾斯利兄弟合唱团的 Voyage to Atlantis
点击查看原文：What we learned from the Spurs win over the Pacers
What we learned from the Spurs win over the Pacers
Forms, Ideas, and Plato
There was a story that the ancient Greek philosopher Plato liked to tell about a paradisaical island populated by an ideal and advanced society, that was swallowed up by the seas in a crescendo of quakes and eruptions.
That account of an otherwise perfect society, laid low by some combination of hubris and natural disaster, was almost a footnote in his later dialogues of Timaeus and Critias, and yet something about it has captured and maintained the curiosity of the human race for nearly two and a half millennia.
An almost innumerable number of works (in a variety of subjects) have been composed in that time, meditating on the Isle of Atlantis, as other tales and histories have moldered in neglect and passed from human memory.
This is something that has always perplexed me as a student of history. Why Atlantis? Is it the vague brevity of the tale? The archaeological inability to verify it? The way that imagination can run wild in the absence of definitive answers?
I can’t say that I expected to find an answer in a San Antonio Spurs game. Of the things that I might have possibly discovered, I can honestly say that would not have made the list.
And yet, watching the San Antonio Spurs defeat the Indiana Pacers, I couldn’t help but think of Atlantis — not in its fall, but in its essence as a vision of potential. The Spurs, not unlike the citizens of that mythical city, are striving toward something extraordinary, something just out of reach.
Victor Wembanyama is the central figure in this tale, a towering wonder whose talents seem almost too grand for this world. His 30 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and five blocks weren’t just numbers; they were evidence of a player who could one day redefine the game.
Back on his native soil at last, he was everywhere: boldly altering shots, cutting through defenders, and commanding the offense with the composure of a veteran. For stretches of the game, he seemed to embody basketball’s ideal form: a 7’4” prodigy with the vision of a guard, the touch of a shooter, and the instincts of a seasoned superstar.
And that brilliance wasn’t just in his stat line, it was in his decisions. Early in the game, he stretched the defense with his outside shot. When the Pacers adjusted, he shifted, attacking the rim with a ferocity that left them scrambling, taking advantage of mismatches and openings, and showcasing a swiftly developing ability to shift his approach based on the flow of the game.
When Wembanyama’s in the zone like that, it doesn’t take much for the Spurs to eke out a win, even at their most hampered, as has been the case much of the season. Coming into the contest I expected that we might see something of the sort out of Wemby, but it was his teammates playing in near-perfect attunement that gave fans and foes alike a vision of the future, as the entirety of the roster gave one of their most complete efforts of the season.
I frequently talk about +/- being a fiddly statistic at best, but it’s telling that every Spurs player who saw the court finished the game in the positive, with eight in the double-digits. You’d be hard-pressed to ask for a better game from a team that shot 50% from three, 60% from the floor, and 100% from the free throw line, all while exorcising the demons of recent 3rd quarters with 45 points in that frame, as they held their typically high scoring opponents (11th in scoring, 11th in offensive rating) to just 23.
It was not the platonic idea of basketball — to witness that I recommend you give this video a watch for the quadrillionth time — but it was the platonic ideal of basketball for this roster, as they blanketed the perimeter with lengthy, motivated bodies, and hammered the rim like Billy Hoyle gambling his girlfriend’s money. Ten different Spurs made a three-pointer, and the team tallied 43 assists, just six shy of the team record (8 shy counting the playoffs).
The Spurs won the game going away, but the real victory was in how they played together. Devin Vassell’s buttery-smooth scoring, Jeremy Sochan’s sorely missed versatility, and Keldon Johnson’s relentless energy seamlessly complemented Wembanyama’s brilliance. It was a team win, a collective step toward transcendent basketball.
The Spurs are learning to navigate their path toward greatness, their teamwork the foundation of something larger—something that, if nurtured, could one day resemble the most euphoric vision of an NBA team.
Still, there’s no telling what version of this team will take the court on Saturday. And I suppose that’s the point.
Basketball, like life, resists perfection. Progress isn’t guaranteed. It requires humility, self-awareness, and the willingness to adapt. The Spurs will face setbacks, and there will be nights when the weight of their potential feels more like a burden than a gift. Yet in their striving, they offer us something even more compelling than perfection: the chance to witness a vision take shape.
Over the last 100 years, a fragile consensus has gained momentum. The sense that Plato’s story of Atlantis was a fabrication, an allegorical tale that conflicts with both archaeological and geological record, has taken hold.
In the context of his philosophical interests, this makes sense, as the very concept of the ‘platonic ideal’ stems from his theory that our perception and understanding of forms and ideas fall short of a reality we cannot comprehend, much less maintain — that the ideal forms of things are more perfect than the things themselves.
Watching this Spurs team, I find it hard not to agree.
And yet, it’s Atlantis we remember. In our collective minds, it exists out there, a primordial utopia buried somewhere beneath the waters. It’s been the obsession of philosophers, writers, explorers, and even Nazis.
I guess sometimes we pay more attention to the story than the moral — that we get lost in the details and lose the thread. Maybe we just can’t help ourselves.
The Spurs were perfect yesterday. Maybe we can just leave it at that.
Takeaways
- It was nice to see Devin Vassell continuing his upward trajectory, as he’s starting to look like the player he was last season before his injury. Over the last five games he’s averaging 22 points on 52/52/77 shooting. Yes, you read that correctly: his field-goal percentage and 3pt percentage are nearly identical. That’s not just hot, that’s warmer than Hitler’s hind-parts. If he can keep building on this, or even just keep it up, I imagine all the caterwauling of the early season about his contract will diminish.
one more moment for Dev’s buzzer beater pic.twitter.com/geIqxlfkwi
— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) January 23, 2025
- It was also great to see Jeremy Sochan looking both healthy and aggressive in this one too, as his rebounding and defense have been critical for the Spurs in the absence of a dependable bench big (as well as during Wemby’s three-point forays). Back injuries have a nasty way of lingering and/or cropping up at random points, so here’s to hoping he can stay healthy both in the short and long term. Regardless of how you feel about his shooting deficits, there’s no doubt that this is a different team attitude-wise with him on the court and that’s equally critical.
What a game back for @ JeremySochan!
13 PTS I 9 REB I 3 AST pic.twitter.com/seANSazzTP— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) January 23, 2025
- That being said, it wasn’t just Sochan’s cutting and off-ball brilliance that was responsible for the silky ball movement, as Mitch Johnson appeared to limit both Zack Collins and Charles Bassey in favor of the beloved (and sharp-passing) Sandro Mamukelashvili, who did just about everything the Spurs needed in his limited time on the court, per usual. It’ll be interesting to see if this is the start of a new trend, or simply the result of timely gut instinct on Johnson’s part, but it certainly looked like the Spurs could use more of it.
MAMUUUUU pic.twitter.com/GccIA2GhsS
— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) January 23, 2025
Playing You Out – The Theme Song of the Evening:
Voyage to Atlantis by The Isley Brothers
By Devon Birdsong, via Pounding The Rock