By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-11-01 13:42:17
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。
2025年10月30日，星期四，圣安东尼奥冰霜银行中心，圣安东尼奥马刺队前锋凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) (3号) 与队友维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) (1号) 拥抱，庆祝球队战胜迈阿密热火队。马刺队取得了队史首次开季5胜0负的战绩，他们希望由维克托·文班亚马带来的热潮以及球队的强劲开局，能为A号和B号提案的投票争取到更多支持。
随着选举日临近，那位曾对马刺新球馆计划表示过保留意见的市长，听起来仍然充满疑虑。一项民意调查显示，该计划的支持率徘徊在40%左右。尽管整个NBA都为那位似乎注定要统治联盟十年甚至更久的年轻长人而惊叹，但一些圣安东尼奥市民却在担忧，他是否会在别处迎来自己的巅峰。
但在1999年的秋天，马刺队的竞选机器手中握有一张王牌，而这张王牌，也正是球队如今所寄望的：
在投票结果看似胜负难料之际，这支篮球队选择了一个成为赢家的绝佳时机。
是的，这次的细节有所不同，不仅仅是因为马刺队正试图重返市中心，而非离开那里。二十六年前，他们的球馆提案得益于队史首个NBA总冠军的东风。而本周，他们则指望队史首次5胜0负开局带来的积极氛围。
比赛的结果真的能影响选举的结果吗？也许不能，但我们永远无法确切知晓，如果当初肖恩·埃利奥特 (Sean Elliott) 在阿拉莫穹顶体育馆投出的那记“阵亡将士纪念日奇迹”弹框而出，波特兰开拓者队继而让马刺队再次品尝季后赛的心碎苦果，情况会是怎样。
贝尔县的居民们曾以60%对40%的压倒性优势投票支持了建造后来成为冰霜银行中心的提案，但假如他们没有刚刚经历过队史首次冠军河流巡游，他们还会对这个项目报以如此高的热情吗？
假如他们不曾坚信蒂姆·邓肯 (Tim Duncan) 有能力让未来物有所值，他们还会如此愿意去构想一个在牛仔竞技场上打篮球的未来吗？
这是一个马刺队庆幸在1999年不必面对的“假如”。当时，社区领袖们正在就一项通过增加游客税来筹集1.465亿美元，在弗里曼体育馆旁建造一座新球馆的提案细节提出一些可以理解的疑问。在选举前的几天，时任市长霍华德·皮克 (Howard Peak) 拒绝透露他将如何投票。
但结果证明，新球馆的反对者们遭遇了一场溃败，就像纽约尼克斯队在当年六月的NBA总决赛中被打得落花流水一样。在圣安东尼奥的每个角落，“加油，马刺，加油！”（Go, Spurs, Go!）的热情达到了历史顶峰。没人愿意冒险看到邓肯在自由球员市场离去，甚至不愿看到球队搬迁。
而一个吉祥的巧合是，选举之夜恰逢球队的赛季揭幕战和总冠军戒指颁发仪式。
从那时起，情况又发生了怎样的变化？那一晚在阿拉莫穹顶体育馆，观众席上满是球迷，他们用小巧的手持设备关注着选举结果：
用电池供电的调幅/调频收音机。
而本周二，大多数人将使用更新的技术来了解A号和B号提案的命运。四分之一个世纪改变了数字：马刺队承诺为这座耗资13亿美元、坐落于阿拉莫穹顶体育馆高速公路对面的新球馆投入5亿美元，外加成本超支部分。
尽管如此，球队依然希望1999年那种充满希望的篮球情怀能够延续至今。
2025年8月20日，星期三上午，市长吉娜·奥尔蒂斯·琼斯 (Gina Ortiz Jones) 在圣安东尼奥市政厅外向支持马刺新球馆的民众发表讲话。她出席了这次集会，以表达对马刺队的支持，并重申了她对当前球队球馆条款清单获批的关切。
这一次，马刺队没有近期的总冠军可以夸耀。他们甚至已经连续六年无缘季后赛，这是球队有史以来经历过的最长季后赛荒。从这个意义上说，这乍看之下似乎是提出一项重大公共请求的艰难年份。
但从选秀抽签到争冠之旅，马刺队的历史充满了无可挑剔的时机把握，而这或许也能延伸到选举上。如果说他们真的需要在某个十月来证明一些事情——他们已准备好重返竞争者行列，另一个冠军时代或许即将到来，以及维克托·文班亚马不仅身体健康，而且完全名副其实——那么，就是这个十月了。
那么在过去两周里他们做了什么？他们竟然完成了一项连乔治·格文 (George Gervin)、大卫·罗宾逊 (David Robinson)、邓肯和科怀·伦纳德 (Kawhi Leonard) 都未曾做到的成就。这些传奇人物都从未带领马刺队取得过5胜0负的赛季开局。
这次赛季初的强势表现会改变哪怕一张选票吗？它会促使哪怕多一个人前往投票站吗？我们拭目以待，但在马刺队看来，这无疑比另一种情况要好得多。
德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校民意研究中心在十月中旬发布的一项民意调查显示，仅有40%的贝尔县潜在选民支持B号提案，该提案要求县政府为新球馆出资3.11亿美元。即便马刺队并非处于落后局面，现在也不是播下更多疑虑的时候。
相反，无论是出于篮球还是政治原因，这都是赢球的时刻。
在过去一周于冰霜银行中心举行的三场比赛中，有两场比赛，马刺队执行合伙人彼得·J·霍尔特 (Peter J. Holt) 都拿着麦克风走到中场，发表了一场充满激情的竞选演说。第二次演说发生在一个暂停期间，当时喧闹的观众们仍然站着，为这支不败主队打出的一波充满高光镜头的攻势而欢呼。
“如果你们享受这一切……”，霍尔特的宣传语以此开场，显然是希望马刺队已经抓住了绝佳的时机。
而这，将不会是第一次。
点击查看原文：Much like 1999, Spurs hope winning will aid Props A and B at polls
Much like 1999, Spurs hope winning will aid Props A and B at polls
San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson (3) embraces San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) as they celebrate their victory over the Miami Heat at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. The Spurs, who are off to the first 5-0 start in team history, are hoping the hype from Victor Wembanyama and the the team’s strong start will help bring support for Propositions A and B at the polls.
