By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-08-26 17:28:15
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。
2024年8月10日，法国巴黎，贝尔西体育馆，在2024年巴黎奥运会第十五日的男篮金牌战法国队对阵美国队的比赛前，法国队的维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 跑入场内。然而，文班亚马将不会连续两年夏天参加第二项重大的国际篮球赛事，他将缺席2025年欧锦赛。此前，他因血栓问题而提前结束了在马刺队的2024-25赛季，目前正为新赛季做准备。
尼古拉·约基奇（Nikola Jokić）告别了他心爱的塞尔维亚赛马。一位身材苗条、坚持无麸质饮食的卢卡·东契奇（Luka Dončić）也放下了他的哑铃和药球。
他们中断了自己的休赛期，在接下来的几周里，将与扬尼斯·阿德托昆博（Giannis Antetokounmpo）、克里斯塔普斯·波尔津吉斯（Kristaps Porzingis）和阿尔佩伦·申京（Alperen Şengün）等人一较高下，同时还要面对那位独一无二的欧洲大个子——他很可能成为今年这项顶级国际篮球赛事中异军突起的明星。
是的，让圣安东尼奥及世界各地的球迷欣喜的是，桑德罗·马穆克拉什维利（Sandro Mamukelashvili）也将出战2025年欧锦赛。
但赛场上也有一个格外显眼的巨大空缺，而对马刺队来说，无论谁最终夺冠，这都是一个让他们乐见其成的理由。
毕竟，在这个夏天，还有什么比看着维克托·文班亚马在全世界数百万观众面前于篮球场上大放异彩，更能让教练米奇·约翰逊（Mitch Johnson）开心的事呢？
那就是看着他在圣安东尼奥一个安静的体育馆里，在寥寥十几人面前做同样的事。
文班亚马本可以强行要求自己加入法国国家队，参加将于周三在芬兰、拉脱维亚、塞浦路斯和波兰开打的这项24支球队的赛事。在上赛季因血栓缺席了最后两个月比赛后，他已经获准恢复篮球活动。
但无论有没有血栓问题，文班亚马今年夏天都不再需要另一场休赛期的盛事了。进入NBA的两个赛季以来，他已经经历得够多了。
2023年，法国联赛的季后赛几乎无缝衔接NBA选秀，紧接着又是夏季联赛。2024年，文班亚马要做的就是肩负起带领东道主在夏季奥运会上冲击奖牌的期望，并希望能击败那支有史以来天赋最强的球队之一。
当他第二次出现在马刺队的训练营时，在过去的24个月里他几乎没有喘息的机会——而他即将开启又一个长达82场比赛的赛季。
文班亚马并没有打满那82场比赛，那个导致他赛季提前报销的诊断结果也着实令人担忧。当你听到“深静脉血栓”这个词时，你很难会去想它有什么好的一面。
但在医生向文班亚马保证，这次的健康恐慌既不危及职业生涯也不危及生命，并且明确他可以在十月份马刺队新赛季开始时复出之后，这确实让一个本可能棘手的两难境地变得简单起来。
几十年来，从马努·吉诺比利（Manu Ginobili）和托尼·帕克（Tony Parker）的早期时代开始，马刺队的明星球员们就一直在忠于祖国和效力于职业球队之间进行着内心的拉锯战。
几乎每个休赛期，总会有一些赛事——奥运会、世界杯、欧锦赛、美洲锦标赛——而参赛的压力是巨大的。和其他球队一样，马刺队理解这一点，并支持他们的明星球员参加国际赛事的决定，即使这对于他们争夺NBA总冠军的愿景并非最理想的选择。
如果文班亚马今年夏天坚持要为法国队出战，并且深知如果他披上战袍，“高卢雄鸡”将有很大机会赢得欧锦赛冠军，那么马刺队也只能硬着头皮祝他好运。
不过，事情并没有发展到那一步。文班亚马和所有人一样都认识到，从血栓中仓促复出，即便是法国人也不应该对他抱有这样的期望，他需要慢慢来。
不是为了马刺队。
而是为了他自己。
以我们对文班亚马的了解，未来几周看着约基奇、东契奇、阿德托昆博和其他NBA球星在欧锦赛上驰骋，对他来说将是一种煎熬，就像之前他坐在家里看着他们在季后赛中厮杀一样。
但在这种情况下，一种形式的煎熬将帮助他避免另一种煎熬的重演。今年夏天，他迈出下一步的最好方式，就是在训练营开始前的几周里，与球队的组织者德阿龙·福克斯（De’Aaron Fox）和斯蒂芬·卡斯尔、新援迪伦·哈珀（Dylan Harper）和卢克·科内特（Luke Kornet），以及像杰里米·索汉这样的留队球员一起进行磨合训练。索汉也因轻伤而缺席了波兰队的欧锦赛。
去年夏天在巴黎，与斯蒂芬·库里（Steph Curry）、勒布朗·詹姆斯（LeBron James）和凯文·杜兰特（Kevin Durant）争夺金牌，正是文班亚马所需要的。对他而言，体验在万众瞩目、事关重大的舞台上与这项运动中最顶尖的球员竞争是至关重要的。
而今年夏天呢？在日本，在中国，在圣安东尼奥，他放慢了脚步。这应该会对马刺队大有裨益。
但如果他们在欧锦赛期间仍然需要一个支持的对象呢？
别忘了，我们还有马穆（Mamu）。
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) claps following a Paris Games 2025 NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers in Paris, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. Instead of participating in a second major international basketball tournament in as many summers, Wembanyama will miss EuroBasket 2025 as he prepares for the coming season following a blood clot that ended his 2024-25 season short with the Spurs.
