By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-02-03 16:32:24
2026年1月17日，周六，圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 在圣安东尼奥对阵明尼苏达森林狼队的NBA常规赛下半场对一次回合做出反应。(美联社照片/Eric Gay)
十五个月前，在格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 因中风（事后确诊）倒下后那段令人揪心的最初几小时里，马刺队面临着一个选择。从外界看来，这似乎是个显而易见的决定。
那个周六晚上，在弗罗斯特银行中心 (Frost Bank Center)，几乎没人意识到情况的严重性。球员和媒体只被告知波波维奇病了，无法执教当晚的比赛。马刺官方表示，在波波维奇康复之前，他的一名助手将暂代职权。
默认的推定人选是一位备受欢迎且资历深厚的教练。布雷特·布朗 (Brett Brown) 当时63岁，在NBA拥有超过20年的经验，其中包括7年的主教练生涯。在之前的多个场合，无论是波波维奇被驱逐出场还是因病缺席，他都能自如地接手主帅教鞭，而球队表现从未有过起伏。
但令人有些意外的是，马刺队宣布，接替波波维奇担任临时主帅的并非布朗，而是一位当时年仅37岁、名不见经传的助教——米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson)。这一举动揭示了两个深层信息：
第一，这预示着波波维奇的缺席将不仅仅是一个周末。第二，这展现了球队核心决策层眼中约翰逊的潜力。
他们不只是把他当作一个填补空位的临时工或看门人。
而是把他视为一位长期的领袖。
这并不是说他们预见到了后来发生的一切。在那些令人焦灼的最初时刻，马刺队并不确定波波维奇是否再也不会回到教练席。他们也不确定约翰逊最终是否会成为正式主帅的唯一人选。他们更无法预料到，15个月后，约翰逊竟然带领马刺打出了西部第二的半程战绩，并为自己赢得了一张通往全明星周末的门票。
然而，他们确实有一种强烈的预感：约翰逊身上有着某种特质。
而且，无论未来发生什么？
他现在的表现已经极大地证明了球队当初的选择是正确的。
长年以来，联盟中一直流传着一个假设：无论谁成为波波维奇的接班人，要么注定失败，要么会过得极其痛苦，或者两者兼而有之。
没人想成为那个接替传奇的人，尤其是接替一位历史上胜场数最多的传奇教练。如果你缺乏足够的威望（gravitas）或辉煌的履历（skins on the wall），你到底该如何去赢得这群习惯了听命于名人堂教练的球员的尊重？
对此，马刺队意识到一个精妙且有些反直觉的诀窍：他们没有去追求那些在其他更衣室赢得过尊重的资深名帅，而是选择了这个从自家体系里一步步打拼上来的年轻人。
他曾是奥斯汀马刺队（G联盟）的一名助教。
他是马刺老将凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 记忆中，那个曾帮他冲泡维生素、带他拆解比赛录像的助教。
当球员们领受波波维奇的严厉斥责时，他正站在他们身边，而他自己肯定也没少挨波波维奇的训。
他已经证明了自己能让这群球员变得更好，他不需要球员们通过别人的口口相传去相信这一点。
“这建立了信任，”凯尔登·约翰逊本周表示，“你知道这个人心系你的利益，你知道他不会让你走捷径。”
现年39岁的米奇·约翰逊并不是波波维奇，他也没想成为波波维奇。但他对球员的要求可以像波波维奇一样严厉，并且同样强调责任感。
这种风格奏效了，部分原因在于15个月前那个周六下午，马刺在做出那个决定性的选择时所看到的潜质。他们认为约翰逊是一位既能维持球队现有航向，又能加入自己独到见解的教练。他们认为他拥有正确的性格和过硬的专业技能。
这是一份非常理想的工作。世界上几乎每个篮球教练都梦寐以求能为维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)、斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 布置战术。当然，约翰逊的每一个回合判读并不都是完美的，不是每次换人都能立竿见影，也不是每场比赛都能保持巅峰专注。正因如此，约翰逊本人也承认，这种比赛间的波动性有时确实“令人抓狂”。
但回想15个月前，无论波波维奇是否继续执教，有人会预料到马刺今天能取得33胜16负的战绩吗？有人会预料到，在文班不在场的12场比赛中，他们能打出9胜3负的战绩吗（就像他们在11月和12月所做的那样）？有人会预料到，那位曾经默默无闻的助教，会在全明星周末为勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James)、凯文·杜兰特 (Kevin Durant) 和斯蒂芬·库里 (Steph Curry) 布置挡拆战术吗？
大概没几个人。
但马刺队从未排除过这种可能性。在球队历史上最令人揪心的时刻？
他们没有选择那个看起来显而易见的选项。
他们做出了一个至今看来依然正确的决定。
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson signals to his team as they play against the Milwaukee Bucks at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson talks to his team during a timeout in the third quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. The Spurs defeated the Bucks, 119-109.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson signals to his players during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic in San Antonio, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson reacts to a call during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson calls a play against the Utah Jazz during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rob Gray)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson talks to his team during a third quarter timeout against the Milwaukee Bucks at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. The Spurs defeated the Bucks, 119-109.
