By Marilyn Dubinski | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-03-20 01:45:52
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。
更多关于波波维奇中风及其康复情况的幕后故事。
2024-25赛季对于马刺队来说，有许多值得铭记的时刻。原本2024年开局还算有希望冲击季后赛，但到了2025年，由于伤病问题不断，马刺队再次陷入了 不上不下的尴尬境地 ：说他们太强吧，又不足以垫底；说他们太弱吧，在西部中游其他球队同样挣扎的情况下，又并非完全没有机会冲击附加赛。
虽然大多数人（理所当然地）会将 文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) 赛季末被诊断出患有深静脉血栓视为赛季崩盘的关键时刻，但其实早在11月2日，就发生了一件同样影响深远的事情。熟悉情况的人可能都知道，那天晚上， 格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich) 在对阵明尼苏达森林狼队的比赛前几个小时突发中风，此后就一直没有公开露面。
四个半月后，ESPN的拉莫娜·谢尔本(Ramona Shelburne)和迈克尔·C· 莱特(Michael C. Wright) 深入报道了那天晚上发生的事情，以及此后发生的所有幕后故事，讲述了这位NBA最年长、最成功的教练如何为重返他梦寐以求的工作岗位而奋斗。 深度报道链接
那天晚上一切似乎都很正常。波波维奇在Frost Bank Center球馆进行训练，凯尔登·约翰逊(Keldon Johnson)也早早来到球馆，以避开交通高峰并接受一些治疗，然而一切突然发生了变化。
但在球队更衣室旁边的训练结束后不久，在球馆内部白色、银色和黑色走廊的迷宫深处，波波维奇突然停下了脚步。据知情人士透露，当时在他举重时，周围的球队工作人员察觉到不对劲，立即扶住了他。
他们立刻让波波维奇坐下。
在附近，约翰逊听到了骚动，教练开始接受治疗。
“我看不见他，”约翰逊告诉ESPN，“但看到大家谈论这件事的方式，我很害怕。”
虽然马刺队告诉记者，波波维奇身体不适，将由米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)担任比赛的教练，但实际情况要糟糕得多：中风，这是由血栓阻塞大脑供血引起的。（虽然他们在后来的新闻稿中将其定义为“轻微”中风，但中风就是中风，即使是“轻微”的中风也需要漫长而艰苦的恢复期。）
但在幕后，关于波波维奇——这个NBA最成功的球队之一的基石——的病情严重，甚至可能危及生命的消息开始在球队中传播开来。
医生需要时间来确定波波维奇在被认为是轻微中风后受到的损害程度。球员们有几周都无法与他交谈。几个月后，他才足够强壮地走路，然后站在球队面前直接与他们交谈。
虽然消息人士称，波波维奇的康复速度很快——据报道比其他遭受类似中风的人提前了大约4个月——但目前仍无法确定他何时或是否会回到场边执教（肯定不是本赛季），但我们知道他很想回去。
到一月底，他的身体已经足以与球队会面，但由于马刺队疯狂的赛程和牛仔竞技表演客场之旅，很难找到时间。他们终于在2月27日找到了机会，那是在马刺队休斯顿客场之旅的倒数第二场比赛和孟菲斯客场之旅的最后一场比赛之间。波波维奇来到了训练馆，这是他近四个月来第一次与球队会面，这也是新援 达龙·福克斯(De’Aaron Fox) 在几周前的交易截止日加入球队以来第一次见到波波维奇。
在The Rock训练场的球场上，波波维奇站在他的球队面前传达了一个信息：他本赛季不会回来了。但他一直在密切关注他们，并且仍然能够让他们为自己的表现负责。
“当他走进来时，所有人都闭上了嘴，”约翰逊说。“波波一直都是这样。显然，他还在恢复中。但他仍然在咒骂。“你们需要防守。你们需要抢篮板。”知道这一点，该死，他真的在看比赛，因为他能点出具体的情况，这太棒了。
“这是我们需要的。我觉得他带来了活力，带来了火花。那个我们都认识和热爱的波波。他走进会议室，他就是那样的人。就像他没有错过任何一个节拍。”
他说话比以前慢了一点，更谨慎了。波波维奇穿着一身黑色运动服，谈到了未来，他希望未来能再次站在教练席的顶端。但他也告诫说，重申了一个已经成为他在执教的三十年里的标准的原则。
“如果我不能100%地做我自己，我就对所有人都不公平。”
近十年来，一直有关于谁将成为波波维奇的继任者的话题，因为他总是戏称他会和蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)一起退役。但最终并非如此，因为他无法离开他热爱的球队，而且他还发现自己对执教重建球队产生了新的热爱，而不是执教一支争冠球队，因为正如他曾经说过的，年轻球员就像一张白纸。文班的到来只是为他永不熄灭的执教热情增添了更多的燃料。
现在，在他的职业生涯中，事情第一次变得更加不确定。正如他告诉他的球员们的那样，如果他不能100%地做自己，他就不会回来。他是否能做到这一点还有待观察，如果他做不到，那么包括约翰逊在内的一长串潜在继任者中，谁将接替他，那是另一天的话题。但现在，有一件事是肯定的，那就是这完全是波波维奇的选择。
“这是波波的选择，”一位接近情况的人士告诉ESPN。“这是他应得的。”
谢尔本和 莱特(Wright) 的文章还有很多内容，所以一定要花20分钟完整地阅读它。这不仅是对波波维奇的精彩洞察，也是对整个球队和临时主教练米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)的精彩洞察。它也肯定会让人们重新审视生活。
点击查看原文：Inside Nov. 2 and Gregg Popovich’s fight to return to coaching
Inside Nov. 2 and Gregg Popovich’s fight to return to coaching
More behind the scenes accounts from Pop’s stroke and how he has been doing ever since.
