By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-02-11 14:53:11
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。
波士顿——“咱们边走边聊，”克里斯·保罗(Chris Paul)说道，仿佛后半句是理所当然的。自从他成为一名马刺球员的那天起，大概从他学会说话的那天起，他就很少让身边的人有片刻的安静。
孩子们——对这位39岁的控球后卫来说，更衣室里的每个人都是孩子——总是拿这件事打趣，但他们总是会认真倾听。保罗有太多知识可以传授给他们了，以至于有时候在暂停期间，他会忘记让主教练插上几句话。
这就是他仍然留在这里的原因。这也是为什么他愿意参加这无休无止的客场之旅，在这寒冷的城市里，登上另一辆满载着过于稚嫩和缺乏经验的队友的巴士，他们还无法帮助他赢得他的第一个NBA总冠军。
这也是为什么球队希望他留在这里的原因。这就是为什么球队没有在他可以被交易的时候交易他，也是为什么保罗从未想过要求离开。
马刺队还不确定他们将变成什么样。他们需要尽可能多的自我认知。
“我总是尽量保持谦逊、低调等等，但我知道我是谁，”保罗说。“我知道我能做什么，你懂我的意思吗？”
马刺队非常清楚他的意思。他们知道保罗对自己的信念如何传递给身边的那些孩子们。他们知道他已经灌输了多少信念。他们也知道，如果保罗仍然认为他可以帮助他们获胜，即使是在打一个新的位置，那么如果他们不留住他并给他这个机会，他们就是傻瓜。
这时，保罗停止走向巴士，但仍然在说话。他停下脚步，是因为他想向你——或者说向所有人——表明，他是认真的。
是的，他去年夏天与马刺队签约，因为他想打球，而他们是唯一一支保证给他首发位置的球队。但过去三个月，保罗并没有把他在圣安东尼奥的经历当作一个跳板，去其他地方追逐总冠军，而是重申了他想在交易截止日后留下的意愿。
他正在为某些事情做出贡献，而且他明白自己可能无法等到他的贡献真正得到回报的那一天。他对此并不介意，但他认为接下来的几个月也可能是有意义的。
“我想打球，而且我相信这支球队会变得非常出色，”保罗说。“我是真心这么认为的。”
如果他不是真心这么认为的，他早就离开了。毕竟，如果他上周要求离队，马刺队会满足他的要求，就像他们满足了许多其他更衣室老将的要求一样，让他们在球队的重建时期转会到更有竞争力的球队。
上周，当圣安东尼奥得到未来的控球后卫德阿隆·福克斯(De’Aaron Fox)时，很容易交易保罗，而不是特雷·琼斯(Tre Jones)。他们打的是同一个位置，他们本赛季的薪水大致相同，而且都即将成为自由球员。琼斯大概会满足于在接下来的两个月里担任福克斯的替补，然后再去其他地方。
因此，如果马刺队认为让保罗和福克斯同时首发后场会很尴尬，他们本可以轻易避免这种情况。但事实是，他们并不认为这是一个问题。相反，他们继续让保罗首发是一种特权，也是一项对未来的投资，它的价值将超过他在圣安东尼奥的日子。
在交易截止日前的几天里，维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)思考着球员可以像“物品一样”被交易，是多么奇怪的事情。他说的有道理，而且篮球迷、记者，甚至高管们有时都会忽略这一点。
球员是人。作为一名球员，也作为一个个体，保罗的存在对于马刺队本赛季取得的进步至关重要。如果他们希望他在接下来的两个月里继续产生这样的影响，那么他们想要最好的他，难道不是理所当然的吗？那个全身心投入，因为他觉得自己得到了充分的重视的保罗？
当然，在战术方面——尤其是在防守端——马刺队主教练米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)可能会考虑让保罗替补出场。但让福克斯和保罗一起首发也有一些战术上的好处，而且这不是没有经过认真思考的。
约翰逊是代理主教练，他负责决定阵容。但你真的认为约翰逊仅仅是在赛季中期交易重塑球队未来之后，自己突发奇想地提出了保罗-福克斯首发后场的想法吗？你真的认为马刺队没有花大量精力来思考如何最大限度地发挥拥有这两名控球后卫的阵容的潜力吗？随随便便地做出这些决定，听起来像是马刺队会做的事情，或者曾经做过的事情吗？
当然不是。仅仅因为保罗很可能在马刺队争夺总冠军之前离开，并不意味着现在继续让他首发就是浪费时间。仅仅因为他们专注于未来，并不意味着他们应该只让那些会在未来五年左右留在球队的球员上场。
正如约翰逊所说，“让职业生涯处于不同阶段的球员在一起，实际上是一种优势。”
即使是对新来者来说，这种优势也很容易显现出来。在周三与波士顿的比赛之前，福克斯只为马刺队打了四场比赛。他注意到的是，虽然关于保罗从不闭嘴的玩笑是真的，但还有更深层次的原因。
“他说的每句话都有实质内容，”福克斯说。
马刺队渴望的就是这种实质内容。他们热爱球队里的年轻球员。在那些待的时间最长的年轻球员中，他们有一些努力树立积极榜样，并努力说正确的事情的球员。
但球队里的人说，他们还没有任何人能像保罗那样，以那种权威——以那种实质——说话。一支年轻的球队需要这样的声音。
所以，为什么不纵容一下这位老家伙呢？周一晚上在华盛顿边走边聊时，保罗解释说，他一直认为他可以在无球状态下打球，在另一名控球后卫身边打球。他现在对这个机会感到兴奋。
“老实说，我真的很会投篮，”保罗说。“我一直想要这个角色。”
如果马刺队继续给他这个机会呢？那不是因为他们是在帮他一个忙。
通过让他开心，并让他畅所欲言，他们是在帮自己一个忙。
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3) brings the ball up court in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3) handles the ball against Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (12) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3) brings the ball upcourt ahead of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (12) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)
Washington Wizards guard Bub Carrington (8) dunks past San Antonio Spurs guards Stephon Castle (5) and Chris Paul (3) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
点击查看原文：Why is Chris Paul still a Spur? He knows where he's needed.
