By Michael C. Wright | ESPN, 2025-11-13 20:00:00
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。
“冲筐，维克！” 斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 尖叫着，在圣安东尼奥马刺队于达拉斯取得赛季揭幕战胜利的比赛中，第二节还剩8分28秒时，他正飞速冲向前场。
“冲筐！冲筐！冲筐！”
几乎就在指令发出的同时，维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 用右臂推开身后追防的德怀特·鲍威尔 (Dwight Powell)，为最后一次加速冲击篮筐蓄力。刚过中场标志几步，卡斯尔便送出一记高抛传球，文班亚马在空中稳稳接住，完成了一记反身双手暴扣。
一声哨响迅速刺破了嘈杂的庆祝声，达拉斯请求暂停进行调整。
这张隔扣海报和随后的庆祝迅速在网络上疯传，这两位前后两届年度最佳新秀之间的化学反应，就如同他们耀眼的天赋一样显而易见。
“那张照片我看了很多遍了，”卡斯尔在接受ESPN采访时，谈到了他赛后与文班亚马兴高采烈地撞肩庆祝的瞬间。“我们聊过那球。最重要的是，我们能在关键的比赛中打出这样的配合。那是比赛的一个转折点。我们当时正打出一波攻势，而那是一个非常关键的空中接力。我们对此都感到非常兴奋。”
然而，如今最让这对组合兴奋的，是圣安东尼奥的强势开局——8胜3负，这是马刺队自2016-17赛季以来的最佳开局——以及未来的无限可能。早在二月份，当文班亚马因右肩深静脉血栓将赛季报销的消息传出时，这份未来的前景曾一度被搁置。
这位法国天才在九月底宣称：“没有人像我今年夏天那样训练。”
但他没有透露的是，在他那个环球飞行的夏天里，他与卡斯尔进行了一对一的训练，致力于打磨那些复杂的配合细节。这些细节使得这对新双人组——这位21岁的控球后卫和这位21岁的大个子——或许成为了整个篮球界最令人畏惧的组合。
他们说，这里是“51区”。
结合他们的球衣号码和文班亚马的“外星人”绰号，卡斯尔和这位法国人上赛季仅共同出战了45场比赛，在场总时长为779分钟。根据GeniusIQ的数据，在此期间，卡斯尔为文班亚马送出了36次助攻，后者完成了11次扣篮。
在周三输给金州勇士队的比赛中，卡斯尔和文班亚马双双砍下三双，成为NBA历史上第五对在同一场比赛中各自拿下20+得分三双的组合——也是第一对在这种情况下输球的组合。
“他们（上赛季）在场上没有足够的时间来建立节奏，”马刺队教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 说道。“去年他们同场竞技时，斯蒂芬还处在他新秀赛季的早期，他还在努力生存，尤其是在我们让他扮演多种角色的情况下。我想我们现在开始看到，他们二人仅仅是崭露头角而已。”
“（文班亚马）在选秀大会期间身处地球的另一端，我相信他可能在凌晨4点给（被选中的新秀们）打了FaceTime或电话。这个例子就足以说明他的奉献精神、投入程度，以及他有多么珍视与队友和球队之间的关系。”
到目前为止，毫无意外地，“51区”在防守端表现得最为耀眼。
本赛季当“51区”同时在场时，圣安东尼奥的防守效率为101.1，在264分钟内，他们每百回合净胜对手14.6分。根据ESPN Research的数据，在所有共同出场超过200分钟的74对组合中，这一数据高居第八。
“我们都为自己是攻防俱佳的球员而自豪，”卡斯尔告诉ESPN。“我们这支球队的标签就是防守，我觉得我们是防守的领军人物。所以，我们一起防守了多少次挡拆，我们有多少次需要解读彼此盯防的球员，我需要多大程度上帮助他拼抢篮板，所有这些在防守端的细节，对我们整个团队来说都至关重要。”
凭借联盟第八的进攻和第六的防守，联盟其他球队也不得不对他们刮目相看。
上赛季，在波士顿 以103-116输掉一场比赛后，卡斯尔和文班亚马登上了飞往旧金山的六小时跨国航班。那是2月12日的深夜。他们刚刚打完了10天内的第六场比赛。
他们筋疲力尽。在当地时间凌晨4点降落后，他们走向一辆等候的斯宾特商务车，前往五星级的瑞吉酒店，他们将在那里参加全明星赛的活动。
文班亚马当时即将参加他的首次全明星赛，并在那周早些时候因声称会押注自己赢得比赛MVP而成为新闻人物。
但最终带着荣誉离开旧金山的是卡斯尔，他夺得了新秀挑战赛的MVP，其所在球队也赢得了参加全明星正赛的资格。卡斯尔还在竞争激烈的NBA扣篮大赛决赛中获得第二名。
而文班亚马，则带着鼓舞和疲惫离开了全明星周末，他说：“我会努力冷静下来，在48小时内暂时忘掉篮球。”
2月20日，在奥斯汀一个凉爽多风的早晨，马刺队在德克萨斯大学的穆迪中心进行投篮训练，备战全明星周末后对阵菲尼克斯太阳队的首场比赛。
马刺队CEO R.C.布福德 (R.C. Buford) 站在入口附近，看着球员们一个接一个地走过。
