By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-02-08 14:40:41
2026年2月7日星期六，在圣安东尼奥举行的一场对阵达拉斯独行侠的NBA比赛前，圣安东尼奥马刺队前锋朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 为来自受2025年7月4日洪水影响的希尔康特里 (Hill Country) 学校的中学生和高中生签名。
米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 并没有亲眼目睹克里斯托弗·阿尔瓦 (Christopher Alva) 所经历的一切。约翰逊没有看到2025年7月4日那天清晨，激流冲过舒马赫渡口 (Schumacher Crossing)，穿过阻断道路的倒下树木和漂浮物。
他没有看到排成长队的应急车辆和军事补给卡车，正在等待一名17岁的高中橄榄球员驾驶自家的反铲挖土机开辟道路。
而且值得庆幸的是，他没有在瓜达卢佩河 (Guadalupe River) 床边的搜救行动中看到那个可怕的场景——那是阿尔瓦即便努力不去回想，也挥之不去的发现。
那种画面，任何人都不该看到。
但在那场夺走克尔县 (Kerr County) 100多条生命的洪水发生一个月后，约翰逊看到了很多。他看到了阿尔瓦清理过的桥，看到了挂在高处树枝上的衣服和生活用品，看到了曾经是厨房、客厅和家庭所在地，如今却只剩下干涸泥浆的废墟。
随后，在坐满了当地志愿者的食堂里，有人请约翰逊发言。他毫无准备。毕竟，他只是个搞篮球的。
于是，约翰逊停顿了几秒钟来组织语言。就在这时，坐在他面前桌旁的两位女性开始哭泣。其中一位告诉他，她很感激他能来到这里。
紧接着，这位马刺队的代理主教练也流下了眼泪。
“那是那种让你不知该说些什么的时刻之一，”约翰逊回忆道。“我唯一想让他们听到的是：‘我们是你们的邻居。’我们虽然不住在受灾最严重的地方，但这也是我们的社区。我希望他们知道，我们不只是过来看看发生了什么，说声抱歉然后就结束了。我想确保他们知道，我们会一直与他们同在。”
周六晚上，约翰逊提醒他们，他没有忘记那个承诺。
2026年2月7日星期六，圣安东尼奥马刺队代理主教练米奇·约翰逊在马刺对阵达拉斯独行侠的NBA比赛前，向来自受2025年7月4日洪水影响的希尔康特里学校的学生们发表讲话。作为洪水后持续外展活动的一部分，马刺队接待了约120名学生及其家属。
沧海桑田
阿尔瓦神采奕奕。五个月前，当维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 和马刺全队跑进他那所希尔康特里小高中的体育馆时，他简直要激动疯了。而现在，阿尔瓦和大约100名来自因格拉姆 (Ingram) 和亨特 (Hunt) 的孩子，正站在圣安东尼奥那座豪华训练馆的球场上，那是他最喜欢的NBA球星每天训练的地方。
他穿着文班亚马的球衣，对着文班不知投过多少次篮、扣过多少次火的篮筐练习投篮。
“想想都觉得不可思议，”阿尔瓦说。
你能看出他很兴奋，他说这种感觉就像去年7月4日的清晨一样。他听到了一整夜的大雨，心想这一定意味着到处都是积水。
作为一个拥有一辆1973年福特F-350皮卡的少年，阿尔瓦热爱水坑。早上9点前，他就出门了，本以为这会是越野玩耍的一天。
但当他靠近舒马赫渡口时，阿尔瓦不敢相信自己的眼睛。瓜达卢佩河的水位暴涨，汽车被冲到了附近的树上，桥梁完全被树枝和碎片堵死。他拿起手机打给父亲，父亲在因格拉姆拥有一家安装化粪池系统的公司。
“我告诉他我需要用那台反铲挖土机，”阿尔瓦说。
那是一台巨大的重型机械，阿尔瓦10岁时就学会了操作。不过，这次工作异常艰巨。在他看来，路面似乎下沉了一些，水面上仍有至少四英寸深的激流。
“我们必须非常小心，”阿尔瓦说。“我们一次只能移动一点点，然后慢慢地、一点点靠近。”
与此同时，关于夜间破坏规模的消息开始传开。急救车辆和装满物资的美国陆军卡车排起了长队，等待阿尔瓦完成工作。这花费了大约一个半小时。
当道路终于被打通，司机们在经过反铲挖土机时纷纷向阿尔瓦挥手致谢。他们不确定会在河流下游看到什么。
