By GaryQfromSanJose | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-05-04 06:00:34
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。
丹尼·周(Danny Chau)在整篇文章中都拿捏住了恰当的语气和要点，文章长度和深度也都恰到好处
如果你和我一样——想方设法在这些日益烦人且漫长的休赛期尽可能多地获取关于马刺队的内容——我们已经得到了充足的供应，包括对格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)离开教练席的精彩总结，以及更具争议的任命米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)为临时教练来取代GOATHOC（史上最佳教练）。我（和你们中的许多人）一直在等待关于波波维奇的高质量致敬文章，这些文章将在未来几周内陆续发布。
整篇文章都值得完整阅读一遍，然后再回过头来品尝周奉献的美味佳肴，他可能知道他的读者群主要是马刺队的球迷。
值得一遍又一遍阅读并备好纸巾的亮点：
- 这是对过去三十年球迷生涯的赞美（请注意，不是悼词）的绝妙开端。
当2025年年度最佳新秀斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)本周早些时候与过去的马刺队年度最佳新秀大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)、蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)和维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)合影留念时，这是一幅令人欣慰的画面，展现了马刺队组织真正的文化结构跨越时空。这是一个密集的编织。对于大多数球队来说，进行跨世代的比较可能会让人觉得是一种笨拙的叙事构建。但对于马刺队来说，历史以一种新的方式折叠—— 文班 简直就是邓肯的精神续作——几乎感觉像是更宏伟计划的一部分。这证明了波波维奇在过去几十年里灌输到进攻体系中的流畅性，以及我们在圣安东尼奥的庇护下构想球员的方式。链条上的环节，独特但不可分割。提到任何一位球员的伟大，就相当于提到了他身边的和在他之前的所有球员。马刺队在联盟范围内的影响力从未达到王朝级别，在波波维奇执教生涯的后期，他们甚至没有令人信服的竞争力。但长期以来，无论以何种形式，他们都是连续性和前瞻性思维的标准制定者，只要波波一直坐在场边。
- 这让我想起了勒布朗·詹姆斯(LeBron James)在2014年总决赛第五场比赛结束时，在AT&T中心深处走下球场时，他对失利是多么的认命。
“输给波波维奇并不丢人，这是一种成人礼。过去四分之一个世纪里，篮球界最具标志性的人物都曾与马刺队交手，并在达到他们注定要达到的高度之前失败了。试图破解波波维奇在七场系列赛中的密码似乎会改变一个球星的脑化学反应。波波维奇是篮球界终极导师之一，无论你是否在他的球队。”
- 我厚颜无耻地将这句话发给了J.R. Wilco，背景音乐是《黑暗骑士》中汉斯·季默(Hans Zimmer)配乐的最后一幕……“他是圣安东尼奥的指路明灯。”（在实际电影中，是“因为他不是我们的英雄。他是一位沉默的守护者。一位警惕的保护者。一位黑暗骑士。”）
波波维奇总是能看到更大的格局。这种清晰的视野和原则在他在马刺队效力的四十多年里为他提供了很好的服务。随着这位76岁的老人过渡到一个熟悉的角色，成为首席前台决策者，他将很高兴地找出当今篮球界最令人羡慕的局面：如何围绕这项运动有史以来最有天赋的年轻篮球运动员进行最佳建设。从某种意义上说，这是一个离开，但在另一种意义上，马刺队的组织结构没有太大变化。波波一直不仅仅是一位教练。他是圣安东尼奥的指路明灯。
各位Pounders！在今晚和明天的这两场第七场比赛之前，你们觉得这篇文章怎么样？你们对波波最好的记忆是什么？
点击查看原文：The Ringer gives the best tribute to the Pop era... so far
The Ringer gives the best tribute to the Pop era… so far
Danny Chau touches the right tones and notes throughout this an article that is just the right length and depth
If you’re like me — someone who tries to consume as much Spurs content as I humanly can during these increasingly annoying and long offseasons — we have been given a plentiful supply excellent summaries of Gregg Popovich’s departure from the coaching perch along with the more controversial assignment of interim coach Mitch Johnson to replace the GOATHOC (Goat Head Coach). I (and many of you) have been waiting for the high quality tribute pieces about Popovich that will be forthcoming over the upcoming weeks.
The entire piece is worth reading through in its entirety one time before circling back for the tasty morsels that Chau delivers to what he probably knows is going to be mostly a pro-Spurs readership.
Highlights worth going through over and over again while holding a tissue or four:
- This was Chef’s Kiss of a start to the exaltation (not a eulogy, mind you) of the last three decades of fandom.
When Stephon Castle, the 2025 Rookie of the Year, posed for a photo earlier this week alongside past Spurs rookies of the year David Robinson, Tim Duncan, and Victor Wembanyama, it was a heartening visual of the Spurs organization’s true cultural fabric woven across time. It’s a dense weave. For most teams, making cross-generational comparisons can feel like a ham-fisted narrative construction. For the Spurs, the way history folds upon itself anew—the way Wemby simply is Duncan’s spiritual sequel—almost feels like part of the grander scheme. It is a testament to the methods by which Popovich has instilled flow, both in offensive scheme over the decades and in the way we conceive of players within San Antonio’s auspices. Links in a chain, distinct but indivisible. To reference any one player’s greatness is to reference every player alongside him and before him. The Spurs have never been dynastic in their leaguewide influence, and in the late stages of Popovich’s coaching career, they weren’t even convincingly competitive. But they’ve been a standard-bearer of continuity and forward thinking in one form or another for as long as Pop has sat along that sideline
- This one made me think of how resgined to losing the 2014 Finals LeBron James was when he walked off the court at the end of game 5 deep into the AT&T Center’s bowels.
“Losing to Popovich is no indignity; it is a rite of passage. The most iconic figures in basketball over the past quarter century have run up against the Spurs and failed before reaching the heights they were meant to reach. Trying to crack Popovich’s code in a best-of-seven series seemingly does something to a star’s brain chemistry. Pop is one of basketball’s ultimate teachers, whether you’re on his team or not.”
- I cheekily texted this to J.R. Wilco with the backdrop of The Dark Knight’s Hans Zimmer score in the final scene… “He is San Antonio’s guiding light.” (In the actual movie, it was “Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.”)
Popovich always saw the bigger picture. That clarity of vision and principle served him well across more than four decades in the Spurs organization. As the 76-year-old transitions into a familiar role as lead front office decision-maker, he’ll have the pleasure of figuring out the most enviable situation in basketball today: How to best build around the most talented young basketball player the game has ever seen. It’s a departure in one sense, but in another, nothing much has changed in the Spurs organization. Pop has always been more than just a coach. He is San Antonio’s guiding light
Pounders! Before these two Game 7’s tonight and tomorrow, what do you think of the article? What are your best memories of Pop?
By GaryQfromSanJose, via Pounding The Rock