[PtR] 一位身在洛杉矶的马刺球迷，为这满满的收获而感恩

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By Lee Dresie | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-11-27 13:00:00

这篇或多或少算是我每年的感恩节特稿。我说“或多或少”是因为我不确定自己是否每年都在这个时间发表文章——尽管我可能记错了。我经常记错事。

在我开始罗列那些让我感恩的事情之前，我总觉得当人们说“如果感恩节前我们没再见面的话，祝你节日快乐！”时有些奇怪。这是否意味着，如果他们在节前又见到我，那一切祝福就都作废了？我认为应该说“无论我们是否再见面，我都希望你有一个愉快的感恩节！”或者干脆就说“嘿，感恩节快乐！”有谁同意我的看法？好了，言归正传，以下是我心怀感激的事情。

  1. 马刺球迷最应感恩的事：我们终于又拥有了一支出色的球队。自从马刺在2018-19赛季取得48胜34负的战绩后，球队每个赛季的胜场数都低于35场，在2022-23和2023-24赛季更是连续两年以22胜60负的战绩跌入谷底。虽然上赛季球队有所进步，但马刺队仍远称不上是一支“强队”。当然，在维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)和德阿龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)因伤赛季报销后，马刺队就只能用“烂队”来形容了，最终以34胜收官。

相比之下，本赛季联盟内外以及球队自身的氛围都截然不同。即使在赛季初缺少了福克斯，以及近期文班亚马缺阵的情况下，球队依然保持着竞争力。我非常感恩能再次打开电视看比赛时，期待着马刺取胜——这种感觉我们已经多年未曾体会。我也很感恩能听到各大电视网的赛前评论员们对这支球队赞誉有加，这也是我们许久未闻的褒奖了。

  1. 我们同样非常感恩，那两个仅有22胜和34胜的赛季，在接下来的选秀夜里都带来了圆满的结局。在赢得维克托乐透签后，我曾写道朋友们是如何祝贺我的：

“过生日、毕业或是升职，最美好的事情之一就是收到亲朋好友的祝贺。上周二对我来说就是这样的日子，尽管我并没有添丁、毕业或升职。我也没中彩票，那肯定会引来无数借钱的电话和邮件。但中彩票的不是我，而是我最爱的球队。太多人向我道贺，以至于我开始觉得或许真是我中了彩票。尽管他们都不是马刺球迷，但人们因为我的快乐而快乐，这让我更加快乐。”

顺便提一句，我敢肯定NBA也非常庆幸是马刺而不是夏洛特赢得了那次选秀乐透。马刺是培养划时代天才的完美组织，而黄蜂……就另当别论了。

随后，在抽中维克托这记本垒打之后，马刺在接下来的两次选秀中又选中了斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle)和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper)。哇哦，近期的NBA选秀和选秀乐透真的给了马刺太多值得感恩的理由。尽管现在下结论为时尚早，但十年后我们或许会说，马刺过去三年的选秀是史上最强的连续三年选秀——特别是如果卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant)也能成为一名高效的NBA球员。

  1. 这些年轻球星能在我们那些半年轻和依旧年轻的老将指导下成长，同样值得在感恩节举杯庆祝。例如，尽管凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson)因为众多新援的加入而失去了首发位置，但他将这次降级视作晋升。“如果我不能首发，那我就要成为我能做到的最好的第六人！”他继续带着激情和热忱打球，让队里的每一个人都明白，成为一名NBA球员也可以是一件绝对有趣的事。享受它，并让每个人都知道你乐在其中。我非常感谢凯尔登，以及其他老将如德文·瓦塞尔 (Devon Vassel)、哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes)和福克斯，还有完美的休赛期引援卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet)。

  2. 我很感恩能成为Pounding the Rock网站优秀作者团队的一员，其中包括查理·撒迪厄斯 (Charlie Thaddeus)和他那篇篇精彩的赛后点评，标题总是《我们从[此处插入最近一场马刺比赛]中学到了什么》。我阅读了查理的每一篇文章，并且乐在其中。但我必须对他11月19日，在文班亚马小腿受伤消息公布后写的那篇文章提出异议。查理对文班亚马的伤病显然毫 不 感恩——我们谁都不是，查理预测文班亚马的伤病将是一个持续存在的问题：

“维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)受伤的风险比很多其他球员都要大。他的身体构造是独一无二的。这给他的关节、肌肉、膝盖、脚踝和骨骼带来了其他球员几乎无需应对的压力。他遭遇那种导致他缺阵两个月、一个赛季甚至更长时间（祈祷不要发生）伤病的可能性很高。比大多数人都要高。看看过去的 比尔·沃顿 (Bill Walton) 、 姚明 (Yao Ming) 或 格雷格·奥登 (Greg Oden) ，或者，该死，看看现在的 乔尔·恩比德 (Joel Embiid) 和 安东尼·戴维斯 (Anthony Davis) 。联盟里的大个子球员百分之百保持健康是不可能发生的事，而维克托·文班亚马是我们见过的最高大的球员之一。如果你看不清棋盘上这些已经摆好的棋子，那你现在就是刻意地选择无知。”

