By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-09-06 14:54:37
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。
迪伦·哈珀的拇指手术至少为马刺解决了一个潜在的阵容难题。
恐怕没人想再读一篇关于“黑暗中寻找光明”的专栏了。
过去六年，这样的文章已经看得太多了。
错过季后赛意味着更高的选秀顺位。在几个选秀上判断失误，则意味着给那些选对了的球员更多的机会。失去NBA历史上胜场最多的主教练（因中风），为球队带来了新的活力和理念。失去维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 和德阿龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 这两位因伤赛季报销的球员，让他们获得了急需的休整时间。
而现在，当最新的明星球员意外受伤，预计将缺席一个月的宝贵训练时间，而且这恰恰发生在全队成员回归、准备一扫过去六年阴霾之际？
好吧，恐怕没人想读一篇分析迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 的拇指手术如何至少解决了一个潜在阵容难题的文章。
马刺自己也并不乐意从这个角度看问题，但至少他们已经学会了如何客观看待这类挫折。格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 曾说过，一支有幸同时得到大卫·罗宾逊 (David Robinson) 和蒂姆·邓肯 (Tim Duncan) 的球队，在未来一百年里都没有权利抱怨任何一次厄运。
而这还是在这支球队得到文班亚马之前说的。
所以，即便哈珀无法在赛季揭幕战前及时复出，他们也不会自怨自艾，更不会指望任何人来同情他们。
在他们命运的账本上，马刺亏欠这个世界的，远比这个世界亏欠他们的要多，即使这种感觉已经久违了。后邓肯时代让周五传出的这类坏消息感觉像是季前赛的传统——从德章泰·默里 (Dejounte Murray) 的膝盖韧带撕裂，到德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 多次遭遇的夏季伤病。
如果你觉得马刺已经很久没有以一套完整、健康且有能力竞争季后赛席位的阵容开启新赛季了，那是因为事实的确如此。
这种情况本应在下个月有所改变，但即使是最乐观的球迷也应该知道，指望整个训练营一帆风顺是不现实的。从血栓中康复并被正式批准回归篮球活动的文班亚马，真的会立刻被解除限制吗？像福克斯和杰里米·索汉 (Jeremy Sochan) 这样在休赛期遭遇的磕磕碰碰，真的像报道中说的那样轻微吗？
总会有事情发生。几乎总是如此，而且不仅仅是在马刺队。每年九月和十月，整个NBA联盟里总会有脚踝扭伤和腿筋拉伤的情况出现，那些能安然无恙地挺进揭幕战的球队，才是幸运的例外。
因此，在困境中寻找积极的一面，是全联盟的惯例，这再自然不过了。一支球队所能期望的，就是他们找到的“光明”比大多数球队的更容易发现。
虽然没人想听，但马刺仍然属于这一类。如果说，让哈珀错过四到六周基本无关紧要的季前赛，是他们在10月22日客场挑战达拉斯独行侠之前收到的最坏消息，那么他们会把这看作是一场胜利。
毕竟，我们有充分的理由相信，这或许是最好的安排。尽管自从六月选中哈珀以来，马刺一直坚称后场有足够的时间分配，角色问题会自行解决，但这次伤病让决策变得简单了。
哈珀——这位马刺队史除罗宾逊、邓肯或文班亚马之外顺位最高的新秀——无论如何，都很可能以替补身份开启他的赛季。但首发阵容的细节本会成为贯穿整个季前赛的话题，而现在，这个话题在很大程度上可以避免了。
与此同时，仅在去年二月共存了数周的福克斯-文班亚马二人组，现在有了在训练营中与斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 一同重新磨合的时间。如果这个组合能理顺，或许一个月后哈珀的融入会变得更加容易。
当然，最后这一点可能有些牵强。就像过去六年左右的许多其他专栏文章一样，这或许只是在灰色地带中强行寻找一丝慰藉。
但有时候，那片“乌云的金边”是真实存在的。如果这一次也是如此呢？
终有一天，马刺将能看到那片光明，而它将不再需要苦苦寻觅。
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - JULY 12: Dylan Harper #2 of the San Antonio Spurs tries to secure his own rebound against Cooper Flagg #32 of the Dallas Mavericks in the first half of a 2025 NBA Summer League game at the Thomas & Mack Center on July 12, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dylan Harper drives into the lane during 2025 NBA Summer League game between the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs at the Thomas & Mack Center on July 14, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
San Antonio Spurs’ first round draft pick Dylan Harper reacts to a question asking if he knows any Spanish during a press conference to introduce the San Antonio Spurs’ 2025 Draft picks at Victory Capital Performance Center in San Antonio, Saturday, June 28, 2025.
