By Mike Finger, Staff writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-02-13 14:29:39
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。
圣安东尼奥马刺队临时主教练米奇·约翰逊在2025年2月12日星期三于波士顿举行的对阵波士顿凯尔特人队的NBA篮球比赛上半场向他的队员喊话。(美联社图片/Charles Krupa)
波士顿 – 自从米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)的生活发生改变的那个下午开始，在过去的103天里，他一直都在思考接下来会发生什么。正如时间和潮汐一样，NBA赛季不会等人，这就是为什么这位38岁的马刺队代理主教练称之为“无情的，因为它只会不断向前”。
下一场比赛总是会到来。
下一次训练总是会到来。
下一次巴士旅行、下一次飞行、下一次录像分析、下一次新闻发布会以及下一次教练会议，一切的一切，总是会到来。
但最终，在星期四早上，在自从格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)在11月2日不幸轻微中风以来，约翰逊第一次有机会从这份工作中喘口气的时候，他在圣安东尼奥的家中醒来，没有任何与马刺相关的事情安排。
那么，他是如何利用这来之不易的、从压力和近乎混乱状态中解脱的机会的呢？
他和他的妻子以及四个孩子一起登上了飞机。
然后带他们去了迪士尼乐园。
“这，”马刺队前锋哈里森·巴恩斯(Harrison Barnes)挑起眉毛说道，“真是雄心勃勃。”
只有一位花了三个月时间来管理NBA中最年轻、最活泼的球队之一的人，才会认为在一个拥挤的主题公园里与四个孩子周旋的周末是“平静的休息”。
只有一位习惯于自己每天醒着做的每一个决定都受到庞大而焦躁不安的球迷群体审视的人，才会乐于解决关于是去蛤蟆先生大冒险还是太空山的争论。
在全明星周末期间，约翰逊将有三天时间来做出不会影响一个试图恢复其冠军荣耀的组织进程的决定。
然后呢？
“他将会背上那个背包，为我们而战，”维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)说道。
文班亚马口中的“那个背包”，不仅仅是一个配件，虽然它也确实是。约翰逊每天都背着一个单肩包去球馆，这使得保安更容易将他误认为是球员或录像协调员，而不是代替有史以来赢得最多NBA比赛的教练的那个人。
但是文班亚马，仍然在每场比赛前一个小时雇用约翰逊作为他的场上热身伙伴，也是在用比喻的说法。在周三晚上在TD花园马刺队输给凯尔特人队的比赛之后，文班亚马解释说，法国有一句谚语是关于人们如何将责任扛在肩上的，这很适合约翰逊为马刺队所做的事情。
“这是一个比喻，”文班亚马说道。
在这个比喻中，约翰逊的背包快要爆开了。他肩负着马刺队今年冲击季后赛附加赛的责任，并确保他们永远不会偏离他们的长期总体规划，而且他在弄清楚一个他自己也无法预见的角色时，还要承担这两个目标。
在11月接手之前，他的主教练经验仅限于过去几年波波维奇生病或无法执教时的几次单场替补。作为斯坦福大学的前控球后卫，他从未考虑过成为一名教练，直到他在西雅图开始与高中球员合作，在那里他发现了监督胜利和失败的“即时满足感”。
“我喜欢这一点，”约翰逊说道，“即使当你处于错误的一方时，它会让你心如刀绞。”
他在马刺队的九年时间里，他从一名发展联盟助理教练晋升为波波维奇教练组中最值得信赖的成员之一。但是他代替波波维奇的目标不是成为波波维奇。
“波普树立的榜样和标准是联盟有史以来最好的，而且试图做到这一点总是很困难，”巴恩斯说道。“他在利用卓越的标准方面做得最好，而且也把它变成了他自己的东西。”
这并非一帆风顺。在全明星周末到来时，马刺队已经赢得了比自2021-22赛季以来的任何完整赛季都多的比赛，但是他们在过去一个月里已经陷入了可以预见的低迷，他们进入季后赛的希望已经破灭。
尽管如此，获得附加赛资格始终是本赛季的一个渺茫机会，而且约翰逊的评价标准也不是这样。
在从更衣室到管理层这个组织内部，人们对约翰逊仍然抱有坚定的信念和信任。他是否一定会是76岁的波波维奇退休后永久接任的那个人？还没有人做出这样的宣布，即使这是真的，也没有人会这样做。
但可以肯定的是，球队认为约翰逊是确保他们走在正确的长期道路上的重要组成部分。而且当他每天做出阵容和轮换决定时，他脑海中总会有一个首要主题。
“我们不会做任何我们认为不会让我们朝着正确的方向前进的事情，”约翰逊说道。
当他几天后从迪士尼乐园回来时，这种情况将会继续。在马刺队下周四回到奥斯汀的球场之前，他将与他的教练组会面，进行自我分析，并评估以新加盟的达龙·福克斯(De’Aaron Fox)为特色的阵容，并且“开始了解我们想在赛季的最后三分之一投入什么。”
“投入”在这里也是一个比喻。它指的是训练次数。比赛时间。时间。
它不断向前。因此，知道总会有下一个目标，当他周三被问及是否购买了允许迪士尼乐园游客跳过排队游玩项目的通行证时，他笑了。
“我希望我妻子买了，”约翰逊说道。
毕竟，这家伙至少可以休息一下。
San Antonio Spurs interim head coach Mitch Johnson reacts during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
San Antonio Spurs acting head coach Mitch Johnson directs the team during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
San Antonio Spurs acting head coach Mitch Johnson challenges a foul call in the second half against the Milwaukee Bucks at Frost Bank Center on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, in San Antonio, Texas. The Spurs defeated the Bucks 144-118.
