By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-07-15 16:51:26
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。
当地时间2025年7月10日星期四，拉斯维加斯，圣安东尼奥马刺队的维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 在一场NBA夏季联赛马刺队对阵费城76人队的比赛上半场场边就座。(美联社图片/大卫·贝克尔)
傍晚时分，在寺庙里，在维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 通过跳跃、拉伸以及每日千次的功夫踢腿，让那些他甚至不曾察觉的肌肉感到疲惫之后，便到了他静心冥想的时刻。
这并非一个完全前所未有的日常。在圣安东尼奥的家中，以及马刺队客场之旅期间美国各地的酒店房间里，这位年轻的NBA超级巨星素来有习惯在晚上9点或10点关闭手机和电子设备，通过阅读来放松身心，为就寝做准备。今夏他在中国与少林僧人一起闭关期间，不同之处在于，这份寂静并非是为了读书。
而是关于文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 自己的思绪。
“我并没有那种‘尤里卡’的顿悟，” 文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 在接受法国《队报》记者马克西姆·奥宾的一次采访时说道，“但（冥想）让我更加深刻地理解到，我们并非拥有无限的时间去完成事情。”
事实上，他一直以来都是这样要求自己的。21岁的文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 绝不是一个浪费时间的人，无论是进行他一丝不苟的赛前热身训练，还是在暑假期间从哥斯达黎加辗转中国再到日本，他都明确表示，他坚信每个时刻都至关重要。
那么，尽管马刺队的其他成员上个月并未随同文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 进入那座少林寺？
运营这支球队的管理层，也得出了与他相同的结论：充分利用当下与急于奔向下一个时刻之间存在着差异。
甚至从看似不幸的经历中也能有所收获。
在文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 接受《队报》的深度采访中——这次采访是在NBA夏季联赛期间于拉斯维加斯进行的——他表达了两种关于马刺队球队建设过程的观点，而这与他自两年前被选中以来所持的立场始终保持一致。
一方面，他坚持认为马刺队没有理由不立即开始争夺季后赛席位和总冠军。另一方面，他重申了对球队长期愿景的承诺，以及对未来十年有望蓬勃发展的年轻核心阵容的坚持。
如果用他今夏访问过的某个国家可能会理解的哲学术语来说，紧迫感和耐心在文班亚马 (Wembanyama) ——乃至在马刺队——内部并存，形成一种“阴”与“阳”的和谐。他清晰地意识到，正如马刺队所知，他没有无限的时间去完成自己想达成的事业。但他也同样明白，正如马刺队所知，试图跳过过程中的任何一步，都可能让他们永远无法成功。
文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 在《队报》的采访中充满了这些看似矛盾的论调，但如果你退一步审视其整体信息，它们其实根本就不是矛盾。
例如，当奥宾提到他因血栓诊断而缺席五个月是否“无疑减缓了”马刺队争冠的进程时，文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 对这一假设提出了异议。
“恰恰相反，我认为我的伤病加速了一些事情的发生，” 文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 说道，他已经获得了马刺队的批准重返赛场，“即便我不希望任何人经历它，但这种伤病所带来的思考和反省是无价的。我认为这是一次我们未来会从中受益的经历。”
然而，当奥宾随后问及马刺队是否应该更积极地追求像凯文·杜兰特 (Kevin Durant) 或扬尼斯·阿德托昆博 (Giannis Antetokounmpo) 这样能够立即带来胜利的超级巨星时，文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 也表示了不认同。
“为了一个球员而打散整个核心阵容，这很少能奏效，” 文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 说道，“而且马刺队仍然是组建球队的大师，他们无需追求过多的大牌球员，也无需牺牲球队的平衡性。”
这两种观点如何能同时描述马刺队正在做的事情？紧迫感与耐心如何共存？阴如何不压倒阳，反之亦然？
嗯，如果你真正思考一下文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 想要表达的观点，就会发现这完全说得通。他将导致他上赛季末报销并使其职业生涯未来蒙上阴影的健康危机，描述为并非是一种退步，而是一次成长的机会。而他描述围绕像斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 这样的年轻球员进行建设时，与其说是等待他们进步，不如说是最大限度地利用他们在一起的时间。
换句话说，他的言论与总经理布莱恩·莱特 (Brian Wright)、前主教练格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 以及新任主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 所有人关于这一过程的说法完全一致。毕竟，他们也一直秉持着“阴”与“阳”兼顾的理念来建设球队。
那么，当傍晚时分，在寺庙里，在每日千次功夫踢腿之后，文班亚马 (Wembanyama) 静静坐着时，他领悟到了什么？
他发现的并不是一个“尤里卡”式的顿悟时刻。
对他而言不是。
对马刺队而言，同样也不是。
San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama answers a question from a reporter during 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.
