By Jared Weiss | The Athletic, 2026-01-02 11:00:30
圣安东尼奥——在NBA球馆的腹地深处，圣安东尼奥马刺队的球员们正围着一个手提音响，洋溢着沸腾的活力。他们的精神领袖高举双手，这个明确的信号似乎在宣告：一切都会好起来的。
“这是美国派对！”马刺侧翼球员凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 声嘶力竭地喊着，队友们也齐刷刷地将手举向空中。
随后，马刺队冲上球场，又赢下了一场比赛，然后兴高采烈地跑回更衣室。这支球队星光熠熠，从维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 到德阿龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)，再到新秀后卫迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper)。但在更衣室里，没有人比约翰逊的存在感更强。他是否在场，一听便知——只要留意有没有玛丽亚·凯莉 (Mariah Carey) 或凡妮莎·卡尔顿 (Vanessa Carlton) 的歌声就行。
“你知道我会走上一千里，只为今晚能见到你，”你可以听到约翰逊在淋浴间里引吭高歌。
约翰逊并非一直都听流行金曲。他和队友们一样，也听大量的说唱和乡村音乐。但当卡尔顿那首21世纪初的热门金曲《A Thousand Miles》的钢琴前奏响起时，这个总是散发着孩童般天真烂漫的男人，便会触及到内心更深处的自我。当麦莉·赛勒斯 (Miley Cyrus) 喊出那声“Yeah”时，他便会变得无拘无束。
“只要音乐一放，我能唱出每一句歌词，”约翰逊告诉*《The Athletic》*。“感觉就像回到了童年。”
DJ凯尔登的歌单时常轮换，但雷打不动的主打歌是《Party in the U.S.A》、《A Thousand Miles》以及洁匪 (Clean Bandit) 的《Rather Be》。对他而言，没有比圣安东尼奥更好的归宿，所以这首歌必须留在播放队列里。
“我起初以为他只是在胡闹、搞怪、图个乐子，”新秀侧翼球员卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant) 说。“但后来这成了一件正经事。每场比赛，无论主场还是客场，从不间断。”
约翰逊乐于在更衣室扮演“可爱的活宝”这一角色，但他的搞怪背后自有其目的。队友们在谈论他的滑稽举动时，常常会带着一种兄弟般的敬意翻个白眼。约翰逊的存在，让更衣室在失利的夜晚也绝不会陷入过度紧张的氛围——而随着马刺队本赛季高居西部联盟第二，这样的夜晚也已变得越来越少。
“他总是在开玩笑，从来不会真的特别、特别严肃，”队友德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 说。“他总是努力营造一种轻松的氛围。”
他的活力是这支球队能如此迅速地从失利走向胜利的最重要原因之一。他们的天赋深厚且全面，但他们的成功源于每晚带来的那股能量。而约翰逊和他那台巨大的音响，一直处于这股能量的中心。
“这最终是为了团队凝聚力。我们一起唱歌，当我们准备比赛时，所有人都被点燃了，”约翰逊说。“这看起来怎么样，或者别人怎么看都无所谓。重要的是，这能让我们充满干劲。”
如今，这已经成为马刺队的经典保留节目。每个夜晚，他们都伴随着凯尔登的歌单出场。如果他没有接管那根音频线，那么他们的比赛计划从第一步起就已经失败了。
“这已经成了一种传统，”布莱恩特说。“现在已经到了每个人都熟悉歌词的程度，所以当你听到那些歌时，你就知道，是时候上场了。”
20岁的布莱恩特比歌曲《A Thousand Miles》还要年轻，在《Party in the U.S.A.》发行时他才3岁，所以这对他说是一次学习经历。新秀犯错在所难免，但有一个地方他想确保自己不会搞砸。
“我之前对《A Thousand Miles》就挺熟的，”他说。“但《Party in the U.S.A.》，我自己又听了好几遍，确保我不会在大家面前唱得像个傻子。”
这话对约翰逊来说简直是天籁之音，他总是能从队友的成长中不断找到乐趣。看看当别人打出精彩表现时他有多兴奋。他为队友的呐喊声，比自己投篮命中或抢下篮板时还要响亮。
本赛季马刺战胜雷霆的某场比赛中，凯尔登·约翰逊露出了笑容。(Scott Wachter / Imagn Images)
一支充满明星级天赋的球队，需要的不仅是必须无私的球员，更是那些将无私视为一种偏好的球员。那个真心希望队友变得更好，并会不遗余力地去促成这一切的人，才是奠定球队文化的人。
他总能找到一些小方法，将自己独特的个性带入更衣室，从考虑为自己的农场买一只美洲驼，到争论谁是队里最强壮的球员，他希望队友们能将这股能量回馈给他。而这一招一直很奏效。
“放说唱音乐让每个人都嗨起来很容易，”约翰逊说。“但换一种风格并得到大家的反应，我觉得这真的让我们成了一个更紧密的团体。”
“无论球队的状况如何，你都可以享受其中，并相信这个过程，”资深队友哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes) 补充道。“最重要的是，你不想成为一个顺风球选手。如果我们抱有享受乐趣的心态，那么无论发生什么，你都应该坚持下去。”
