By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-05-22 16:28:37
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。
他们曾经尝试表现得友善。
26年前，当他们抵达这座被他们中的一人称为“沉睡的牛镇”的地方时，纽约的记者们称赞他们在圣安东尼奥遇到的“放松、令人耳目一新的不世故的人们”。他们对阿拉莫和河滨步道给予了礼貌——即使并非过分印象深刻——的赞扬。他们光顾了Florio’s Pizza，同时嘲笑着我们这里的“百老汇”。
但是，那些在1999年NBA总决赛期间来到这里报道尼克斯的记者们，也不禁觉得他们来到了一个本地球迷似乎很狂热，但从未有过太多成功值得庆祝的城市。
来自(纽瓦克)《星报》的一位专栏作家在阿拉莫巨蛋举办第一场比赛的前一天，这样描述圣安东尼奥：“这座城市本周正坐在情绪的刀刃上。”“它比一个穿着紧身内裤的胖子在德克萨斯州七月的下午更坐立不安……简而言之，它真正想要的是赢得一些东西，改变现状。”
现在可能很难记起，但在当时，这位人士并没有完全错。在那些NBA总决赛之前，没人能确定河滨步道是否会举办冠军游行，更不用说五次了。
没人能预料到，四分之一个多世纪后，麦迪逊广场花园会像那个穿着紧身内裤的胖子一样坐立不安，渴望着大多数纽约人从未见过的庆祝活动。
而且，在这个沉睡的牛镇里，有些人甚至可能会同情他们。
想想马刺上次进入NBA总决赛是什么时候。2014年的夏天似乎是很久以前的事了，不是吗？过去的十年是多么令人痛苦？在过去的11年里，你曾多少次怀疑是否会再次发生？在那段时间里，你又多少次诅咒你的球队遭遇如此糟糕的厄运？
现在，让我们来好好想想：尼克斯自马刺第一次进入总决赛以来，就再也没有进入过。他们在六月输给了蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)、大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)和这座没有任何获胜传统的城市，并且自那以后再也没有像那样接近过总冠军。在第二年的春天，也就是2000年，尼克斯重返东部决赛。
直到周三，在对阵印第安纳步行者的第一场比赛中，他们在比赛还剩2分45秒时还领先14分，他们才再次走到这一步。然后——令人震惊地，无法解释地，难以置信地——这一切都溜走了。
一切都溜走了。
根据美联社的数据，在周三之前，追溯到1997年开始的逐场记录，在第四节最后2分45秒至少领先14分的NBA季后赛球队战绩为994胜0负。
现在是994胜1负。
细节——其中包括印第安纳的阿隆·内史密斯连续投进五个三分球，以及泰瑞斯·哈利伯顿的最后一投击中篮筐后沿，在充满恐惧的麦迪逊广场花园的夜晚高悬，然后在蜂鸣器响起时落入网中，将比赛拖入加时赛——几乎无关紧要。关键是，尼克斯球迷再次坐在那“情绪的刀刃”上，它像过去50多年来一样，将他们切得粉碎。
这就是这场苦难的由来。当尼克斯在1999年抵达圣安东尼奥时，纽约的总冠军早已被认为遥遥无期。他们比马刺拥有更引人注目的历史——尼克斯是沃尔特·弗雷泽(Walt Frazier)、威利斯·里德(Willis Reed)和比尔·布拉德利(Bill Bradley)的球队——但在现在看来是对称的，自他们赢得1973年总决赛以来，已经过去了26年。
当尼克斯进入阿拉莫巨蛋时，弗雷泽——他们最受尊敬的历史人物——54岁。肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)和埃弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)，他们在1999年总冠军球队中扮演了关键角色，现在都比那个年龄大，而且在圣安东尼奥，他们早已让位于名人堂成员和来来往往的冠军球队的时代。
一年又一年，十年又十年，一次又一次的游行，是这个沉睡的牛镇积累了篮球历史的一笔又一笔，而在这座世界最著名的球馆里打球的球队，却积累了一堆被时间遗忘的平庸球队。
而现在，当尼克斯不断努力回到26年前他们抵达圣安东尼奥时的位置时，纽约的篮球迷们真正想要的很简单。
他们想要赢得一些东西，改变现状。
与此同时，大家都应该尽量友善一点。
David Robinson (R) of the San Antonio Spurs goes around Marcus Camby of the New York Knicks in first half action during game one of the NBA Finals 16 June 1999 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO/JEFF HAYNES
Tyrese Haliburton (0), de los Pacers de Indiana, es felicitado por sus compañeros de equipo mientras hace un gesto de ahorcado después de acertar un tiro ante los Knicks de Nueva York al final del tiempo regular en el primer juego de las Finales de la Conferencia Este en el baloncesto de la NBA, el miércoles 21 de mayo de 2025, en Nueva York. (AP Foto/Adam Hunger)
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) shoots a 2-point shot against New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson (23) to tie the score at the end of regulation in Game 1 of the NBA basketball Eastern Conference final, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
点击查看原文：With glory still beyond their grasp, Knicks seek what Spurs once did
With glory still beyond their grasp, Knicks seek what Spurs once did
They tried to be nice.
