By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-02-12 15:09:27
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。
圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋文班亚马在2025年2月10日星期一在华盛顿举行的NBA篮球比赛下半场对阵华盛顿奇才队的比赛中做出反应。(美联社图片/Nick Wass)
波士顿 – 马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)认为，NBA 已经朝着其既定目标迈出了重要一步，那就是提高一年一度的全明星赛的竞争性。
他们把文班亚马放了进去。
“如果结果和最近的每一场比赛一样，节奏缓慢，只是随便玩玩，我希望我能带来反差，以一个疯狂、扑球、全力以赴的球员的形象出现，”文班亚马说，他将在本周末在旧金山首次亮相全明星赛。“我肯定会努力带来那份能量。”
在经历了多年球员们并未尽最大努力的乏味的全明星赛后，为 NBA 的赛季中期展示活动重新带来兴奋感一直是总裁亚当·萧华(Adam Silver)的既定目标。
今年的调整是，全明星赛不再是一场单一的比赛，而是由三支由 10 名全明星组成的队伍和第四支由周六新秀挑战赛的获胜者组成的队伍之间进行的小型锦标赛。
这些球队是由 TNT 分析师查尔斯·巴克利、肯尼·史密斯和沙奎尔·奥尼尔从全明星阵容中选出的。
21 岁的文班亚马最终加入了巴克利的队伍，名为“查克的全球明星队”。这是一支具有国际风味的队伍，其中包括俄克拉荷马城的谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大、丹佛的尼古拉·约基奇、克利夫兰的多诺万·米切尔、休斯顿的阿尔佩伦·申京、印第安纳的帕斯卡尔·西亚卡姆、纽约的卡尔-安东尼·唐斯和亚特兰大的特雷·杨。
文班亚马的球队将在半决赛中面对史密斯选出的队伍——被称为“肯尼的青年明星队”。该队由明尼苏达的安东尼·爱德华兹、孟菲斯的贾伦·杰克逊和俄克拉荷马城的杰伦·威廉姆斯组成，以及纽约的杰伦·布伦森、底特律的凯德·坎宁安、克利夫兰的达里厄斯·加兰、迈阿密的泰勒·希罗和克利夫兰的埃文·莫布利。
第三组全明星，被称为“沙克的 OG 队”，由波士顿的杰伦·布朗、金州勇士的斯蒂芬·库里、菲尼克斯的凯文·杜兰特、洛杉矶快船的詹姆斯·哈登、达拉斯的凯里·欧文、洛杉矶湖人的勒布朗·詹姆斯、密尔沃基的达米安·利拉德和波士顿的杰森·塔图姆组成。
文班亚马说他觉得他的球队组成很有趣。
“这让我想到，如果有一场世界队对阵美国队的比赛，那会很有趣，”他说。“那样会更好。”
上个月，萧华在巴黎举行的 NBA 全球赛期间对媒体成员表示，联盟确实曾考虑过将全明星赛直接变成“美国队对阵世界队”的比赛，但目前已搁置了这一想法。
反对它的一个原因是简单的数学。
“联盟中有 30% 是国际球员，其余是美国球员，”萧华说。“如果你从 30% 的球员池中选出半数球员，而从 70% 的球员池中选出另一半球员，这对球员来说可能不公平。”
萧华还自言自语地想知道，美国队对阵世界队的概念是否会被联盟中的一些国际球星视为冒犯。
“这可能有点老套，我们作为美国人进来，然后说，‘我们将对抗世界’，”萧华说。“我不确定我们的国际球员会如何接受它。”
萧华对全明星周末的主要希望是，联盟所做的调整将激发球员们的竞争欲望，尤其是在东部联盟以 211-186 的天文数字赢得去年比赛之后。
“我没有放弃全明星赛仍然是为球迷提供具有竞争力和娱乐性的比赛的希望，”萧华说。“这肯定不是我们（去年）的情况。我们回到了绘图板，并且我很乐观，今年我们找到了一种行之有效的方案。”
极具竞争力的文班亚马发誓要尽自己的一份力量。
当被问及他是否计划打一些防守——这是近年来全明星赛中罕见的——文班亚马看起来好像被问到他是否计划在旧金山呼吸氧气一样。
“是的，”他说。
至于这位 NBA 盖帽领袖在全明星锦标赛中可能会获得多少个盖帽？
“我们走着瞧，”文班亚马笑着说。
除了赢得锦标赛外，文班亚马说他周末的主要目标是向其他全明星展示应该怎么做。
“我想保持专业，”文班亚马说。“我不介意更简单的形式，但输掉的东西更多，风险更大。但我当然非常兴奋。”
Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly (0) dunks over San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Wizards guard Malcolm Brogdon (15) goes to the basket past San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan (10) and center Victor Wembanyama (1) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, right, grabs the ball against Washington Wizards forward Richaun Holmes, center, and guard Jordan Poole (13) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, left, dunks past Washington Wizards forward Tristan Vukcevic (00) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
El pívot de los Spurs de San Antonio Victor Wembanyama salta para anotar frente a Tristan Vukcevic y Bilal Coulibaly de los Wizards de Washington el lunes 10 de febrero del 2025. (AP Foto/Nick Wass)
点击查看原文：How Victor Wembanyama plans to save the NBA All-Star game
How Victor Wembanyama plans to save the NBA All-Star game
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama reacts during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
BOSTON – The way Spurs center Victor Wembanyama sees it, the NBA has already taken one important step toward its stated goal of improving the competitive edge of its annual All-Star game.
