[PtR] 在文班亚马的故乡寻找马刺元素 ▶️

[PtR]

By Lee Dresie | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-05-29 22:00:00

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。

事实证明，在大洋彼岸，人们并不热衷于展示自己对体育的狂热。

每隔几年，我都会利用Pounding the Rock网站的无限差旅预算。2016年，我前往不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华，看看在NBA将球队迁至孟菲斯后，当地人是否还关心NBA。

简短的回答——不。更简短的回答——没有。正如我报道的那样：

然而，我的旅行表明，当一个城市失去一支球队时会发生什么——他们不再那么关心这项运动。

事实上，在我在温哥华的四天里，没有一个人注意到我的马刺装备。更令人惊讶的是，我没有看到一个人——甚至孩子们——穿着任何NBA装备。没有斯蒂芬·库里 (Stephen Curry) 的30号，勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James) 的23号，或科比·布莱恩特 (Kobe Bryant) 的24号。甚至没有史蒂夫·纳什 (Steve Nash) 的球衣，尽管他在温哥华长大。

话虽如此，温哥华是一个美丽、干净、友好的城市，拥有美味的食物。北美最好的滑雪区之一，惠斯勒山，就在城外。每个人都应该至少去温哥华一次。只是不要指望仅仅通过穿着银黑色的衣服就能与当地人展开对话。冰球装备会让你更好地融入。

第二年，我前往澳大利亚，当时那里是8名NBA球员的出生地，在非美国国家中排名第三，仅次于加拿大和法国。

掌握了这些信息，我冒险进入悉尼市中心和澳大利亚黄金海岸的狂野内陆地区进行调查。我的研究包括尽可能多地穿着我的马刺装备，看看人们是否会回应，并参观各种酒吧，以便我可以“采访”当地的酒保。酒吧访问特别有帮助，尽管结果不太理想。

我再次发现，NBA在美国以外的受欢迎程度远不及人们所希望的那样。人们对新西兰的兴趣甚至更低，尽管新西兰人确实关心他们唯一的球员（当时）——史蒂文·亚当斯 (Steven Adams)。然而，在旅行结束前，我找到了一位真正的马刺球迷：

最后，在同一机场，我在本文顶部与一个假的帕蒂·米尔斯 (Patty Mills) 合影，我成功了。一位细心的年轻人在机场工作，注意到我的马刺帽子和衬衫，问道：“你是马刺球迷吗？”事实证明，年轻的安德鲁的母亲在他8岁时送给他一件大卫·罗宾逊 (David Robinson) 的50号球衣。从那以后，他就一直是马刺球迷——以至于他每个赛季都要飞行7000英里，乘坐14小时的航班从澳大利亚到德克萨斯观看一场马刺主场比赛。每年，安德鲁都会乘坐那趟航班，去看一场比赛，在那里过夜——然后飞回澳大利亚。

因此，即使我在“南方大陆”只找到了一位马刺球迷，我确实找到了一个好的。如果你们中的任何一个人最终坐在一个澳大利亚人在马刺比赛旁边，一定要问他是否是安德鲁，年度澳大利亚马刺球迷。如果是，一定要说“G’Day Mate！”，并给他买一杯美国啤酒。他值得。

也许我那次令人失望的“南方大陆”之旅中的那一个亮点为我提供了足够的决心，让我再次冒险进入世界。（还有上面提到的PtR无限差旅预算。）显而易见的目的地：法国，托尼·帕克 (Tony Parker)、鲍里斯·迪奥 (Boris Diaw) 和——当然——维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 的故乡。我以为这三个马刺法国人，以及维克托在2024年奥运会上向世界展示他的技能，会导致无数次看到马刺球迷和装备。

当我们离开巴黎机场时，负责将抵达的游客送上出租车或优步（在法语中发音为“Uber”）的工作人员注意到我的马刺帽子，并带着灿烂的笑容评论道：“啊，圣安东尼奥！”这是一个吉祥的开始。

那天晚些时候，我们参观了埃菲尔铁塔，周围都是出售各种纪念品的摊贩。一位老兄有一系列印有“PARIS”字样的帽子。当我走过时，他问我是否想要一顶帽子。我指着我的马刺帽子回应——他笑着喊道：“我想要那顶！”事情看起来不错，就像看着塔本身一样：