San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, center, claps as Mitch Johnson is introduced as the new head coach of the San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball team, in San Antonio, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs player Victor Wembanyama watches the Houston Cougars and Florida Gators battle in the NCAA men’s college basketball championship game at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Monday, April 7, 2025. The Florida Gators defeated the Houston Cougars 65-63 to take home the national title.
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.
Former San Antonio Spurs players David Robinson, from left, Tim Duncan, and current players Victor Wembanyama and Keldon Johnson attend a ceremony held to present Stephon Castle, not pictured, with his 2024-2025 KIA NBA Rookie of the Year trophy at Victory Capital Performance Center in San Antonio, Wednesday, April 30, 2025.
San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama answers a question from a reporter during 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.
San Antonio teen Miller Borushko and Spurs player Victor Wembanyama take a selfie after the two faced-off in a pickup game of H.O.R.S.E.
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.
Spurs star Victor Wembanyama appears to fight a Shaolin monk in a new viral video.
点击查看原文：Victor Wembanyama eyes the future with a balance of urgency, patience
Victor Wembanyama eyes the future with a balance of urgency, patience
San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, center, sits court side during the first half of an NBA summer league basketball game between the Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers, Thursday, July 10, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
In the evenings at the temple, after Victor Wembanyama wore out muscles he didn’t know he had with jumps and stretches and 1,000 daily kung fu kicks, it was time for quiet meditation.
This wasn’t an altogether unprecedented routine. Back home in San Antonio, and in hotel rooms across America on Spurs road trips, the young NBA superstar is known to shut off his cell phone and electronic devices by 9 or 10 p.m. and wind down to bedtime by reading. The difference during his retreat with Shaolin monks in China this summer was that the silence wasn’t about books.
It was about Wembanyama’s own thoughts.
“I didn’t have a ‘Eureka’ effect,” Wembanyama said in a recent interview with French reporter Maxime Aubin of L’Equipe. “But (meditation) helped me understand even more that we don’t have our whole lives to do things.”
The truth is, he’s always carried himself that way. At 21, Wembanyama is anything but a time-waster, and whether he’s going through his meticulous pregame warm-up routine or bouncing from Costa Rica to China to Japan during summer vacation, he’s made it clear that he believes every moment matters.
And even though the rest of the Spurs didn’t accompany Wembanyama into that Shaolin temple last month?
Those running the organization have reached the same conclusions he has: That there’s a difference between making the most of a moment and rushing to the next one.
And that there’s something to be gained even from what looks like misfortune.
In Wembanyama’s far-reaching L’Equipe interview, conducted in Las Vegas during the NBA’s summer league, he expressed a dichotomy of thoughts about the Spurs’ team-building process that’s been consistent ever since he was drafted two summers ago.
On one hand, he insisted there is no reason the Spurs can’t start competing for playoff berths and championships right away. On the other, he reiterated his commitment to the franchise’s long-term vision, and to sticking with a young core capable of thriving over the next decade.
To put this in philosophical terms that might be understood in one of the countries he visited this summer, urgency and patience coexist within Wembanyama – and within the Spurs – as a sort of yin and yang. He is aware, as the Spurs are, that he doesn’t have an unlimited time to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. But he’s also aware, as the Spurs are, that trying to skip a step along the way could trip them up forever.
Wembanyama’s L’Equipe interview is filled with these apparent contradictions, which aren’t really contradictions at all if you step back and look at the overall message.
After Aubin mentioned, for instance, if being sidelined for five months due to a blood-clot diagnosis “undoubtedly slowed (the) trajectory” of the Spurs’ championship aspirations, Wembanyama quibbled with that assumption.
“On the contrary, I think my injury accelerated things,” said Wembanyama, who’s been cleared by the Spurs to return to the court. “Even if I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, the reflections and questioning caused by such an injury can’t be bought. I think it’s an experience we’ll benefit from in the future.”
Later, though, when Aubin asked if the Spurs should have been more aggressive in pursuing a win-now superstar such as Kevin Durant or Giannis Antetokounmpo, Wembanyama disagreed with that, too.
“Breaking your entire core for a single player rarely works,” Wembanyama said. “And Spurs are still masters at building teams without having to go after too many big players or having to sacrifice squad balance.”
How can both of those sentiments describe what the Spurs are doing? How can urgency and patience coexist? How does the yin not overwhelm the yang, or vice versa?
Well, it makes sense if you really think about the point Wembanyama is trying to make. The way he describes the medical scare that cost him the end of last season and put the future of his career in doubt, it was not a step back, but an opportunity to grow. And the way he describes building around young players like Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, it’s less about waiting for them to improve as it is about maximizing their time together.
In other words, he sounds completely aligned with everything general manager Brian Wright, former coach Gregg Popovich and new coach Mitch Johnson have said about this process. After all, they’ve been building this with a yin and yang in mind, too.
So when, in the evenings at the temple, after his 1,000 daily kung fu kicks, Wembanyama sat in silence?
What he discovered wasn’t a “Eureka” moment.
Not for him.
And not for the Spurs, either.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News