文班亚马却不见踪影。
几小时后，球队宣布，当时年仅21岁的文班亚马因右肩深静脉血栓将缺席本赛季余下的所有比赛。
“你绝不希望这种事发生在你最痛恨的敌人身上，”马刺队控球后卫德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 说。
“我们一起参加了全明星，我回到奥斯汀准备比赛，以为我们的大个子回来了，结果他却赛季报销了，”卡斯尔说。“要适应这种情况真的很奇怪。”
在幕后，这次经历以及它带来的创伤，促使他与卡斯尔进行了更深入的交流。
“看到这一切能多快地从我们身边被夺走，这让我们意识到，能够上场打球是多么幸运，”卡斯尔说。
“拥有一个重要的夏天，是我们谈论的主要事情。我们只是想确保他保持健康，保持状态，并继续打磨他的比赛，因为我们知道下一年我们需要他——非常需要他。”
文班亚马旋风般的夏天 横跨全球，而卡斯尔则将大部分休赛期时间花在洛杉矶，与被称为“后卫导师”的NBA训练师奥林·辛普利斯 (Olin Simplis) 一起训练。
尽管如此，这对组合还是为彼此找到了时间，尤其是在休赛期早期、2025年NBA季后赛刚开打时，当时文班亚马还未获得医疗许可参与场上训练。
在马刺队最先进的训练设施——胜利资本表演中心里，卡斯尔和文班亚马一有机会就一起观看他们的比赛录像，然后模拟录像中的回合进行演练。随着休赛期进入夏季，这对组合还得知福克斯将因腿筋伤势错过赛季初的部分比赛，这使得他们之间的场上化学反应对球队的开局变得更加至关重要。福克斯说，他在获得医疗许可、从需要12周恢复期的三月份手部手术中复出后，打的第三场5对5比赛中受了伤。
“从那时到现在，我们仍然一起看很多录像，”卡斯尔说。“关于挡拆的，关于防守的，因为很多时候战术中只有我和他两个人。所以，能够知道他的想法，也让他知道我的想法，对我们帮助很大。”
虽然他们夏天的训练大部分在圣安东尼奥进行，但文班亚马在七月份也前往洛杉矶，以加深他与卡斯尔的联系。在那次旅程中，文班亚马与名人堂成员凯文·加内特 (Kevin Garnett) 探讨了比赛的心理层面，并在洛约拉马利蒙特大学与队友们的非正式训练赛中，展现了本赛季即将到来的惊鸿一瞥。
前NBA球员帕特里克·贝弗利 (Patrick Beverley) 参加了那些训练赛。
“那家伙在训练赛里看起来状态好极了。他看起来真的太健康了，”贝弗利在八月份的《帕特·贝弗利与罗恩播客》中说道。“他看起来天赋爆棚，简直不可思议。他打出了一些惊人的操作。他一个转身过掉防守人，半个身子都出界了，但他的手臂还能像这样扣篮。那真是我见过最疯狂的场面。”
文班亚马在七月份获准回归场上活动。
“他能来到这里，我们在夏初，远在训练营和一切开始之前就建立化学反应，这绝对很有帮助，”卡斯尔说。“大量的重复练习，大量地一起看录像，这些都很有帮助，但常常被忽视。我们整个夏天都在做这些，现在它开始逐渐成形了。”
这也提升了球队的整体凝聚力，这支球队整个夏天都在场下增进感情。卡斯尔并未入选圣安东尼奥2025年夏季联赛的阵容，但在球队抵达拉斯维加斯之前与他们一起训练。
当文班亚马在球队7月10日战胜费城的比赛第二节抵达现场时，这位21岁的球员与队友福克斯、卡斯尔、杰里米·索汉 (Jeremy Sochan)、哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes)、凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson)、朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 和瓦塞尔 (Vassell) 一同坐在场边观战。
“就氛围而言，非常棒，”巴恩斯说。“夏天里建立了很多场下化学反应，大家一起出去玩之类的。这种连接性正在球场上体现出来。我只是觉得现在的能量不一样了。这是我注意到的最大变化，无论是在积极还是消极的情况下，球员们在暂停期间、在场上、在攻防转换中的沟通方式和连接方式都不同了。”
当文班亚马第一次 在上赛季听到“51区”这个绰号时，他毫不犹豫地表示了赞同。卡斯尔也同意。
“我喜欢这个名字，”他说。
然而，要配得上这个名号，需要付出努力和时间。在11月初的一次两连败期间，文班亚马在无情的双人包夹下举步维艰，两场比赛合计得到28分，投篮命中率32.1%，并出现11次失误。在同一时期，卡斯尔的投篮命中率为44.8%，并出现了9次失误。
尽管如此，很明显，这对组合在他们第一个完整的合作赛季里已经取得了长足的进步。
根据Genius IQ的数据，本赛季前11场比赛，文班亚马和卡斯尔每百回合执行的挡拆次数（16.9次）比上赛季多了8次以上，并且效率更高（前九场比赛每次机会得分0.98分，而去年为0.84分）。
更衣室里一个悄然流传的话题是卡斯尔用势大力沉的扣篮隔扣对手的癖好。卡斯尔在本赛季初告诉ESPN，如果对手继续让后卫守在篮下，他会每次都尝试在他们头上扣篮。