不久后，阿尔瓦就知道了。像许多当地人一样——包括因格拉姆·摩尔 (Ingram Moore) 校队的教练和队友们——他志愿参加了瓜达卢佩河沿岸的搜救任务。
数十具尸体被发现。阿尔瓦的小组在距离神秘营地 (Camp Mystic) 约四英里的地方发现了一具。他刚开始描述他看到的画面，便忍住了。
“我试着忘掉那些，”阿尔瓦说。“试着让自己的心思放在积极的一面上。”
他说，积极的一面是洪水激发了人们善良的一面。他的橄榄球教练、因格拉姆·摩尔体育总监泰特·德马斯科 (Tate DeMasco) 也有同感。
“我们的城镇再也不会像以前一样了，”德马斯科说。“这座体育馆里的一些孩子所目睹的——发现尸体——这改变了人们对生命的看法。但我看到一个社区在一些外部组织的帮助下团结在了一起。”
“我不希望任何人再次经历我们县在去年7月4日发生的事情。但如果真的发生了，德克萨斯州的因格拉姆无论在哪里都会伸出援手，因为我们曾感受过如此多的慷慨。”
圣安东尼奥马刺队代理主教练米奇·约翰逊在2026年2月7日马刺与独行侠的比赛前向学生们讲话。
创造改变
就在阿尔瓦操作挖土机、德马斯科在因格拉姆·摩尔组织志愿者的那个早晨，一架载着约翰逊和马刺队其他几名核心成员的飞机降落在旧金山。
他们飞往加州是为了在NBA夏季联赛中考察球队的新秀。但当克尔县发生的惨状不断在手机上闪现时，他们开始思考自己在故乡的责任。
住在伯尼 (Boerne) 附近并热爱希尔康特里的约翰逊知道，如果去得太早，马刺队只会帮倒忙。但在洪水发生约四周后，他与CEO R.C. 布福德 (R.C. Buford)、总经理布莱恩·莱特 (Brian Wright) 以及副总裁凯勒布·索恩希尔 (Kaleb Thornhill) 一起驱车前往因格拉姆。在那里，几位当地人带他们参观了灾区。
“我们亲眼所见的景象令人心碎，”索恩希尔说。“听到这些故事，感受到社区的痛苦和伤害，我们就在想，天哪，我们该如何帮助他们康复？从主教练米奇开始，我们的问题就是：我们如何才能持续出现？”
他们一开始并没有计划。那些刚刚失去一切的人会希望一支职业篮球队在身边吗？除了捐款，马刺队真的能带来改变吗？
当约翰逊来到那个挤满社区成员的食堂时，他的疑问得到了解答。他不记得当时告诉他们的每一个细节，但他永远不会忘记他们表达出的感激。
尽管当时他觉得自己什么都还没做。
“你永远想不到，仅仅是出现在那里就会有这么大的影响，”约翰逊说。“在那段时间里，让他人的陪伴带给他们慰藉，这种感觉令人震撼。”
他当时就下定决心，马刺队可以做得更多。他与布福德、莱特和索恩希尔一起，向高中橄榄球教练德马斯科征求建议。
9月10日，在一场中学生和高中生以为只是普通周三下午集会的活动中，文班亚马全副武装地跳进了门，身后跟着马刺队的全体球员。那一刻，欢呼声几乎要把整座建筑掀翻。
球员们表演扣篮，进行三人传切跑位练习，并分发击掌和签名。孩子们簇拥着身高7英尺4英寸的文班，为了合影尽可能地把手机伸向前方。那些在几十个NBA场馆报道过季后赛的媒体成员发誓，他们从未听过比这更震耳欲聋的欢呼声。
亨特学校董事会受托人、同时也是因格拉姆篮球队指定的“球队妈妈”布里奇特·西姆 (Bridget Symm) 回想起那一幕时禁不住露出微笑。
“孩子们都惊呆了，你知道吗？”西姆说。“马刺队的球员对他们非常真诚。这非常有帮助。”
在因格拉姆和亨特的家长、管理人员和学校官员中，这是共同的心声。马刺队的这些举动至关重要，因为它们是灾后重建工程的一部分：
这是在建筑重建之后，精神重建的部分。
“在让人们重返家园方面，我们做得非常好，”西姆说。“但这个过程分阶段，需要很长时间。还有另一层伤痕需要被修复。”
“永远都在”
13-3A分区的其他橄榄球队根本不知道他们面对的是什么样的对手。因格拉姆·摩尔在季后赛遇到的对手也不知道。
去年秋天，“勇士队”（Warriors，因格拉姆·摩尔校队名）输掉了前四场比赛，考虑到当时的环境，这完全可以理解。但主教练德马斯科拥有一群经历过更糟糕境遇、心理素质极强的球员。此外，他还可以借调职业体育界最成功球队之一的智慧。
