By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-04-14 15:54:09
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。
圣安东尼奥马刺队的维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)在2025年4月13日星期日于圣安东尼奥的Frost Bank Center举行的本赛季最后一场对阵多伦多猛龙队的比赛前，坐在座位上回答问题时，向记者们开玩笑说他想念他们。这是文班亚马自二月底宣布他因深静脉血栓赛季报销以来首次面对媒体。
从大局来看，一切都没有改变。维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)听起来相信这一点，米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)也一样。
我们其他人会拭目以待。
这位年轻的超级球星说，他仍然按计划进行， “既不晚也不早”，同样无限的可能性等待着他，并且怀着同样的期望去实现它们。
这位年轻的教练说，这个休赛期将像其他任何一个休赛期一样，没有理由担心职位头衔，也没有人急于做出改变球队命运的决定。
也许他们都是对的。
但是，随着圣安东尼奥进入文班亚马时代的第三年，如果不考虑两个首要问题，就无法评估马刺队的状态：
这位他那一代人中最有前途的球员能否在不受限制的情况下重返赛场？
如果他真的回归，究竟谁将为他制定战术？
目前，马刺队对这些问题的答案基本上可以归结为两个字：相信我们。
有些人可能会说他们已经赢得了足够的信任。有些人说他们别无选择，只能以这种方式处理事情。
文班亚马不想深入探讨他从血栓中恢复的细节，血栓迫使他错过了本赛季的最后两个月。他不想提供关于医生认为是什么原因导致他右肩深静脉血栓形成的细节，或者他为了治疗它做了什么类型的手术，甚至他是否接受过手术。
那是他的权利。
当文班亚马说他“已经克服了这个问题”，并称其为“一个非常小的挫折”，并且说他仍然期望为明年秋季训练营的开始做好准备时，这几乎是球队将提供的官方医疗更新的全部内容了。
看起来很有希望。
听起来令人信服。
并且将这个提议的时间表与近年来其他处理过血栓的NBA球员（最著名的是奥萨尔·汤普森(Ausar Thompson)和布兰登·英格拉姆(Brandon Ingram)）的时间表进行比较，八到九个月的恢复期似乎是正确的。
尽管如此，由于没有确定的细节，局外人只能相信这会以同样的方式奏效。
马刺队另一个悬而未决的问题的答案也是如此。谁将在明年十月以文班亚马的主教练身份走进Frost Bank Center？组织中没有人可以回答这个问题，因为组织中没有人知道。
格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)仍然拥有优先权，而且根据所有说法，他打算使用它们。但是，在他去年11月遭受轻度中风之前，他已经是NBA比赛中最年长的主教练。即使他仍然是世界上意志最坚定的人之一，也很难理所当然地认为他会在76岁时回归。
因此，米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)这位38岁的前斯坦福大学控球后卫，刚刚完成了为非凡的马刺队赛季提供正常感的奇迹，在另行通知之前，他仍然是代理主教练。
他在周日对这种描述提出了一些异议，他解释说，当没有比赛时，职位头衔并不重要。在他看来，每个马刺队的休赛期计划都是一项协作努力，他并不比教练组的任何其他成员更负责。
这听起来很棒，甚至在理论上也很令人钦佩。但是我们大多数人都知道世界是如何运作的。必须有人负责，无论它是否具有象征意义，并且在波波维奇回到健身房进行不止一次访问之前，负责人都是约翰逊。
他应该得到它。看过他整个赛季团结球队的球员们都同意这一点，整个组织的决策者也同意这一点。而且很有可能，当马刺队在十月份开始他们的赛季时，主教练要么是波波维奇（如果他准备好了），要么是约翰逊（如果波波维奇没有准备好）。
话虽如此，马刺队意识到另一个不可否认的事实：如果他们本周登录Monster.com或Linked In，并发布一个职位空缺，寻求执教文班亚马、达龙·福克斯(De’Aaron Fox)和斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)的机会，那么每个画过界外球战术或执教过三人传球配合的在世的人都会感兴趣。
功成名就、新近失业、拥有漫长季后赛履历的教练们会感兴趣。
名人堂成员会感兴趣。
目前受雇于季后赛球队的教练们会感兴趣。
问题在于，他们都无法申请它，并且可能永远无法申请。马刺队拥有一份每个人都想要的工作，而且从技术上讲它并没有永久填补，但是如果波波维奇仍然有可能回归，他们不会将其提供给任何人。并且取决于他们对约翰逊的信心，即使波波维奇没有回归，他们也可能不觉得需要向外部寻找替代者。
与此同时，教练问题隐约可见，就像关于文班亚马的健康问题一样。马刺队没有透露任何细节，坚称这两个问题都会得到圆满解决，并且可能会被证明是正确的。
在其他人亲眼看到它之后。
San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan, center left, and center Victor Wembanyama, center right, embrace as they cheer on their teammates from the bench during the second half against the Toronto Raptors at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Sunday, April 13, 2025. The Spurs defeated the Raptors 125-118 on Fan Appreciation Night.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama reacts as Spurs guard Blake Wesley (14), not pictured, makes a shot over the Toronto Raptors during the second half at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Sunday, April 13, 2025. The Spurs defeated the Raptors 125-118 on Fan Appreciation Night.