San Antonio Spurs’ first round draft pick Dylan Harper receives his jersey from general manager Brian Wright during a press conference to introduce the San Antonio Spurs’ 2025 Draft picks at Victory Capital Performance Center in San Antonio, Saturday, June 28, 2025.
点击查看原文：Why Dylan Harper's injury gives Spurs a chance to find bright side
Why Dylan Harper’s injury gives Spurs a chance to find bright side
Dylan Harper’s thumb surgery at least solves a potential lineup quandary for the Spurs.
Nobody wants to read another column about the hidden bright side.
There’s been at least six years’ worth of those already.
Missing the playoffs meant higher draft picks. Misfiring on a couple of those selections meant more opportunities for the ones that worked out. Losing the winningest NBA head coach of all time to a stroke made room for new energy and new ideas. Losing Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox to season-ending maladies gave those guys time for a much-needed recharge.
And after the newest star took a tumble expected him to cost him a month of precious practice time, just when the whole gang was getting back together and poised to make everyone forget the last six years?
Well, nobody wants to read about how Dylan Harper’s thumb surgery at least solves a potential lineup quandary.
The Spurs aren’t exactly excited to look at it that way, either, but at least they’ve learned how to keep setbacks like these in perspective. Gregg Popovich used to say that a franchise lucky enough to land both David Robinson and Tim Duncan didn’t have the right to complain about a bad break for the next hundred years.
And that was before the same franchise wound up with Wembanyama.
So they’re not going to feel sorry for themselves even if Harper can’t make it back in time for the season opener, and they’re not going to expect anyone else to pity them, either.
On their karmic balance sheet, the Spurs still owe the universe a lot more than the universe owes them, even if it hasn’t felt that way in a while. The post-Duncan era has made news like Friday’s feel like a preseason tradition, from Dejounte Murray’s torn knee ligament through multiple summer maladies for Devin Vassell.
If it feels like a long time since the Spurs have opened a season with a full, healthy roster capable of competing for a spot in the playoffs, that’s because it has been.
That was supposed to change next month, but even the most optimistic fan should have known better than to expect an entire training camp to go off without a hitch. Would Wembanyama, officially cleared to return to basketball activities after recovering from a blood clot, really be turned loose right away? Were the offseason bumps and bruises suffered by guys like Fox and Jeremy Sochan really as minor as reported?
Something was bound to come up. It almost always does, and not only with the Spurs. Every September and October around the NBA, ankles get rolled and hamstrings get tweaked, and the lucky exceptions are the ones who make it to the opener unscathed.
Looking for the hidden bright side, then, is a leaguewide custom, and it’s only natural. All a franchise can hope for is that their hidden bright side is easier to find than most.
Nobody wants to read it, but the Spurs still fit that category. If losing Harper for four six weeks of mostly meaningless preseason action is the worst news they get before they play in Dallas on October 22, they’ll count that as a victory.
There are, after all, some legitimate reasons to think it might work out for the best. Although the Spurs have maintained ever since they selected Harper in June’s draft that there were plenty of backcourt minutes forever, and that the roles would work themselves out, this makes the decisions simpler.
Harper – the highest-drafted rookie in Spurs’ history not named Robinson, Duncan or Wembanyama – probably was going to start the season coming off the bench, no matter what. But the details of the starting lineup would have been a running preseason storyline, and now that can be avoided for the most part.
Meanwhile, the Fox-Wembanyama duo, which existed only for a couple of weeks last February, has some time to reconnect alongside Stephon Castle during training camp. Get that right, and maybe integrating Harper in a month or so will be easier.
That last part might be a stretch, of course. Like lots of other columns over the past six years or so, it might be a case of looking at a gray area and calling it a silver lining.
But sometimes the silver linings really do exist. And if this one does?
Eventually, there will come a day when the Spurs can look at the bright side, and it won’t be hidden anymore.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News