By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-02-27 16:51:45
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。
格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)想再次执教，这是一件好事。如果他能让自己相信篮球仍然值得关注，那么我们其他人也能做到。
这位已经成为NBA历史上执教比赛最年长的人，正努力打破自己的纪录，这可能会带来一些额外的好处。毕竟，最近赛后新闻发布会上问题的质量一直在下滑。
已经很久没有人足够尖刻地指出那些愚蠢的问题了。
当然，波波维奇并没有邀请记者或摄像机参加他周四在马刺总部露面的活动。这是他自11月轻微中风以来第一次与球队会面。包括维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)在内的所有球员都到场了，波波维奇明确了他长期以来显而易见的事情。
他不会在本赛季重返赛场。但他打算在某个时候回来。
在达到这个目标，或者他的意图改变之前呢？
马刺队所能做的，就是像他们一直以来那样继续前进。
如果你在这里寻找关于波波维奇预计回归日期的独家消息，那是没有的，因为事实是没人知道。没人知道，因为波波维奇尝试的复出——一位76岁的康复中的中风患者拼命想重返以高强度压力著称的岗位——是前所未有的。
正如球队内部一位人士周四下午指出的那样，如果不是因为我们谈论的是地球上意志最坚强的人之一，很容易会认为这种复出永远不会发生。
我们这些局外人可以争论波波维奇是否应该再次执教。不可否认的是，根据所有人的说法（包括他自中风以来发布的两个公开声明），波波维奇相信他可以。
从所有权集团到管理层再到更衣室，球队中没有人会剥夺他的这个愿望。从上到下，大家普遍认为这位联盟历史上胜场最多的主教练完全有权决定自己的结局，这是合理的。
然而，这意味着马刺队将在休赛期面临巨大的、不可避免的不确定性，这会影响到球队中最重要的两个人。
球队期望文班亚马能从他的深静脉血栓中及时恢复，以便参加下个赛季，但当涉及到血栓时，很难做出让人安心的假设。至于主教练的位置的未来？在尘埃落定之前，那仍然是一个灰色地带。
正如球队消息人士周四指出的那样，这种模糊性与代理主教练米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)的表现无关，他因处理近几个月来业内人士所接到的最具挑战性的任务之一的方式而持续获得好评。事实上，在过去的三个半月里，他所做的一切都无法改变球队未来不确定的性质。
例如，如果约翰逊自11月以来赢得了他执教的每一场比赛？马刺队仍然会等待找出波波维奇接下来会发生什么。
对此的明确答案可能不会很快到来。球队提前安排了波波维奇的会面，希望确保他有机会亲自宣布本赛季剩余时间的消息。预计在一两个月内会进行另一次“检查”。
但很有可能，球员们会在四月中旬赛季结束后离开，不确定明年秋季训练营由谁负责。如果他们想专注于积极的一面？
他们可以毫无疑问地知道，波波维奇仍然想在那里。
至少，这是一个开始。
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) talks to head coach Gregg Popovich before facing the Memphis Grizzlies at Frost Bank Center on Friday, March 22, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich talks with forward Victor Wembanyama during a time out in the first half of their NBA game with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Frost Bank Center on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. San Antonio beat Minnesota 113-112.
Coach Gregg Popovich (right) share a lighter moment with Josh Carlton, a summer league roster invite, at the Spurs practice facility on Friday, June 30, 2023.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich celebrates Friday, Mar 11, 2022 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio with San Antonio Spurs center Jakob Poeltl (25), left, and San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson (3) after the Spurs beat the Utah Jazz 104-102 to give Popovich 1,336 regular season wins, the most in NBA history.
点击查看原文：With no Popovich resolution, Spurs face an offseason of uncertainty
With no Popovich resolution, Spurs face an offseason of uncertainty
Gregg Popovich wants to coach again, and that is a good thing. If he can bring himself to believe basketball still is worth caring about, then so can the rest of us.
The man who already became the oldest person ever to coach an NBA game is working every day to break his own record, and that could come with some side benefits. After all, the quality of questions during postgame press conferences has been slipping lately.
It’s been too long since someone’s been ornery enough to point out the dumb ones.
Popovich, of course, did not invite reporters or cameras to his appearance at the Spurs’ headquarters Thursday, which marked the first time he’d met with his team since he suffered a mild stroke in November. Every player, including Victor Wembanyama, was there, and Popovich made clear what has been evident for some time now.
He won’t make it back to the sidelines this season. But he intends to make it back at some point.
And until that goal his reached, or his intention changes?
All the Spurs can do is carry on as they have been.
If you are looking here for a scoop about the projected date of Popovich’s return, there is none to be had, because the truth is nobody knows. Nobody knows because the comeback Popovich is attempting – a 76-year-old recovering stroke patient trying like hell to reclaim a job known for high-profile stress – is unprecedented.
As someone in the organization pointed out Thursday afternoon, it would be easy to assume that comeback never will happen, were it not for the fact that we’re talking about one of the most notoriously strong-willed humans on the face of the earth.
Those of us on the outside can debate whether Popovich should coach again. What’s undisputable, by all accounts (including the two public statements he’s released since his stroke), is that Popovich believes he can.
Nobody in the franchise, from the ownership group to the front office to the locker room, is going to take that away from him. The sentiment, from top to bottom, is that the winningest head coach in league history has more than earned the right to determine his own ending, which makes sense.
What that means, however, is that the Spurs will head into this offseason with massive, unavoidable uncertainty hanging over the two most important people in the organization.
The team expects Wembanyama to return from his deep vein thrombosis in time for next season, but it’s hard to make many comfortable assumptions when it comes to a blood clot. And as for the future of the head coaching position? That remains a gray area until, well, it’s not.
As noted by team sources Thursday, the ambiguity has nothing to do with the performance of acting head coach Mitch Johnson, who continues to draw rave reviews for the way he’s handled one of the most challenging assignments anyone his business has received in recent memory. In fact, there’s nothing he could have done over the last three and a half months to change the unsettled nature of the team’s future.
If, for instance, Johnson had won every single game he coached since November? The Spurs still would be waiting to find out what happens next with Popovich.
A firm answer on that probably won’t come any time soon. The team had scheduled Popovich’s meeting in advance, wanting to make sure he had a chance to deliver the news about the rest of the season in person. Another “check-in” is expected in the next month or two.
But chances are, players will depart at the end of the season in mid-April not knowing for sure who will be in charge at training camp next fall. And if they want to focus on the upside?
They can know without any doubt that Popovich still wants to be there.
That, at least, is a start.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News