There have been many moments that have come to define the 2024-25 season for the Spurs. What started as a promising run for the postseason in the 2024 portion turned into another trip to no-man’s land in 2025 as multiple health issues have taken a toll, leaving the Spurs in the awkward spot of being too good to fall to the bottom of the standings but likely not good enough to make a run for the play-in, despite being close and the struggles of several other teams in the middle of the Western Conference standings.
While most will (rightfully) remember Victor Wembanyama’s season-ending diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis as being the moment that derailed the season, there was another instance that has come define this season all they back on November 2. Anyone who has kept track is likely aware that this is the night Gregg Popovich suffered a stroke a few hours before a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and he has not been seen by the public since.
Four-and-a-half months later, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Michael C. Wright did a deep dive into what went down that night and what has been going on behind the scenes ever since as the oldest, most successful coach in the NBA fights to return to his dream job.
Everything seemed fine that evening. Gregg Popovich was at the Frost Bank Center for a workout, and Keldon Johnson had arrived early to beat the traffic and for some treatment when everything suddenly changed.
But shortly after stepping away from his workout next to the team’s locker room, deep inside the warren of white, silver and black hallways at the arena, Popovich stopped in his tracks. Team staffers who were around while he was lifting weights knew something was off and grabbed him, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
They immediately sat Popovich down.
Nearby, Johnson heard the commotion as the coach began receiving medical attention.
“I couldn’t see him,” Johnson told ESPN. “But to see how everybody was talking about it was scary.”
While the Spurs told reporters that Pop was under the weather so Mitch Johnson would be coaching the game, it ended up being much worse: a stroke, which is caused by a blood clot denying blood supply to the brain. (And while they would later define it as “minor” in a press release, a stroke is still a stroke, and even “minor” ones require an extensive and grueling recovery period.)
Behind the scenes, though, word had begun to spread among the team that what had happened to Popovich — the rock upon which one of the NBA’s most successful franchises has been built — was serious and perhaps life-threatening.
It would take time for doctors to determine the extent of the damage Popovich suffered after what was deemed a mild stroke. Players weren’t able to talk to him for weeks. It was several months before he was strong enough to walk and then stand in front of the team and speak directly to them.
While sources have said that Pop is improving at an advanced pace — reportedly about 4 months ahead of schedule compared to others who have suffered similar strokes — there is still no telling when or if he will return the sideline (certainly not this season), but we know he wants to.
He was well enough to meet with team by the end of January, but with the Spurs’ crazy schedule and the Rodeo Road Trip, it was tough to find the time. They finally found a chance on February 27, between the Spurs’ penultimate game of the RRT in Houston and final game in Memphis. Pop came by the practice facility to meet with his team for the first time in nearly four months, and this was also newest Spur De’Aaron Fox’s first chance to see Pop since joining the franchise at the trade deadline a few weeks prior.
On the practice court at The Rock, Popovich stood in front of his team to deliver a message: He wasn’t coming back this season, he told them. But he had been watching them closely and was still in position to hold them accountable for their play.
“Everybody shut the f— up when he walked in,” (Mitch) Johnson said. “That’s just how it’s always been with Pop. Obviously, he’s still recovering. But he was still cussing. ‘Y’all need to play defense. Y’all need to rebound.’ Knowing that, s—, he really is watching the games because he’s calling out specific situations, was huge.
“It was what we needed. I feel like he brought that life, that spark. That Pop that we all knew and loved. He came into that meeting and that’s who he was. It was like he didn’t skip a beat.”
He spoke a little more slowly than before, more measured. Wearing an all-black sweatsuit, Popovich talked about the future, one he hopes includes a spot at the head of the bench. But also he cautioned, reiterating a standard that has come to define his three decades at the helm.
“If I can’t be 100% myself, I’m doing everybody a disservice.”
There has been talk for nearly a decade about who will be Pop’s replacement, since he had always teased that he would retire with Tim Duncan. That ended up not being the case as he couldn’t step away from the team he loved, and he even found a new love for coaching a rebuilding team instead of a championship contender since, as he once said, the young players were a blank slate. The arrival of Wemby just added more fuel to his ever-burning coaching fire.
Now, for the first time in his career, things are more uncertain. As he told his players, he won’t come back if he’s not 100%. Whether he gets there or not remains to be seen, and if he doesn’t, who among a long list of potential successors, including Johnson, is a topic for another day. But for now, one thing is for certain, it’s entirely Pop’s choice.
“It’s Pop’s decision,” one person close to the situation told ESPN. “He’s earned that.”
There is much more to Shelburne and Wright’s article, so be sure to go read it in its entirety when you have 20 minutes. It’s an amazing insight not just into Pop, but the organization as a whole and interim head coach Mitch Johnson. It also certainly puts life into perspective.
By Marilyn Dubinski, via Pounding The Rock