点击查看原文：San Antonio Spurs' Mitch Johnson hits Space Mountain
San Antonio Spurs’ Mitch Johnson hits Space Mountain
San Antonio Spurs interim head coach Mitch Johnson calls to his players during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
BOSTON – During each of the 103 days since the afternoon his life changed, Mitch Johnson has been consumed by what’s next. An NBA season, like time and tide, waits for no man, which is why the Spurs’ 38-year-old acting head coach calls it “unforgiving, in that it just rolls on.”
The next game always rolls on.
The next practice always rolls on.
The next bus ride, the next flight, the next film session, the next press conference, and the next coaches meeting always rolls on.
But finally, on Thursday morning, given his first chance to take a breather from the job he’s had since Gregg Popovich suffered a mild stroke on November 2, Johnson woke up at home in San Antonio with nothing Spurs-related on the agenda.
So what did he do with this long-awaited respite from the tide of stress and borderline mayhem?
He climbed on a plane with his wife and four children.
And took them to Disneyland.
“That,” Spurs forward Harrison Barnes said, raising his eyebrows, “is ambitious.”
Only a guy who’s spent three months shepherding one of the youngest, most rambunctious rosters in the NBA would consider a weekend wrangling a quartet of kids at a crowded theme park “a calm break.”
Only a man accustomed to having the short- and long-term ramifications of his every waking decision scrutinized by a large, antsy fan base would welcome the chance to settle arguments about whether to go to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride or Space Mountain.
Over All-Star weekend, Johnson will have three days to make the kind of choices that won’t affect the course of an organization trying to restore its championship glory.
And then?
“He’s going to put on that backpack and do it for us,” Victor Wembanyama said.
By “that backpack,” Wembanyama means more than just an accessory, although he means that, too. Johnson wears one slung over his shoulder to the arena every day, making it all the more likely that security guards mistake him for a player or a video coordinator, rather than as the guy filling in for the winningest NBA coach of all time.
But Wembanyama, who still employs Johnson as his on-court warm-up partner an hour before every game, was speaking figuratively, too. Late Wednesday night at TD Garden, after the Spurs’ loss to the Celtics, Wembanyama explained that there’s a French saying about how people carry responsibilities on their backs, and it fits what Johnson does for the Spurs.
“It’s a metaphor,” Wembanyama said.
And in that metaphor, Johnson’s backpack is bursting at the seams. He bears responsibility for the Spurs’ play-in push this year, and for making sure they never stray from their long-term master plan, and he bears those two objectives while figuring out a role he couldn’t have seen coming.
Before taking over in November, his head coaching experience had been limited to a couple of single-game fill-in stints when Popovich had been ill or unavailable the last few years. A former point guard at Stanford, he never considered becoming a coach until he started working with high school players in Seattle, where he discovered the “instant gratification” of overseeing both victories and losses.
“I love that,” Johnson said, “even though it’s gut-wrenching when you’re on the wrong end of it.”
His nine years with the Spurs saw him rise from a G League assistant to one of the most trusted members of Popovich’s staff. But his objective in filling in for Popovich was not becoming Popovich.
“The example, the standard that Pop set is the best the league’s ever seen, and it’s always difficult to try to be that,” Barnes said. “He’s done the best job as anyone can do of using the standard of excellence … and also making it his own.”
It hasn’t always gone smoothly. At the All-Star break, the Spurs already have won more games than they have in any full season since 2021-’22, but they’ve hit a predictable lull over the past month, and their hopes of making a postseason run have faded.
Still, a play-in berth always was a long shot this season, and that’s not how Johnson is being judged.
Within the organization, from the locker room to the front office, fervent faith and trust in Johnson remains. Is it certain that he will be the man to take over on a permanent basis after the 76-year-old Popovich retires? No one is making pronouncements like that yet, nor would anyone even if it were true.
But what is clear is that the franchise sees Johnson as an integral part of ensuring they stay on the right long-term path. And as he makes lineup and rotation decisions every day, there’s always one overriding theme in mind.
“We’re not going to do anything that we don’t feel like is moving us towards the right way,” Johnson said.
That will continue when he returns from Disneyland in a few days. Before the Spurs get back on the court in Austin next Thursday, he’ll meet with his staff to self-scout, and to evaluate lineups featuring the newly acquired De’Aaron Fox, and to “begin to see what we what to invest our money in for the final third of the season.”
“Money” also is a metaphor here. It means practice reps. Game minutes. Time.
It keeps rolling on. And so, knowing there will always be something next, he smiled Wednesday when he was asked if he purchased the pass that allows Disneyland visitors to skip lines for rides.
“I hope my wife did,” Johnson said.
After all, the guy could use at least one break.
By Mike Finger, Staff writer, via San Antonio Express-News