They put Wembanyama in it.
“If it turns out like every other recent game, slow and just playing around, I hope I can bring that contrast of a single guy who goes crazy, dives on the ball, hustles every play,” said Wembanyama, who will make his first career All-Star appearance in San Francisco this weekend. “I’m definitely going to try to bring that energy.”
Bringing excitement back to the NBA’s midseason showcase event has been a stated goal of commissioner Adam Silver after several years of mostly uninteresting All-Star games between players giving something less than maximum effort.
This year’s tweak is that the All-Star game is not a single game at all, but a mini-tournament between three squads of 10 All-Stars plus a fourth team made up of the winner of Saturday’s Rising Stars contest.
The teams were drafted from the pool of All-Stars by TNT analysts Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal.
The 21-year-old Wembanyama ended up on Barkley’s squad, called Chuck’s Global Stars. It is an internationally flavored bunch that includes Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, Houston’s Alperen Sengun, Indiana’s Pascal Siakam, New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns and Atlanta’s Trae Young.
Wembanyama’s team will face the Smith-drafted squad – dubbed Kenny’s Young Stars – in the semifinal round. That squad is comprised of Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. and Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams, as well as New York’s Jalen Brunson, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, Cleveland’s Darius Garland, Miami’s Tyler Herro and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley.
The third grouping of All-Stars, called Shaq’s OGs, is made up of Boston’s Jaylen Brown, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Phoenix’s Kevin Durant, the Los Angeles Clippers’ James Harden, Dallas’ Kyrie Irving, the L.A. Lakers’ LeBron James, Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard and Boston’s Jayson Tatum.
Wembanyama said he found the makeup of his team intriguing.
“It just makes me think if there was a game of the World vs. USA, that would be interesting,” he said. “That would be even better.”
Addressing media members in Paris as part of the NBA Global Games last month, Silver acknowledged the league has toyed with the idea of making the All-Star game a straight “U.S. team versus the world” affair but has shelved the notion for now.
One reason against it involves simple mathematics.
“Thirty percent of the league is international and the rest American players,” Silver said. “If you’re picking half the players from a 30% pool and the other half from a 70% pool, it might not be fair to the players.”
Silver also wondered aloud of a USA vs. the World concept might be taken as an affront by some of the league’s international stars.
“It may be a little bit of an old-fashioned concept where we come in as Americans and say, ‘We’ll take on the world,’ ” Silver said. “I’m not sure how well that would be received by our international players.”
Silver’s main hope for All-Star weekend is the tweaks the league has made will stoke players’ competitive fires, especially after the Eastern Conference won last year’s game by an astronomical score of 211-186.
“I haven’t given up on All-Star still being competitive, entertaining games for the fans,” Silver said. “That’s certainly not what we were this (past) year. We went back to the drawing board, and I’m optimistic this year that we landed on a formula that will work.”
The ultra-competitive Wembanyama vows to do his part.
Asked if he plans to play some defense – a rarity in All-Star games of late – Wembanyama looked as if he had just been asked if he planned to breathe oxygen in San Francisco.
“Yeah,” he said.
As for how many blocked shots the NBA’s leader in that category might collect in the All-Star tournament?
“We’ll see,” Wembanyama said with a grin.
Besides winning the tournament, Wembanyama said his main goal for the weekend was to show the other All-Stars how it should be done.
“I want to keep it professional,” Wembanyama said. “I wouldn’t mind a simpler format with more to lose, more stakes. But I’m very excited of course.”
By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer, via San Antonio Express-News