球员们甚至开始追踪他们在播放每首歌时的战绩，确保下次在伴随《Party in the U.S.A.》输球后，能为麦莉赢下一场。他们是为麦莉而战，但他们真正为之奋斗的，是凯尔登。
“ 我们有很多个性鲜明的球员，我们也有球队的门面担当，”马刺队教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 说，“但那家伙才是这支球队的心脏与灵魂。”
马刺队在本赛季开始时希望能打进季后赛。如今，进入真正的争冠行列已是现实。总冠军是凯尔登·约翰逊的终极目标。一段时间以来，他一直明确表示，他想把总冠军奖杯带回圣安东尼奥。
但在此期间，他只希望自己能在不久的将来与卡尔顿合唱一曲。
“为什么不呢？我觉得那会很棒，”凯尔登·约翰逊说。“我爱她的音乐。”
无论约翰逊和马刺队本赛季最终走向何方，他们都将享受这段旅程。他已经确保了这一点。联盟中很少有球员能像他这样，带着一种洒脱不羁的气质。这赋予了他们一种和谐的氛围，就像每当《A Thousand Miles》的钢琴前奏响起时，他们所听到的那样。
“一天24小时，一周7天，时时刻刻，我们都充满活力，”凯尔登·约翰逊说。“我们总是在开玩笑，总是在欢笑。我们只是享受当下。”
由生成式 AI 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：Keldon Johnson would walk a thousand miles for Spurs. His teammates love him for it
Keldon Johnson would walk a thousand miles for Spurs. His teammates love him for it
SAN ANTONIO — Deep in the bowels of an NBA arena, the San Antonio Spurs have gathered around a boom box with a bubbling energy. Their emotional leader has his hands in the air, a clear sign that everything is going to be OK.
“It’s a party in the U.S.A.!” Spurs wing Keldon Johnson screams at the top of his lungs as his teammates throw up their hands in unison.
Then the Spurs run out to the floor, win another game, then run back to the locker room in jubilation. The team is full of stars, from Victor Wembanyama to De’Aaron Fox to rookie guard Dylan Harper. But nobody has a bigger presence in the locker room than Johnson. It’s easy to know when he’s there. Just listen for Mariah Carey or Vanessa Carlton.
“You know I’d walk a thousand miles if I could just see you tonight,” you can hear Johnson belting from the showers.
Johnson doesn’t listen to pop anthems all the time. He listens to plenty of rap and country, just like his teammates. But the man who routinely exudes child-like wonder taps into a deeper sense of self when he hears the opening piano riff from Carlton’s early-2000s banger, “A Thousand Miles.” He becomes carefree when Miley Cyrus yells, “Yeah.”
“As soon as you put it on, I know every lyric,” Johnson told The Athletic. “I feel like you go back to your childhood.”
DJ Keldon has a rotating playlist, but the mainstays are “Party in the U.S.A,” “A Thousand Miles” and “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit. There’s no place he’d rather be than San Antonio, so it has to stay in the queue.