“我们觉得自己现在已经是这支组织的一员了，”德马斯科在谈到马刺队时说。
他听约翰逊和莱特谈论团队建设。他向CEO征求意见，并称呼他为“布福德教练”。而且这并不是偶尔为之。
“（洪水发生后），你无法想象我们接到了多少人的电话，说他们会来帮忙，”德马斯科说。“这很棒。但马刺队直到现在还在打电话，询问孩子们的近况，关注我们的进展。”
马刺队陪着“勇士队”度过了0胜4负的开局，随后见证了他们在接下来的八场比赛中赢下七场。因格拉姆·摩尔历史上第二次打进了季后赛第三轮。
身为高三截锋的阿尔瓦是防守端的MVP。他坚持认为，球队从马刺队获得的这种情感激励是“勇士队”实现逆转的重要原因。
“你能切身感受到那种力量，”他说。
18岁的阿尔瓦现在的日程排得很满。当他不帮父亲为因洪水流离失所的人在新家安装化粪池系统时，他就在为克尔维尔施赖纳大学 (Schreiner) 的大学生活做准备，明年秋天他将在那里打橄榄球。
不过，周六并不是关于成年人的责任。这一天，他只是个孩子，而且是个幸运的孩子。
在载满因格拉姆和亨特两校学生的两辆大巴车在马刺训练基地参观并吃完午餐后，他们前往了霜冻银行中心 (Frost Bank Center)，在场边观看球员热身，并收集了更多签名。
在马刺击败独行侠的比赛前，约翰逊在球员通道外召集了这群年轻人，回答了他们的问题：谁最幽默（卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet)）、谁跳得最高（斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle)）、谁的力量最大（俾斯麦·比永博 (Bismack Biyombo)）。
随后，约翰逊感谢了学生和教练们的到来，并向他们保证，如果有任何需要，尽管向马刺开口。
“我们会一直都在，”约翰逊告诉他们。
看着他们的表情，他们显然相信了他。
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson addresses students from Hill Country schools affected by the July 4, 2025, floods as they gather in a huddle before an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in San Antonio.
San Antonio Spurs forward Julian Champagnie takes a selfie with middle and high school students from Hill Country schools affected by the July 4, 2025, floods before an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in San Antonio.
San Antonio Spurs forward Kelly Olynyk signs memorabilia for Chris Alva before an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in San Antonio. Alva was among students from Hill Country schools affected by the July 4, 2025, floods.
San Antonio Spurs forward Kelly Olynyk signs memorabilia for middle and high school students from Hill Country schools affected by the July 4, 2025, floods before an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in San Antonio.