文班亚马也知道这一点，这或许就是为什么当他描述构成“51区”的运动能力和技术组合时，会发出一声轻笑。
“对于防守者来说，他仍然难以阻挡，”文班亚马说。“你就是不能忽视他，因为如果你给他那么多空间，他就会起飞在你头上扣篮。他的组织进攻能力，他一直都有。他的天赋，他能做到一些你无法通过训练学会的事情。他就是有这种天赋。”
在防守端，“51区”继续摧毁对手的挡拆战术。在前11场比赛中，对手共发起了69次由卡斯尔防守持球人、文班亚马应对掩护人的挡拆。在这些回合中，对手每次机会仅得0.79分，这使得“51区”在本赛季联盟所有至少面对50次挡拆的31对组合中，成为防守第八好的双人组。
联盟中有74对不同的双人阵容共同出场时间至少达到250分钟。在这些组合中，“51区”将对手的投篮命中率限制在41%，排名第二。
“我和维克之间的连接，我很高兴外界开始看到了，”卡斯尔说。“作为队友，维克非常非常有耐心。所以，他让我很容易就适应了。当我刚来的时候，我的意思是，那是文班。每个人都想和文班一起打球。所以，能和他同场竞技感觉很酷。”
“现在，他就像我的兄弟一样。我们可以无话不谈。”
点击查看原文：Welcome to Area 51: The Spurs duo putting the NBA on notice
Welcome to Area 51: The Spurs duo putting the NBA on notice
“RIM, VIC!” STEPHON CASTLE screamed, streaking down the floor with 8:28 left in the second quarter of the San Antonio Spurs’ season-opening win in Dallas.
“Rim! Rim! Rim!”
Almost on cue, Victor Wembanyama pushed off with his right arm against the trailing Dwight Powell to dig in for one last burst of acceleration to the hoop. A few steps past the center court logo, Castle floated a lob that Wembanyama snatched midair for a reverse two-handed jam.
A whistle quickly pierced the noisy celebration as Dallas called a timeout to regroup.
The poster and subsequent celebration quickly went viral, the chemistry between the past two Rookie of the Year winners as obvious as their scintillating talent.
“I’ve seen that picture plenty of times,” Castle told ESPN about his jubilant shoulder bump with Wembanyama in the aftermath. “We’ve talked about it. The biggest thing is being able to execute in the games that matter. That was a turning point in the game. We had started our run and that was a big-time lob. We were definitely hyped about it.”
Still, what excites the duo most these days, however, is San Antonio’s fast start – at 8-3, the Spurs are off to their best start since 2016-17 – and prospects for a future that was placed on hold back in February when news broke that Wembanyama would miss the remainder of the season due to right shoulder deep vein thrombosis.
The French phenom proclaimed in late September that “nobody has trained like I did this summer.”