Victor Wembanyama (32), of France celebrates after scoring a basket against United States during a men’s gold medal basketball game at Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Victor Wembanyama (32), of France shoots during a men’s gold medal basketball game at Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, in Paris, France. Instead of participating in a second major international basketball tournament in as many summers, Wembanyama will miss EuroBasket 2025 as he prepares for the coming season following a blood clot that ended his 2024-25 season short with the Spurs.
Victor Wembanyama of Team France reacts during the Men’s Gold Medal game between Team France and Team United States on day fifteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 10, 2024 in Paris, France. Instead of participating in a second major international basketball tournament in as many summers, Wembanyama will miss EuroBasket 2025 as he prepares for the coming season following a blood clot that ended his 2024-25 season short with the Spurs.
点击查看原文：The upside to Victor Wembanyama missing out on EuroBasket 2025
The upside to Victor Wembanyama missing out on EuroBasket 2025
Victor Wembanyama of Team France runs onto the court prior to the Men’s Gold Medal game between Team France and Team United States on day fifteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 10, 2024 in Paris, France. Instead of participating in a second major international basketball tournament in as many summers, Wembanyama will miss EuroBasket 2025 as he prepares for the coming season following a blood clot that ended his 2024-25 season short with the Spurs.
Nikola Jokić left his beloved Serbian racehorses. A slimmed-down, gluten-free Luka Dončić left his dumbbells and his medicine balls.
Interrupting their offseason, they have carved out the next couple of weeks to challenge Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kristaps Porzingis, and Alperen Şengün, as well as the one-of-a-kind European big man who could become the breakout star of this year’s premier international hoops competition.
Yes, to the delight of fans who revere him in San Antonio and beyond, Sandro Mamukelashvili is playing in EuroBasket 2025, too.
There’s also a conspicuously large absence, and to the Spurs, it’s a reason to enjoy EuroBasket no matter who wins.
After all, what’s the only thing this summer that could make coach Mitch Johnson happier than watching Victor Wembanyama dazzle on a basketball court in front of millions of viewers around the world?
Watching him do it in front of a dozen or so people in a quiet San Antonio gym.
Wembanyama could have pushed himself to be with Team France for the 24-team competition that begins Wednesday in Finland, Latvia, Cyprus and Poland. After missing the last two months of last season with a blood clot, he’s been cleared to resume basketball activities.
But blood clot or not, Wembanyama didn’t need another offseason spectacle this summer. Two years into his NBA career, he’s had enough of those.
In 2023, the French League playoffs took him right up to the NBA draft, which led right into Summer League. In 2024, all Wembanyama had to do was deal with the expectations of leading the host country at the Summer Olympics to a medal, in hopes of taking down one of the most talented teams ever assembled.
By the time he showed up to his second Spurs training camp, he’d barely had a chance to catch his breath in the previous 24 months — and he was about to embark on another 82-game season.
Wembanyama didn’t make it through all 82 of those, and the diagnosis that cut short his season was a scary one. When you hear the term “deep vein thrombosis,” you’re not inclined to look for a bright side.
But after doctors assured Wembanyama that his medical scare was neither career- nor life-threatening, and after it became clear he would be ready to return when the Spurs’ season starts in October, it did simplify what might have been a tricky dilemma.
For decades, going back to the early days of Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, Spurs stars have grappled with the internal tug-of-war between their devotion to their home countries and their professional team.
Almost every offseason, there’s something — an Olympics, a World Cup, a EuroBasket, a FIBA Americas — and the pressure to participate is immense. Like other franchises, the Spurs understand this, and support their stars’ decision to play in international events, even if it’s not ideal for their NBA title aspirations.
And if Wembanyama had insisted on playing for France this summer, knowing that “Les Bleus” had a real chance to win EuroBasket if he suited up, the Spurs would’ve had to swallow hard and wish him well.
It didn’t come to that, though. Wembanyama recognized what everyone else did, which is that rushing back from a blood clot is something that not even the French should have expected of him, and that he needed to take his time.
Not for the Spurs’ sake.
For his sake.
Knowing Wembanyama, it will torture him to watch Jokić, Dončić, Antetokounmpo and the other NBA stars play in EuroBasket over the next couple of weeks, just like it’s tortured him to watch them in the playoffs while he sat at home.
But in this case, one form of torture will help him avoid a repeat of the other. The best way for him to take his next step this summer is to spend the weeks leading up to training camp getting repetitions in with playmakers De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, and with newcomers like Dylan Harper and Luke Kornet, and with holdovers like Jeremy Sochan, who also is skipping EuroBasket with Poland due to a minor injury.
Last summer in Paris, dueling Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant for a gold medal was exactly what Wembanyama needed. It was important for him to get a taste of what it’s like to compete with the best players in the sport, on a huge stage for real stakes.
This summer? In Japan, in China and in San Antonio, he’s slowed down. That should serve the Spurs well.
But if they still need someone to cheer for during EuroBasket?
There’s always Mamu.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News