“I thought he was messing around, trolling and being funny,” rookie wing Carter Bryant said. “But it turned into a thing. Every game, home and away, don’t matter.”
Johnson delights in playing the role of lovable buffoon in the locker room, but his goofiness has purpose. His teammates often roll their eyes when talking about his antics with a brotherly reverence. Johnson makes it impossible for the locker room to be overly tense on down nights, which have become increasingly rare this season as the Spurs sit at second in the Western Conference.
“He’s always joking around, and he’s never really too, too serious,” teammate Devin Vassell said. “He’s always trying to have a light mood.”
His energy is one of the biggest reasons why this franchise has gone from losing to winning so quickly. Their talent is deep and versatile. But their success has been a product of the energy they bring every night. Johnson and his giant speaker have been at the center of that.
“It’s ultimately team bonding. We’re all singing, and when we get ready for the game, we’re all hyped out,” Johnson said. “It don’t matter how it looks or how people feel about it. It’s what gets us going.”
Now it has become canon for the Spurs. Every night, they are coming out to Keldon’s playlist. If he’s not on the auxiliary cable, they’ve already failed the first step of their game plan.
“It’s one of those things where it’s almost like a tradition now,” Bryant said. “It’s getting to the point where everybody knows the lyrics, so you know it’s go time when you hear those songs.”
The 20-year-old Bryant is younger than “A Thousand Miles” and was just 3 years old when “Party in the U.S.A.” came out, so this has been a learning experience for him. It’s a given that rookies will make mistakes. But there’s one place where he wanted to make sure he didn’t want to screw up.
“I knew ‘A Thousand Miles’ pretty well beforehand,” he says. “But ‘Party in the U.S.A.,’ I listened to a few times on my own to make sure I’m not out there sounding crazy.”
That’s music to Johnson’s ears, who has continuously found joy in his teammates’ growth. Watch how hyped he gets when someone else makes a play. He screams louder for his teammates than he does when he hits his own shots or grabs his own rebounds.
Keldon Johnson flashes a smile during one of the Spurs’ victories over OKC this season. (Scott Wachter / Imagn Images)
A team full of star-level talent needs players whose selflessness is not just a necessity, but a preference. The guy who actually wants his teammates to be better and will go out of his way to make it happen is the guy who sets the culture.
He finds little ways to bring his distinct personality into the locker room, from pondering a llama purchase for his farm to debating who is the strongest player on the team, hoping his teammates will reflect the energy back at him. It’s been working.
“It’s easy to put on rap music and try to get everybody to enjoy it,” Johnson said. “But to switch it up and get the reaction, I feel like it really made us a closer group.”
“Whatever the disposition of the team is, you can have fun and believe in the process of that,” veteran teammate Harrison Barnes added. “The biggest thing is, you don’t want to be a front-runner. If we had that mentality of we want to have fun, then you stick with that, regardless of what’s going on.”
Players are even keeping track of their record with each song, making sure they get a win next time for Miley when they lose to “Party in the U.S.A.” They’re playing for Miley, but they’re really playing for Keldon.
**“**We got a lot of big personalities, and we got a face of the franchise,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said, “but that guy’s the heart and soul of the team.”
The Spurs started the season hoping to make the playoffs. Now, true contention is realistic. A championship is the ultimate goal for Keldon Johnson. He’s been clear that he wants to bring the trophy back to San Antonio for some time.
But in the meantime, he just hopes he can sing a duet with Carlton someday soon.
“Why not? I feel like that’ll be great,” Keldon Johnson says. “I love her music.”
Wherever Johnson and the Spurs end up this season, they’re going to enjoy the ride. He’s made sure of it. Few players in the league carry themselves with a carefree swagger the way he does. It’s given them the kind of harmony they hear every time they hear that A Thousand Miles piano riff.
“Twenty-four seven, all the time, we have great energy,” Keldon Johnson says. “We (are) always joking around, always laughing. We just enjoy the moment.”
By Jared Weiss, via The Athletic