San Antonio Spurs’ Sandro Mamukelashvili, from left, Victor Wembanyama (1) and Harrison Ingram (55) line up to shake hands with the Toronto Raptors after the Spurs’ last game of the season at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Sunday, April 13, 2025. The Spurs defeated the Raptors 125-118.
After the last game of the San Antonio Spurs’ season, Victor Wembanyama embraces a fan as he walks back to the locker room at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Sunday, April 13, 2025. The Spurs defeated the Raptors 125-118 on Fan Appreciation Night.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama performs tricks with a miniature basketball following a 125-118 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Fan Appreciation Night at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Sunday, April 13, 2025.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama uses a t-shirt cannon to launch free shirts to fans on Fan Appreciation Night at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Sunday, April 13, 2025. The Spurs defeated the Toronto Raptors 125-118 on the Spurs’ last game of the season.
San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama leaves a news conference held before the last game of the season against the Toronto Raptors at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Sunday, April 13, 2025. It was the first time Wembanyama has addressed the media since his season-ending injury, deep vein thrombosis, was announced in late February.
点击查看原文：Finger: Spurs ask for a little faith as offseason questions loom
Finger: Spurs ask for a little faith as offseason questions loom
San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama jokes to reporters that he missed them as he sits down to answers questions before the last game of the season against the Toronto Raptors at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Sunday, April 13, 2025. It was the first time Wembanyama has addressed the media since his season-ending injury, deep vein thrombosis, was announced in late February.
In the big picture, nothing has changed. Victor Wembanyama sounds like he believes this. Mitch Johnson does, too.
The rest of us will wait and see.
The young superstar says he’s still on schedule, “neither late nor early,” with the same boundless possibilities awaiting him, and with the same expectations of reaching them.
The young coach says this offseason will be like any other, with no reason to worry about job titles, and with no urgency for anyone to make a franchise-altering decision.
Maybe they’re both right.
But as San Antonio heads toward the third year of the Wembanyama era, it’s impossible to assess the state of the Spurs without considering two overarching questions:
Will the most promising player of his generation return to the court without limitations?
And who, exactly, will call the plays for him if and when he does?
For now, the Spurs’ answers to these questions essentially boil down to two words: Trust us.
Some might say they’ve earned that much. Some say they have little choice but to handle things this way.
Wembanyama doesn’t want to delve into the details of his recovery from the blood clot that forced him to miss the last two months of this season. He doesn’t want to provide specifics about what doctors believe caused the deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder, or about what type of surgery he had to treat it, or even about whether he had surgery at all.
That’s his right.
When Wembanyama says he’s “over this problem,” and calls it “a really slight setback,” and says he still expects to be ready for the start of training camp next fall, that’s about as close to an official medical update as the team is going to provide.
It looks promising.
It sounds convincing.
And when comparing this proposed timeline to those of other NBA players who’ve dealt with blood clots in recent years – most notably Ausar Thompson and Brandon Ingram – an eight- to nine-month recovery period seems about right.
Still, with no confirmed details, outsiders sort of have to go on faith that this will work out the same way.
That goes for the answer to the Spurs’ other open-ended question, too. Who will walk into Frost Bank Center next October as Wembanyama’s head coach? Nobody in the organization can answer this, because nobody in the organization knows.
Gregg Popovich still has first dibs, and by all accounts he intends to use them. But before he suffered a mild stroke last November, he already was the oldest person ever to serve as a head coach in an NBA game. It’s difficult to take a return at age 76 for granted, even if he remains one of the most strong-willed humans in the world.
So Johnson, the 38-year-old former Stanford point guard who just pulled off the miracle of providing a sense of normalcy to an extraordinarily abnormal Spurs season, remains the acting head coach until informed otherwise.
He quibbled a bit with that description on Sunday, explaining that job titles don’t matter when there aren’t any games. The way he sees it, every Spurs offseason program is a collaborative effort, and he is no more in charge than any other member of the coaching staff.
That sounds great, and even admirable, in theory. But most of us know how the world works. Somebody has to be in charge, whether it’s symbolic or not, and until Popovich gets back into the gym for more than one visit, that person in charge is Johnson.
He deserves it. The players who watched him keep the group together all season agree on that, and so do decision-makers throughout the organization. And chances are, when the Spurs open their season in October, the head coach will be either Popovich (if he’s ready) or Johnson (if Popovich isn’t).
That being said, the Spurs aware of another undeniable truth: If they logged into Monster.com or Linked In this week and posted a job opening for the chance to coach Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, every living human being who’s ever drawn up an inbounds play or coached a three-man weave would be interested.
Accomplished, newly out-of-work coaches with long postseason résumés would be interested.
Hall of Famers would be interested.
Coaches employed by playoff teams right now would be interested.
The catch is, none of them can apply for it, and might never be able to. The Spurs have a job everybody wants, and it isn’t technically filled on a permanent basis, but they aren’t going to offer it to anyone if there’s still a chance Popovich will be back. And depending on their confidence in Johnson, they might not feel the need to look outside for a replacement even if Popovich doesn’t return.
In the meantime, the coaching question looms, just like the one about Wembanyama’s health does. Divulging no details, the Spurs insist there will be happy resolutions to both, and might be proven right.
After everybody else waits to see it for themselves.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News