By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-10-04 13:49:57
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。
圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练米奇·约翰逊在2025年9月29日（星期一）于圣安东尼奥举行的球队媒体日上向记者发表讲话。(美联社照片/达伦·阿贝特)
六天前，米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 以马刺队主教练的身份开启了他的首次训练营，并决心为球队注入自己的风格。
他的训练计划、他的战术微调、他的阵容、他的轮换，以及他在训练结束后围圈训话时的声音。
然而训练营第一天，球员们几乎立刻就搞砸了一项训练，约翰逊随即命令全队到一侧底线，开始进行惩罚性的折返跑。
“这股味道，”全明星中锋维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 笑着说，“简直就是波波。”
这是自1996年以来，格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 首次缺席马刺队新赛季训练营的开启。
这位名人堂教练在五个月前遭受中风后，于今年五月正式宣布退休，留下了38岁的约翰逊——波波维奇的长期助教——来接替他，继续完成将马刺队重新打造成冠军争夺者的重任。
到目前为止，在训练营中，球员们已经感受到了助理教练约翰逊和主教练约翰逊之间的微妙区别。
“我认为他正以和去年同等的专注度和对细节的把控来对待（训练营），”前锋朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 说道，“但今年，我觉得他必须对我们更严厉一些。”
上赛季，在波波维奇缺席期间，约翰逊以“代理主教练”的身份指导了马刺队77场比赛。
他承认，既然已经正式成为接替NBA历史胜场数最多教练的人，肩上的担子无疑更重了。
“我的工作就是为球队确立愿景，”约翰逊说。
上赛季，约翰逊因紧急情况临危受命坐上波波维奇的帅位，在接踵而至的密集赛程中几乎没有喘息之机。
直到今年夏天，当约翰逊终于能够以无可争议的主教练身份来处理工作时，他才真正有了喘息和思考的空间。
“这确实让我对训练营的安排有了很多思考，”约翰逊说。
自2016年起便加入马刺教练组的约翰逊承诺，球队不会偏离那些曾帮助球队赢得五座NBA总冠军的波波维奇式原则。
马刺队希望在约翰逊的带领下打得更快，这正符合球队拥有联盟中最年轻核心阵容之一的特点。
约翰逊计划加倍强调波波维奇那条不容置疑的铁律——打好防守。新任首席助教肖恩·斯威尼 (Sean Sweeney) 和助理教练科利斯·威廉姆森 (Corliss Williamson) 将负责制定球队的防守战术。
有一点是肯定的：本赛季马刺队无论发生什么，无论球队进步与否，责任都将由约翰逊承担。
马刺队现在完全是他的球队了。
“（上赛季）我们都只是在努力维持既有的体系，即我们在训练营中建立的东西和坚持的原则，”老将前锋哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes) 说，“进入今年，将会有一些不同的基石，（约翰逊）可以说，‘好了，听着，我对这里发生的一切拥有完全的主导权。’”
这并不是说马刺队不会保留波波维奇的DNA，无论是在场上还是场下。
一个人不可能在为一个组织付出了29个赛季的心血、汗水和泪水之后，不留下一些自己的印记。
上个月，当马刺队集体前往饱受洪水侵袭的德州丘陵地区慰问学童时，这个想法就源于约翰逊。
在波波维奇手下近十年，约翰逊亲身学到了社区外展和团队建设的重要性。
“他们之间有不同之处，”文班亚马谈到他的两位NBA教练时说，“但有时我也会看到那些老传统。”
超过四分之一个世纪以前，波波维奇偶然读到了社会改革家雅各布·里斯 (Jacob Riis) 的一段话，这段话从此成为了他在担任主教练期间马刺队的行动指南。
波波维奇将这段名言——也就是如今那段著名的关于“凿石不止”的重要性和坚韧精神的语录——用多种语言张贴在通往球队在霜冻银行中心更衣室的走廊里。
这些布置至今仍原封不动。即使在退休之后，波波维奇在圣安东尼奥的传奇仍在延续。
约翰逊无意借用另一句激励口号来作为自己执教时代的标志。
“我想我们只会日复一日地醒来，做好当天该做的工作，然后不断重复，”约翰逊说，“没有座右铭，也没有什么振奋人心的口号。我们只管埋头工作。”
这个战斗口号不如“凿石不止”那般简洁有力，也永远无法印在一件标准尺寸的T恤上。
但这，就是波波的味道。
Gregg Popovich on Monday made his first public appearance since he suffered a mild stroke last November, attending the news conference to introduce Mitch Johnson as his successor as head coach of the Spurs.
Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich (left) talks with Assitant coach Mitch Johnson (right) as they watch their team from the stands as they play against the Portland Trailblazers during the 2023 NBA Summer League games in Las Vegas on Sunday, July 9, 2023. Blazers defeated the Spurs, 85-80.
With the help of former players Manu Ginobili, left, and Tim Duncan, right, former San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, center, introduces Mitch Johnson as the new head coach of the San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball team, in San Antonio, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
With the help of former players Manu Ginobili, left, and Tim Duncan, right, former San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, center, introduces Mitch Johnson as the new head coach of the San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball team, in San Antonio, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
点击查看原文：'Smells like Pop:' Spurs players give Mitch Johnson high marks in firs
‘Smells like Pop:’ Spurs players give Mitch Johnson high marks in firs
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson speaks to reporters during the NBA basketball team’s media day in San Antonio, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
Six days ago, Mitch Johnson began his first training camp as the Spurs’ head coach intent on putting his own spin on things.
His practice script. His schematic tweaks. His lineups, his rotations, his voice leading the post-workout huddle.
Then came Day 1, when players almost immediately flubbed a drill and Johnson ordered them all to one baseline to begin a series of punitive wind sprints.
“That,” All-Star center Victor Wembanyama said with a smile, “just smells like Pop.”
For the first time since 1996, Gregg Popovich was not in the Spurs’ practice gym last week for the start of another training camp.
The Hall of Famer formally retired from coaching in May, following a stroke suffered five months prior, leaving the 38-year-old Johnson – Popovich’s longtime assistant – to carry on the work of refashioning the Spurs into a title contender.
So far in camp, players have sensed the subtle difference between assistant coach Johnson and head coach Johnson.
“I think he’s approaching (camp) with the same level of attention and detail as we had last year,” forward Julian Champagnie said. “But for this year, I think he’s got to be a little harder on us.”
Johnson guided the Spurs through 77 games in Popovich’s stead last season under the label of “acting coach.”
He acknowledges the stakes have been raised now that he has formally become the man tabbed to replace the all-time winningest coach in NBA history.
“It’s my job to set the vision,” Johnson said.
Thrust into Popovich’s seat via emergency last season, Johnson barely had time to catch his breath as the games came fast and furious.
That came this summer, when Johnson was at last able to approach the job as the undisputed head coach and finally had space to think.
“It really did give me quite a lot to think about in terms of what I would do for camp,” Johnson said.
A Spurs staffer since 2016, Johnson vows the team will not stray too far from the Popovichian principles that helped produce five NBA championships.
The Spurs want to play faster under Johnson, befitting a roster that features one of the youngest cores in the league.
Johnson aims to double down on Popovich’s non-negotiable demand of playing defense, with new associate head coach Sean Sweeney and assistant Corliss Williamson tasked with scheming up that end of the floor.
This much is certain: Whatever happens with the Spurs this season, whatever strides the club makes or does not, falls on Johnson.
The Spurs are fully his team now.
“(Last season) we were all just trying to maintain what was already going on, the things we put in during training camp, the principles we had,” veteran forward Harrison Barnes said. “Coming into this year, there’s just building blocks that will be different that (Johnson) can say, ‘OK look, I have full ownership of the things that are going on.’ ”
That is not to say the Spurs won’t contain at least some of Popovich’s DNA, both on and off the court.
One does not give 29 seasons of blood, sweat and tears to an organization without depositing some of it behind.
When the Spurs made a team trip to entertain schoolkids in the flood-ravaged Texas Hill Country last month, the idea originated with Johnson.
For nearly a decade under Popovich, Johnson learned firsthand about the importance of community outreach and team bonding.
“There’s differences,” Wembanyama said of his two NBA coaches. “But I also see the old traditions sometimes.”
More than a quarter of a century ago, Popovich came across a quote from social reformer Jacob Riis that became the Spurs’ marching orders for every second he served as head coach.
Popovich had the quotation – the now-famous one regarding the importance and tenacity of “pounding the rock” – posted in multiple languages in the hallways leading to the team’s locker room at the Frost Bank Center.
Those installations remain untouched. Even in coaching retirement, Popovich’s legacy in San Antonio lives on.
Johnson has no interest in appropriating another motivational slogan to hallmark his own coaching era.
“I think we’re just going to wake up and do the work of the day that’s called for, and then try to continue to repeat that over and over again,” Johnson said. “There’s no motto. There’s no lightning rod word or anything. We’re just going to go to work.”
That battle cry isn’t quite as pithy as “pounding the rock.” It would never fit on a standard-size T-shirt.
But it just smells like Pop.
By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer, via San Antonio Express-News