或许我确实是刻意选择无知（并为此感恩！），但我对维克托的长期前景有不同的看法。正如我在维克托还是新秀，甚至比现在更瘦的时候写的那样，他的体型和训练方案让我拒绝将他与沃顿、姚明、奥登、恩比德或F.I.A.D.（F.I. 指的是“频繁受伤”的安东尼·戴维斯）相提并论，我更愿意将维克托与“海军上将” (The Admiral)、“伟大的邓肯” (The Great Duncan)，以及最重要的，卡里姆·阿卜杜尔-贾巴尔 (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)相比较：

“尽管马刺自家传奇的数据令人鼓舞，但另一位NBA巨星——雄鹿和湖人队的明星卡里姆·阿卜杜尔-贾巴尔 (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)让我更加安心。维克托和卡里姆有着相似的体型：修长而精干……我仍然会回到与卡里姆的比较上：优雅的动作、体型，以及对保持身体放松和灵活的专注。我将继续祝愿——并在此预测——维克托·文班亚马将拥有一个漫长、高效且健康的NBA生涯。而且，既然说到这了，就让他整个生涯都在圣安东尼奥度过吧。”

如果我的判断是正确的，我会非常感恩——我相信查理也会的。正如布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀 (Bruce Springsteen)曾经（并仍在）唱的那样：“多一点信念，黑夜中自有奇迹。”

  1. 说点身边的吧，我非常感谢所有拥有季票的朋友们，是他们让我在马刺客场挑战湖人或快船时，有机会亲临洛杉矶的赛场。感谢Ken和Kim、TD、Mike、Peter和Marc！相关消息，在此向我的快船球迷朋友们致以不那么真诚的歉意，我很感恩地看到快船目前的战绩是5胜13负。

  2. 同样是身边的，帕利塞德斯高中（Palisades High）看来将于2026年初重新开放，自从去年一月那场摧毁了帕利塞德斯和阿尔塔迪纳的野火之后，它就一直处于关闭状态。多年来，我每周日早上都会在帕利高中打球。在这场毁灭性的野火过去一年后重返帕利高中的体育馆，将是一件极其令人感恩的事。更棒的是，《洛杉矶时报》昨天早上刊登了一篇文章，附图是火灾后在帕利塞德斯完工的第一栋房屋。未来还会有更多。去年一月，我曾写过从办公室窗外看到帕利塞德斯燃起熊熊大火的情景。我更喜欢现在的景色，包括本周早些时候从2025年1月7日那天所在的同一扇办公室窗户望出去的日落：

  1. 最后，我非常感恩我的三支主队要么已经取得、要么正在取得优异的成绩。除了享受我的马刺队复兴之外，我还是道奇队（赢得了世界大赛冠军！）和公羊队（战绩领跑全NFL！）的球迷。这个感恩节，感觉真是太棒了。

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。

点击查看原文：A Spurs fan living in Los Angeles is thankful for a bunch of stuffing

A Spurs fan living in Los Angeles is thankful for a bunch of stuffing

This is my somewhat annual Thanksgiving Day piece. I say” somewhat” annual because I don’t believe I have done this every year at this time – though I could be mistaken. I often am.

Before I start with the things I am thankful for, I find it odd when people say, “If I don’t see you before Thanksgiving, have a good one!!” Does that mean if they do see me again before the holiday, all bets are off? I think it should be “Whether I see you again or not, I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!” Or maybe just “Hey, have a great Thanksgiving!” Who’s with me? Anyway, on to things I am thankful for.

  1. The main thing Spurs fans are thankful for: we finally have a good team again. Every season since the Spurs went 48-34 record in 2018-19, the Spurs have won less than 35 games, bottoming out with back-to-back 22-60 records in 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. While the team was better last season, the Spurs were still not what you would describe as “good”. Of course, once Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox went down with injuries for the year, the Spurs were what you would describe as “bad”, finishing with 34 wins.

By contrast, this season’s buzz around the league, and the team, is completely different. Even without Fox for the start of the season, and Victor’s recent absence, the team has remained competitive. I am very thankful to once again turn on the game and expec a Spurs win – a feeling we haven’t had in years. I am also thankful to hear the pre-game commentators on the various networks describe the team in glowing terms, also something we have not been hearing for a while.