What he didn’t divulge was the one-on-one time he spent with Castle during his jet-setting summer working to nail down the intricate details that make this new duo – the 21-year-old point guard and the 21-year-old big man – perhaps the most fearsome in all of basketball.
This, they say, is “Area 51.”
Combining their jersey numbers and Wembanyama’s “alien” nickname, Castle and the Frenchman played in just 45 games together last season, spending a total of 779 minutes on the floor. Castle tossed 36 dimes Wembanyama’s way for 11 dunks over that span, according to GeniusIQ.
Castle and Wembanyama each notched a triple-double in a loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, becoming the fifth duo in NBA history to each log a 20-point triple-double in a game – and the first such duo to lose while doing it.
“They didn’t get a ton of time [last season] on the court to build a rhythm,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “Last year when they shared the court, it was early in Steph’s rookie season where he’s trying to survive, especially in the variety of ways we played him. I think we’re starting to see just those two scratching the surface.”
“[Wembanyama] was somewhere halfway across the world during the draft, and I believe he may have FaceTimed or called [the draft picks] at 4 a.m. That example tells you just his dedication and investment and how valuable he believes the relationships with his teammates and organization are.”
So far, and unsurprisingly, Area 51 shines brightest on the defensive end.
San Antonio owns a defensive rating of 101.1 with Area 51 on the floor together this season, and outscored opponents by 14.6 points per 100 possessions across 264 minutes, which ranks eighth best among the 74 duos that have played 200-plus minutes, per ESPN Research.
“We both take pride in being two-way players,” Castle told ESPN. “Our identity on this team is defense, and I feel like we’re the heads of that. So, how many pick-and-rolls that we guard together, how many times we have to read off each other’s guy, how much I have to help him rebound, just all those little things on that side of the floor just makes it so much more important for us as a team.”
And with the NBA’s eighth-ranked offense and sixth-ranked defense, the rest of the league can’t help but take notice.
FRESH OFF A 116-103 loss in Boston last season, Castle and Wembanyama boarded a six-hour, cross-country flight to San Francisco. It was late in the evening on Feb. 12. They had just finished their sixth game in 10 nights.
They were exhausted. After they landed at 4 a.m. local time, they made their way to a waiting Sprinter van, bound for the five-star St. Regis Hotel, where they would be staying for their All-Star Game festivities.
Wembanyama was set to play in his first All-Star Game and had made news earlier that week by saying he would bet on himself to win the game’s MVP.
But it was Castle who left San Francisco with the hardware, capturing MVP of the Rising Stars Challenge, as his team earned a berth in the All-Star Game. Castle also finished second in a hotly contested final at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
Wembanyama, for his part, departed All-Star Weekend encouraged but tired, saying, “I’ll try to cool down and forget a little bit about basketball for 48 hours.”
On a cool, windy morning in Austin, the Spurs filed into the Moody Center at the University of Texas for shootaround, ahead of their first matchup coming out of All-Star break against the Phoenix Suns. It was Feb 20.
Spurs CEO R.C. Buford stood near the entrance as the players walked past one by one.
Wembanyama was nowhere to be found.
A couple hours later, the team announced the then-21-year-old would miss the remainder of the season due to deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder.
“You wouldn’t wish that on your worst enemy,” Spurs point guard De’Aaron Fox said.
“We were at All-Star together and I’m coming back to play in Austin thinking we’ve got our big fella in, and then he’s out,” Castle said. “It was weird to get adjusted to.”
Behind the scenes, the experience, and the trauma of it, led to deeper conversations with Castle.
“To see how quick it can all get taken away from us, it just opens our eyes to that perspective of how lucky we are to be able to play,” Castle said.
“Having an important summer was the main thing we talked about. Just wanted to make sure he stayed healthy, stayed conditioned and just kept working on his game, knowing that the next year we were going to need him – big time.”
WEMBANYAMA’S WHIRLWIND SUMMER spanned the globe, while Castle spent the bulk of his offseason working out in Los Angeles with Olin Simplis, an NBA trainer known as “the guard whisperer.”
Still, the duo found time for each other, especially during the early stages of the offseason in San Antonio as the 2025 NBA playoffs tipped off, when Wembanyama wasn’t cleared medically to participate in on-court work.