Apple照片清理

但从那一刻起，什么都没有了。我们没有看到任何迹象表明，这位潜在的世界上最好的球员来自法国巴黎，并且几年前还在他们的当地球队效力。没有维克托赞助的商品。除了我照镜子的时候，我没有看到任何人穿着马刺装备，也没有任何东西庆祝法国国家队在不到12个月前在巴黎奥运会上获得银牌——在与强大的美国队的金牌争夺战中，体育场在球队英勇的努力后高唱法国国歌。

事实上，欧洲人似乎不穿任何反映运动队的衣服，即使是当地的足球队。即使法国网球公开赛正在举行，唯一的反映是我们的酒店里出现了几位网球运动员。

对于美国主要的联盟，在巴黎市中心的一个人戴着金州勇士队的帽子。一个行李箱上贴着加拿大贴纸的孩子戴着多伦多蓝鸟队的帽子，一个在公园长椅上的大学生穿着北卡罗来纳州的运动衫——甚至不是北卡罗来纳州的篮球运动衫，但我已经绝望了。

最后，我们找到了一家运动服装店。我肯定会找到NBA产品，一件文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 的马刺1号球衣或我的实际目标：一件文班亚马的Metropolitans 92球衣。相反，整个商店里唯一基于团队的装备是：

除了那些帽子，所有带有徽标的运动装备只写着耐克、阿迪达斯或其他公司名称。不，我没有买任何一件。我已经穿着我的马刺家庭银黑色衬衫，戴着我值得信赖的马刺帽子。我当然不需要花一大笔欧元买一件Under Armor的T恤。

情绪低落，我在旅行时寻求我经常去的休息场所：最近的冰淇淋摊。

然后，奇迹发生了——不仅仅是美妙的开心果冰淇淋。柜台后面的年轻法国人向我打招呼说：“嘿，很棒的马刺衬衫！”我的脸像圣诞树一样亮了起来。年轻的里奥是一位真正的马刺球迷，被里奥的文班 (Wemby) 粉丝热情“激励”。他兴奋地告诉我，他甚至参加了今年一月份马刺与步行者的第一场比赛。马刺以140-110大胜可能的2024-25赛季NBA冠军，维克托得到30分。

我告诉里奥我会写关于他的文章，这就是它，在戴高乐机场离开法国的路上写的。当我离开里奥的冰淇淋店时，我说“加油马刺！”，他纠正我说，“Go Spurs Go”。

我知道这听起来有点像我8年前前往10000英里之外的澳大利亚之旅的结尾，但是下次你在巴黎时，一定要找到并参观Amorino Gelato Naturale。穿一些马刺装备，并要求找里奥。

点击查看原文：Searching for Spurs stuff in Wemby Land

Searching for Spurs stuff in Wemby Land

It turns out, folks aren’t as open about displaying their sports fandom on the other side of the pond.

Every several years, I take advantage of Pounding the Rock’s unlimited travel budget. In 2016, I travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia to see if the locals still cared about the NBA after the league abandoned the city to move the team to Memphis.

The short answer — nope. The shorter answer — no. As I reported:

However, my trip showed what happens when a city loses a franchise — they no longer care as much about the sport.

Indeed, during my four days in Vancouver, not a single person noted my Spurs gear. Even more amazingly, I didn’t see a single person — even kids — wearing any NBA gear. No Curry #30, Lebron #23, or Kobe #24. Not even a Steve Nash jersey, even though he grew up in Vancouver.

All that being said, Vancouver is a beautiful, clean and friendly city with great food. One of North America’s best ski areas, Whistler Mountain, is just out of town. Everyone should visit Vancouver at least once. Just don’t bother expecting to strike up a conversation with the natives simply by wearing the silver and black. Hockey gear would serve you much better.

The next year I travelled to Australia, at the time the birthplace of 8 NBA players, the third most of any non-USA country behind Canada and France.

Armed with this information, I ventured into the wild outback of downtown Sydney and the Gold Coast of Australia to conduct my inquiry. My research included wearing my Spurs gear as often as possible in order to see if people responded, and visiting various pubs so I could “interview” the local bartenders on the subject. The pub visits were especially helpful, though the results were not that favorable.