Why is Chris Paul still a Spur? He knows where he’s needed.
BOSTON – “Let’s walk and talk,” Chris Paul says, as if the second part wasn’t already a given. Since the day he became a Spur, and presumably since the day he learned to move his lips, he rarely has given those around him a moment of silence.
The kids – and to the 39-year-old point guard, everybody in his locker room is a kid – laugh about this all the time, but they always listen. Paul has so much knowledge to impart to them, he can forget sometimes during timeouts to let the head coach get a word in edgewise.
This is why he’s still here. It’s why he wants to be on this interminable rodeo road trip, in another of these freezing cities, on the way to another bus populated by teammates who are too raw and too inexperienced to give him his first NBA championship.
It’s also why that team wants him here. It’s why that team didn’t trade him when it could have, and it’s why Paul never even dreamed of asking to leave.
The Spurs aren’t sure who they’re becoming yet. They need all the self-awareness they can get.
“I always try to be humble, modest and all that, but I know who I am,” Paul says. “I know what I’m capable of, you know what I mean?”
The Spurs know exactly what he means. They know how Paul’s belief in himself has spread to those kids around him. They know how much of that belief he’s instilled already. And they know that if Paul still thinks he can help him win, even while playing a new position, they’d be fools not to keep him around and give him that chance.
This is where Paul stops walking to the bus, but keeps talking. He stops walking because he wants to make it clear to you – and by you, he means everybody – that he’s serious about this.
Yes, he signed with the Spurs last summer because he wanted to hoop, and they were the one team guaranteeing him a starting job. But instead of using his San Antonio stint as a showcase to land a gig as a ring-chaser elsewhere, all the past three months did was reiterate to Paul that he wanted to stay past the trade deadline.
He’s contributing to something, and he understands he probably won’t be around when his contributions really pay off. He’s fine with that, but he thinks the next couple of months can be meaningful, too.
“I want to play, and I believe this team can be really good,” Paul says. “I mean that wholeheartedly.”
If he didn’t, he’d be gone by now. After all, if he’d asked out last week, the Spurs would have obliged him, the same way they’ve obliged so many other elder locker room statesmen they’ve allowed to move on to more competitive locales during the franchise’s rebuilding era.
Last week, when San Antonio acquired point guard of the future De’Aaron Fox, it would have been easy to trade Paul instead of Tre Jones. They play the same position, they’re making about the same salary this season, and both are about to become free agents. Jones, presumably, would have been content backing up Fox for the next two months before moving elsewhere.
So if the Spurs thought having to keep Paul in the same starting backcourt as Fox would be awkward, the Spurs easily could have avoided it. But the truth is, they didn’t see it as a problem. On the contrary, they continuing to start Paul as a privilege, as well as an investment in the future that will outlast his days in San Antonio.
In the days leading up to the deadline, Victor Wembanyama mused about how weird it is that players can be traded “like objects.” He had a point, and it’s one basketball fans and reporters and even executives can lose sight of on occasion.
Players are people. As a player, and as a person, Paul’s presence has been integral to the leaps the Spurs have made this season. And if they want him to keep making that kind of impact over the next two months, doesn’t it make sense that they’d want the best version of him? The one who’s fully engaged because he feels like he’s fully appreciated?
Sure, there are some X-and-O reasons – particularly on defense – why Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson could consider sending Paul to the bench. But starting Fox and Paul together also comes with some X-and-O benefits, and it’s not as though serious thought wasn’t put into this.
Johnson is the acting head coach, and he makes the lineup decisions. But do you really think Johnson just dreamed up the idea of a starting Paul-Fox backcourt on his own, after a midseason trade that reshaped the future of the franchise? Do you really think the Spurs didn’t put tons of thought into how to maximize the upside of a roster featuring both point guards? Does making those kinds of calls willy-nilly sound like something the Spurs do, or have ever done?
Of course not. Just because Paul is likely to leave before the Spurs compete for titles doesn’t mean that continuing to start him now is a waste of minutes. Just because they’re focused on the future doesn’t mean they should play only the guys who’ll be around for the next half-decade.
As Johnson puts it, “It actually works out as a benefit to have guys in different parts of their career.”
It doesn’t take long for that benefit to become evident, even to newcomers. Heading into Wednesday’s matchup in Boston, Fox has played only four games with the Spurs. What he’s noticed is that, while the jokes about Paul never shutting up are true, there’s more to it than that.
“There’s a substance to everything he’s saying,” Fox says.
It’s that substance the Spurs crave. They love the young players in their organization. Among those young players who’ve been around the longest, they have guys who’ve worked hard to set positive examples, and who try to say the right things.
But those around the team say they don’t yet have anyone who speaks with the authority – with the substance – that Paul does. A young team needs that.
So why not indulge the old fella? Walking and talking Monday night in Washington, Paul explains that he always thought he could play off the ball, next to another point guard. He’s excited about that chance now.
“Just to be honest with you, I can really shoot the ball,” Paul says. “It’s a role I’ve wanted for a while now.”
And if the Spurs keep giving him that chance? It’s not because they’re doing him a favor.
By keeping him happy, and keeping him talking, they’re doing themselves one.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News