Upon their arrival in what one of them called “this sleepy cow town” 26 years ago, New York reporters complimented the “relaxed, refreshingly uncynical people” they met in San Antonio. They offered polite – if not overly impressed – praise for the Alamo and the River Walk. They stopped by Florio’s Pizza, while chuckling at our version of Broadway.
But those who came here to cover the Knicks in the 1999 NBA Finals also couldn’t help thinking they’d ventured into a city where local fans – as rabid as they seemed – never had much success to celebrate.
“This town sits on the edge of an emotional razor blade this week,” a columnist from the (Newark) Star-Ledger wrote about San Antonio the day before the Alamodome hosted Game 1. “It twitches more than a fat guy with tight underwear on a July afternoon in Texas. … Simply put, what it really wants is to win something, for a change.”
It might be difficult to remember now, but at the time, the man wasn’t entirely wrong. Before those NBA Finals, nobody was sure the River Walk ever would host a championship parade, let alone five of them.
Nobody could have predicted that more than a quarter-century later, Madison Square Garden would be the place still twitching like that fat guy with tight underwear, pining for a celebration most New Yorkers never have seen.
And that some folks in this sleepy cow town might even feel sorry for them.
Think about how long it’s been since the Spurs’ last trip to the NBA Finals. The summer of 2014 seems like forever ago, doesn’t it? How excruciating has the last decade been? How many times have you wondered in the last 11 years if it’s ever going to happen again? How often during that time have you cursed your franchise’s rotten run of bad breaks?
Now let this sink in: the Knicks haven’t made the Finals since the first time the Spurs did. They lost to Tim Duncan, David Robinson and this city with zero winning tradition in five games that June, and they’ve never been as close to a title since. The next spring, in 2000, the Knicks made it back to the conference finals.
They never again made it that far until Wednesday, when in Game 1 against Indiana they held a 14-point lead with 2:45 to play. And then – astonishingly, inexplicably, unbelievably – it slipped away.
All of it.
Before Wednesday and dating back to the beginning of play-by-play record keeping in 1997, NBA playoff teams holding a lead of at least 14 points in the final 2:45 of the fourth quarter were 994-0, according to The Associated Press.
Now they’re 994-1.
The details – which included five consecutive 3-pointers by Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith and a last-second shot by Tyrese Haliburton that bounced off the back rim, hung high in the dread-filled MSG night as the horn sounded, then fell through the net to force overtime – almost didn’t matter. The point was that Knicks fans were the ones back on the edge of that “emotional razor blade,” and it sliced them to pieces just like it has for more than 50 years.
That’s how far back this misery goes. When the Knicks arrived in San Antonio in 1999, a New York championship already was considered long, long overdue. They had more of a high-profile history than the Spurs did – the Knicks were the franchise of Walt Frazier and Willis Reed and Bill Bradley – but in what now looks like symmetry, it had been 26 years since they won the 1973 Finals.
When the Knicks made their way into the Alamodome, Frazier – their most revered historical figure – was 54. Robinson, Sean Elliott and Avery Johnson, who played key roles on that 1999 title team, all are older than that now, and in San Antonio they’ve long since given way to eras of Hall of Famers and title teams who have come and gone.
Year by year, decade by decade, parade by parade, it was the sleepy cow town that accumulated entry after entry in basketball history, while the team playing in the world’s most famous arena accumulated a bunch of mediocre teams that time forgot.
And now, as the Knicks keep fighting to get back to the position they were in when they arrived in San Antonio 26 years ago, what basketball fans in New York really want is quite simple.
They want to win something, for a change.
In the meantime, everyone else should try to be nice.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News