In their time at Victory Capital Performance Center, the Spurs’ state-of-the-art practice facility, Castle and Wembanyama watched film of their games every chance they got – and then walked through simulated possessions of the clips. As the offseason stretched into summer, the duo also found out Fox would miss the early portion of the season due to a hamstring injury, making their on-court chemistry even more paramount to the team starting fast. Fox said he suffered the injury playing his third 5-on-5 game after receiving medical clearance to return from a March hand surgery that required a 12-week recovery process.
“From that point to now, we still watch a lot of film together,” Castle said. “Pick-and-roll stuff, defensive stuff, because a lot of times it’s just me and him in the action. So, just being able to know what he thinks and for him to know what I’m thinking has been a big help for us.”
While most of their summer work took place in San Antonio, Wembanyama also ventured out to Los Angeles in July to deepen his connection with Castle. Wembanyama spoke with Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett about the mental side of the game during that trip and flashed glimpses on the court of what was to come this season during open runs with teammates at Loyola Marymount University.
Former NBA player Patrick Beverley participated in those runs.
“That man in those runs, he looked good. He looked so healthy,” Beverley said in August on the Pat Bev Podcast with Rone. “He looked so motherf—ing talented. He was doing s—. He spinned off a motherf—er, half his body is out of bounds and his arm is in the rim like this. It was the wildest s— in the world.”
Wembanyama received clearance in July to return to on-court activities.
“Just him coming out there and us building that chemistry early in the summer way before training camp, before everything, it was definitely helpful,” Castle said. “A lot of reps, a lot of watching film together, that helps and gets overlooked a lot. We’ve been working on that all summer and it’s starting to just shape itself out.”
It’s also improving overall cohesiveness for a team that spent the summer bonding off the floor. Castle wasn’t a part of San Antonio’s roster for 2025 summer league but worked out with the squad prior to its arrival in Las Vegas.
Once Wembanyama arrived in the second quarter of the team’s July 10 win over Philadelphia, the 21-year-old joined teammates Fox, Castle, Jeremy Sochan, Harrison Barnes, Keldon Johnson, Julian Champagnie and Vassell in courtside seats.
“In terms of vibes, they’re high,” Barnes said. “There’s a lot of off-court chemistry that has been built over the summer, just guys hanging out, things like that. The connectivity is showing up on the court. I just feel like the energy is different. That’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed, just in terms of how guys communicate, how guys are connected in timeouts on the court during runs, positive and negative.”
WHEN WEMBANYAMA FIRST caught wind of the Area 51 nickname last season, he didn’t hesitate to voice his approval. Castle agreed.
“I love the name,” he said.
Living up to it, however, takes work and time. During a two-game skid in early November, Wembanyama stumbled against relentless double-teams, scoring a combined 28 points, shooting 32.1% and committing 11 turnovers. Over that same span, Castle shot 44.8% and coughed up nine turnovers.
Still, it’s clear the duo has already made considerable strides in its first full year together.
Through the first 11 games of this season, Wembanyama and Castle have averaged over eight more pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions (16.9) than last season and have been more efficient in doing so (0.98 points per chance over the first nine games, compared to 0.84 last year), per Genius IQ.
One conversation quietly permeating the locker room is Castle’s penchant for posterizing opponents with powerful dunks. Castle told ESPN early in the season that if teams continue keeping guards posted near the rim, he’ll try to dunk on them every time.
Wembanyama knows this, too, which is perhaps why he lets out a quiet laugh when describing the athleticism and skill set that complete Area 51.
“He’s still hard to stop for the defenders,” Wembanyama said. “You just can’t ignore him, because if you give him this much space, he’s gonna take off and dunk on you. His playmaking qualities, he’s always had that. His talent, he just does stuff you can’t work on. He just has it.”
Defensively, Area 51 continues to wreck the pick-and-roll. Over the first 11 games, opponents have run 69 pick-and-rolls that involved Castle guarding the ball handler and Wembanyama handling the screener. Teams scored 0.79 points per chance on those plays, making Area 51 the eighth-best defensive duo this season of the 31 twosomes around the league that faced at least 50 pick-and-rolls.
Seventy-four different two-man lineups had played at least 250 minutes together. Area 51 held opponents to 41% from the field, which ranked No. 2 among those duos.
“The connection that me and Vic have, I’m just glad people are starting to see that from the outside,” Castle said. "Vic as a teammate is very, very patient. So, he’s made it easy for me to adjust. When I first came in, I mean, it was Wemby. Everybody wants to play with Wemby. So, it was cool to be able to share the court with him.
“Now, he’s like my brother. We can talk about anything.”
By Michael C. Wright | ESPN, via ESPN