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：How Mitch Johnson has rewarded Spurs’ show of faith
How Mitch Johnson has rewarded Spurs’ show of faith
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson reacts to a play during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in San Antonio, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Fifteen months ago, in the distressing first hours after Gregg Popovich collapsed from what turned out to be a stroke, the Spurs had a choice to make. From the outside, it looked like an obvious one.
That Saturday evening at Frost Bank Center, almost no one grasped the gravity of the situation. Players and media were told little more than Popovich had fallen ill and would be unable to coach that night’s game. Until he recovered, the Spurs said, one of his assistants would fill in.
The presumptive default candidate was well-liked, and more than qualified. Brett Brown, then 63, had spent more than two decades in the NBA, including seven years as a head coach. On multiple previous occasions, he’d slid over to Popovich’s chair after an ejection, or during an illness, and the team hadn’t missed a beat.
But in a bit of a surprise, the Spurs announced that instead of Brown, a mostly anonymous 37-year-old assistant named Mitch Johnson would take over on an interim basis. This was revealing for two reasons.
First, it suggested Popovich was going to be out for more than a weekend. Second, it showed what the franchise’s most important decision makers thought Johnson was capable of.
Not just as a seat-filler, or as a caretaker.
But as a long-term leader.
This isn’t to say they saw all of this coming. In those distressing first hours, the Spurs did not know for certain that Popovich never would coach again. They did not know for certain that Johnson would be their pick to replace him on a permanent basis. And they definitely did not know that 15 months later Johnson would have earned a trip to All-Star weekend, having led the Spurs to the second-best first-half record in the Western Conference.
They did, however, have a pretty good feeling Johnson had something special in him.
And no matter what happens next?
He’s already gone a long way toward proving them right.
For years and years, the running assumption around the league was that whoever wound up following Popovich would be doomed, or miserable, or both.
You never want to be the guy who follows a legend, especially one who won more games than anyone in the history of the sport. And if you’re the slightest bit lacking in gravitas, or skins on the wall? How on earth are you going to command respect from players accustomed to taking orders from a Hall of Famer?
Well, what the Spurs recognized is there’s an ingenious, somewhat counterintuitive trick to that. Instead of pursuing super-accomplished candidates who’d commanded respect in other locker rooms, they opted with the young fella who’d worked his way up through theirs.
The guy who started out as a G League assistant in Austin.
The guy who Spurs elder statesman Keldon Johnson remembers as the staffer who helped him mix vitamins and break down game film.
The guy who was standing beside them when they received their share of Popovich tongue-lashings, and who surely was on the receiving end of a few of his own.
The guy who already proved he could make many of those players better, and who didn’t expect them to take someone else’s word for it.
“That builds trust,” Keldon Johnson said this week. “To know that somebody wants what’s best for you. To know that person is not gonna let you cut corners.”
Mitch Johnson, now 39, isn’t Popovich. He isn’t trying to be. But he can be just as demanding of his players as Popovich was, and holds them just as accountable.
And it’s working, partly because of what the Spurs saw in Johnson when they were making what turned out to be a fateful decision on that Saturday afternoon 15 months ago. They thought he was a coach who could keep the franchise on the path it was on, but not without adding ideas of his own. They thought he had the right personality, and the right know-how.
It’s a pretty good gig. Just about every basketball coach in the world would love to draw up plays for Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox, and not every Johnson call has been perfect. Not every substitution clicked. Not every game has featured peak focus, which is why Johnson himself conceded that the game-to-game inconsistency can be “maddening.”
But think back to 15 months ago. Whether or not Popovich would have kept coaching, did anyone think the Spurs would be 33-16 today? Did anyone think they would have been capable of going 9-3 during a stretch of 12 games without Wembanyama, as they did in November and December? Did anyone expect that previously anonymous assistant to be spending his All-Star weekend drawing up pick-and-rolls for LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry?
Probably not.
But the Spurs never ruled it out, either. And during some of the most distressing hours in the history of the franchise?
They didn’t make what looked like the obvious choice.
They made what still looks like the right one.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News