As the election neared, the mayor who’d expressed reservations about a new Spurs arena still sounded skeptical. A public opinion poll showed support for the plan hovering around 40%. And while the NBA marveled at the tall youngster who looked poised to rule the league for a decade or more, some San Antonians wondered if he’d reach his peak somewhere else.
But in the fall of 1999, the Spurs’ campaign machine had an ace up its sleeve, and it’s the same one the franchise hopes it has now:
With the vote looking like it could go either way, the basketball team picked an ideal time to be a winner.
Yes, the details are different this time, and not just because the Spurs are trying to return downtown instead of getting away from it. Twenty-six years ago, their arena pitch benefited from the timing of their first-ever NBA championship. This week, they’re counting on the positive vibes of their first 5-0 start in franchise history.
Can the outcome of games really influence the outcome of an election? Maybe not, but we’ll never know for sure what would have happened if Sean Elliott’s “Memorial Day Miracle” had rimmed out at the Alamodome and the Portland Trail Blazers had gone on to deliver the Spurs yet another postseason heartbreak.
Would Bexar County residents, who voted by an overwhelming 60-40 margin in favor of a proposal to build what became Frost Bank Center, have been as enthusiastic about the project if they hadn’t just experienced their first championship river parade?
Would they have been as willing to envision a future involving basketball on the rodeo grounds if they’d not been convinced Tim Duncan had the power to make that future worthwhile?
It’s a “what-if” the Spurs are thankful they didn’t have to contend with in 1999, when community leaders were asking some understandable questions about the details of a proposition to raise $146.5 million in visitors’ taxes to build an arena next to Freeman Coliseum. In the days before the election, then-mayor Howard Peak declined to say which way he was voting.
But as it turned out, the arena opponents were routed as convincingly as the New York Knicks had been beaten in that June’s NBA Finals. All around San Antonio, “Go, Spurs, Go!” fervor was at an all-time high. Nobody wanted to risk losing Duncan to free agency, or even losing the franchise to relocation.
And in an auspicious coincidence, election night coincided with the team’s season opener and championship-ring ceremony.
How have things changed since then? That evening at the Alamodome, the crowd was full of fans monitoring the election results with small handheld devices:
Battery-powered AM/FM radios.
This Tuesday, most will use newer technology to learn the fate of Propositions A and B. A quarter-century has changed the numbers, with the Spurs pledging to kick in $500 million, plus cost overruns, for a $1.3 billion arena across the highway from the Alamodome.
Still, the franchise is hoping the hopeful hoops sentiment of 1999 endures.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks to pro-Spurs arena supporters during a news conference outside City Hall in San Antonio on the morning of Wednesday, August 20, 2025. She attended the gathering to express her support for the Spurs and to reiterate her concerns regarding the approval of the current arena term sheet for the team.
The Spurs don’t have a recent championship to crow about this time. They haven’t even made the playoffs in six years, which is by far the longest drought the team ever has endured. In that sense, it would seem at first glance to be a difficult year to make a big public ask.
But from draft lotteries to title runs, the Spurs’ history is filled with impeccable timing, and that might extend to elections, too. If there ever was going to be an October when they needed to prove a few things — that they’re ready to be contenders again, that another title era might be on its way, and that Victor Wembanyama is not only healthy, but also everything he’s been cracked up to be — this was it.
So what did they do over the past two weeks? Somehow, they accomplished something George Gervin, David Robinson, Duncan and Kawhi Leonard never did. None of those guys ever started a season 5-0 with the Spurs.
Will this early-season surge change even one vote? Will it prompt even one extra person to head to the polls? We’ll see, but in the Spurs’ view, it certainly beats the alternative.
A poll released in mid-October by the UT San Antonio Center for Public Opinion Research showed only 40% of likely Bexar County voters supported Proposition B, which calls for the county’s $311 million contribution to the arena. Even if the Spurs weren’t playing from behind, this wasn’t the time to sow more doubt.
Instead, it was time to win, for both basketball and political reasons.
At two of the three games at Frost Bank Center over the past week, Spurs managing partner Peter J. Holt walked out to center court with a microphone and made a spirited campaign speech. The second one came during a timeout, with a raucous crowd still on its feet cheering a highlight-filled run by the undefeated home team.
“If you’re enjoying this … ,” Holt’s pitch began, in obvious hopes that the Spurs had nailed the timing.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News