Once again, I discovered that the NBA is not nearly as popular outside of the US as one would hope. Interest in New Zealand was even lower, though the Kiwis did care about their lone player (at the time) — Steven Adams. However, before the trip ended, I located a true Spurs fan:

Finally, at the same airport where I had the picture taken with a faux Patty Mills at the top of this piece, I found success. Noting my Spurs hat and shirt, an observant youngish fellow working at the airport asked, “Are you a Spurs fan?” It turns out that young Andrew’s mother had given him a David Robinson #50 jersey when Andrew was 8 years old. He has been a Spurs fan ever since – so much so that he travels the 7,000 miles on a fourteen hour flight from Australia to Texas every season to catch a Spurs home game. Each year, Andrew makes that flight, goes to a game, stays overnight – and flies back home to Australia.

So even though I located only one Spurs fan in the Land Down Under, I sure found a good one. If any of you wind up sitting next to an Aussie bloke at a Spurs game, make sure to ask him if he is Andrew, Australian Spurs Fan of the Year. If he is, make sure to say “G’Day Mate!”, and buy him an American beer. He deserves it.

Perhaps that one bright spot to my otherwise disappointing trip to the Land Down Under supplied me with enough resolve to venture forth once more into the world. (That, and the PtR unlimited travel budget mentioned above.) The obvious destination: France, home of Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and — of course — Victor Wembanyama. I assumed that this Spursian French threesome, and the 2024 Olympics in which Victor displayed his skills to the world, would lead to numerous sightings of Spurs fans and gear.

As we exited the Paris airport, the worker in charge of shuttling arriving visitors onto their taxi or and Uber (pronounced “Uber” in French) noted my Spurs hat and commented, “Ah, San Antonio!” with a big smile. An auspicious start.

Later that day, we visited the Eiffel Tower, surrounded by vendors selling all types of souvenirs. One fellow had an array of hats with “PARIS” emblazened on them. As I walked by he asked if I wanted a hat. I responded by pointing at my Spurs hat — he laughed and shouted, “I want that one!” Things were looking up, like looking at the Tower itself:

Apple Photos Clean Up

But from that moment on, nothing. We did not see a single indication that the potential best player in the world hails from Paris, France and had played on their local team just a few years back. No merchandise sponsored by Victor. Other than when I looked in a mirror, I did not see anyone wearing Spurs gear, nor anything celebrating the French National team that won the silver medal in the Paris Olympics less than twelve months earlier — with the stadium singing the French national anthem after the team’s heroic effort in the gold medal game against the powerful USA squad.

Indeed, Europeans seem to not wear anything reflecting sports teams, even the local soccer teams. Even though the French Open was happening, the only reflection of that was the presence of a few of the tennis players in our hotel.

For USA major leagues, one guy in downtown Paris sported a Golden State Warriors hat. A kid whose suitcase had a Canada sticker wore a Toronto Blue Jays hat, and a college-aged guy on a park bench had a North Carolina sweatshirt — not even an NC basketball sweatshirt, but I was getting desperate.

Finally, we located a sportswear store. Surely I would find NBA product, a Wembanyama Spurs #1 shirt or my actual goal: a Wembanyama Metropolitans 92 jersey. Instead, the ONLY team based gear in the entire store was this:

Other than those hats, all the sports gear with a logo said only Nike, Adidas or other company names. No, I did not buy any of them. I was already wearing my Spurs Family silver and black shirt, with my trusty Spurs hat. I certainly did not need to spend a bunch of Euros on an Under Armor t-shirt.

Downcast, I sought refuge in my go-to respite while traveling: the closest gelato stand.

Then, a miracle happened — and not just the wonderful pistachio gelato. The young Frenchmen behind the counter greeted me with “Hey, great Spurs shirt!” My face lit up like a Christmas tree. Young Leo was an actual Spurs fan, “spurred on” by Leo’s Wemby fandom. He was excited to tell me that he had even attended the first Spurs Pacers game in January this season. The Spurs won big 140-110 over the possible 2024-25 NBA champions, with Victor scoring 30.

I told Leo I would be writing about him, and here it is, written in Charles DeGaulle Airport on our way out of France. As I departed Leo’s gelato establishment, I said “Go Spurs!” and he corrected me, “Go Spurs Go”.

I recognize this sounds somewhat like the end of my trip to Australia 8 years and 10,000 miles away, but the next time you are in Paris, make sure to locate and visit Amorino Gelato Naturale. Wear some Spurs gear, and ask for Leo.

By Lee Dresie, via Pounding The Rock