  1. We are also very thankful that the 22 and 34 win seasons turned out so well on the draft nights after each of those years. After winning the Victor lottery, I wrote about how friends were congratulating me:

“One of the many great things about having a birthday, graduation, or a promotion at work is receiving congratulatory notes from friends and family. Last Tuesday was one of those days for me even though I did not just have another child, graduate from anywhere or get promoted at work. I also did not win the lottery, which surely would have led to many calls and emails asking to borrow money. But instead of me winning the lottery, my favorite team did. So many people reached out to me that I began to think maybe I did win the lottery. Even though none of them were Spurs fans, people were so happy that I was happy that it made me even happier.”

As a side note, I am sure the NBA is very thankful that the Spurs won that draft lottery over Charlotte. The Spurs are the perfect organization to develop a generational talent, while the Hornets are … not.

And then the Spurs followed up the Victor home run by selecting Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper in the next two drafts. Wow, the recent NBA draft and draft lotteries has given the Spurs a lot to be thankful for. Although it is too early to tell, ten years from now we may be saying that the Spurs’ draft the past three years were the best three consecutive drafts ever – especially if Carter Bryant becomes a productive NBA player.

  1. Having those young stars mentored by our semi-young and still young veterans has also been worthy of a Thanksgiving toast. For instance, even though Keldon Johnson lost his starting job as a result of all the additions, he has treated that demotion like a promotion. “If I am not starting, I will be the best 6th man I can be!” He continues to play with passion and enthusiasm, letting everyone on the team know the job of being an NBA player can also be an absolute blast. Enjoy it, and let everyone know you do. I am very thankful to Keldon, along with fellow vets Devon Vassel, Harrison Barnes and Fox, along with the perfect off-season addition Luke Kornet.

  2. I am thankful to be part of an excellent group of writers here at Pounding the Rock, including Charlie Thaddeus and his endlessly entertaining post-game rants entitled “What We Learned From [insert the most recent Spurs game]. I read each of Charlie’s posts, and enjoy each one. But I need to disagree with his November 19 post written after Victor’s calf injury was announced. Charlie was certainly NOT thankful about Victor’s injury — none of us were, Charlie predicted Victor’s injuries would be an ongoing issue:

“The risk of Victor Wembanyama getting hurt is greater than it is for a lot of other players. His anatomy is unique. It puts strain on his joints and muscles and knees and ankles and bones in ways that no one else really has to deal with. The chances of him suffering something that keeps him out for a two month stretch or a season or, knock on wood, even longer feel high. Higher than most. Look at Bill Walton, Yao Ming, or Greg Oden in the past or, shoot, look at Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis right now. Big men in this league staying healthy one hundred percent of the time is not something that happens and Victor Wembanyama is one of the biggest men we have. If you cannot see the pieces of that puzzle sitting on the board then you are being willfully ignorant at this point.”

Perhaps I am being willfully ignorant (and thankful to be so!), but I have a different take on Victor’s long-term prognosis. As I wrote while Victor was a rookie, and even thinner than he is now, his body-type and training regimen led me to reject the comparisons to Walton, Ming, Oden, Embiid or F.I.A.D. (F.I. stands for “Frequently Injured” Anthony Davis), I would instead compare Victor to The Admiral and the Great Duncan and, most of all, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

“But as encouraging as those numbers are from the Spurs’ home-grown legends, I take even more comfort from another NBA great — Bucks and Lakers star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Victor and Kareem share similar body types: long and lean. . . I still come back to the Kareem comparison: graceful movement, body type, and dedication to staying loose and mobile. I will stay with wishing — and hereby predicting — Victor Wembanyama will have a long, productive and healthy NBA career. And while I am at it, let’s have him spend it all in San Antonio.”

I will be very thankful if I am right – and I am sure Charlie will be too. As Bruce Springsteen sang (and continues to sing), “Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night.”

  1. Closer to home, I am very thankful to all my friends with season tickets who allow me to attend Spurs games when the team visits Los Angeles to play the Lakers or the Clippers. Thank you to Ken and Kim, TD, Mike, Peter and Marc! In related news, and with insincere apologies to my Clipper fan friends, I am very thankful to look at the standings and see that the Clippers are 5-13.

  2. Also close to home, it looks like Palisades High will be opening up at the start of 2026, having been closed since the wildfires which decimated the Palisades and Altadena last January. I have had a weekly Sunday morning game at Pali High for many years. Returning to the Pali High gym a year after the devastating wildfires will be an extremely thankful event. Even better, the LA Times yesterday morning had an article with a picture of the first house completed in the Palisades since the fires. More to come. Last January, I wrote about looking out my office window and seeing flames in the Palisades. I much prefer the views now, including this sunset from early this week looking out that same office window as I did on January 7, 2025:

  1. Finally, I am very thankful that all three of my teams either have done or are doing so well. Along with enjoying my Spurs’ resurgence, I am a Dodgers fan (won the World Series!) and a Rams fan (best record in the NFL!). Thanksgiving is feeling pretty good.

By Lee Dresie, via Pounding The Rock