Middle and high school students from Hill Country schools affected by the July 4, 2025, floods listen as San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson addresses them before an NBA basketball game between the Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in San Antonio. The Spurs hosted about 120 students and family members.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson addresses middle and high school students from Hill Country schools affected by the July 4, 2025, floods before an NBA basketball game between the Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in San Antonio. The Spurs hosted about 120 students and family members as part of an ongoing outreach effort following the floods.
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：How the Spurs keep a promise to flood-ravaged Hill Country community
How the Spurs keep a promise to flood-ravaged Hill Country community
San Antonio Spurs forward Julian Champagnie signs memorabilia for middle and high school students from Hill Country schools affected by the July 4, 2025, floods before an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in San Antonio.
Mitch Johnson didn’t see everything Christopher Alva saw. Johnson didn’t see the water rushing over Schumacher Crossing on the morning of July 4, through the fallen trees and driftwood that blocked the roadway.
He didn’t see the long line of emergency vehicles and military supply trucks, waiting for a 17-year-old high school football player to clear a path with his family’s backhoe.
And thankfully, he didn’t see that awful scene alongside the Guadalupe River bed during a search and rescue operation, when Alva made a discovery he still tries hard not to think about.
Nobody ever should see something like that.
But a month after the flooding that claimed more than 100 lives in Kerr County, Johnson saw plenty. He saw the bridge Alva cleared, he saw clothes and household items stuck high in tree branches, and he saw dried mud where kitchens and living rooms and families used to be.
Then, in a cafeteria filled with local volunteers, someone asked Johnson to speak. He wasn’t prepared for that. After all, he’s just a basketball guy.
So Johnson took a few seconds to search for the right words. While he did, two women sitting at a table in front of him started crying. One of them told him she was grateful he was there.
Then the head coach of the Spurs started crying, too.
“It was one of those moments when you have no idea what to say,” Johnson recalls. “The only thing I wanted them to hear was that, ‘We are your neighbors.’ We don’t live where the destruction happened, but this is our community. I wanted them to know we weren’t just going to come in, see what happened, say we’re sorry, and then it’s over. I wanted to make sure they knew we would be connected throughout time.”
Saturday evening, Johnson reminded them he hasn’t forgotten that promise.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson addresses middle and high school students from Hill Country schools affected by the July 4, 2025, floods before an NBA basketball game between the Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in San Antonio. The Spurs hosted about 120 students and family members as part of an ongoing outreach effort following the floods.
Never the same
Alva is beaming. Five months ago, he darn near lost his mind when Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs jogged through the door of his tiny high school gym in the Hill Country. Now, somehow, Alva and about 100 other kids from Ingram and Hunt are on the court at the fancy San Antonio facility where his favorite NBA player practices every day.
He’s wearing a Wembanyama jersey, while shooting basketballs at the same rim Wembanyama has touched after who-knows-how-many dunks.
“It’s crazy to think about,” Alva says.
You can tell he’s excited, and that’s how he says he felt early on the morning of last July 4. He’d heard heavy rainfall overnight, and he figured that meant there would be puddles everywhere.
As a teenaged owner of a 1973 Ford F-350 pickup, Alva loves puddles. Before 9 a.m., he was out the door on his way to what he thought would be a day of off-roading.
But when he approached Schumacher Crossing, Alva couldn’t believe his eyes. The waters of the Guadalupe River had surged so high that there were vehicles lodged in nearby trees, and the bridge was completely blocked with branches and debris. He picked up his cell phone and called his father, who owns a company in Ingram that installs septic systems.
“I told him I needed to use the backhoe,” Alva says.
It’s a huge piece of heavy machinery, which Alva learned how to operate at the age of 10. This, though, was especially delicate work. To his eyes, it looked like the surface of the road had sunk a bit, and there was still at least four inches of water streaming over the top.
“We had to be careful,” Alva says. “We could move a little at a time, then slowly get closer and closer.”
As this was happening, word about the magnitude of the overnight destruction started to spread. First-responder vehicles and U.S. Army trucks loaded with supplies formed a line, waiting for Alva to finish his work. It took about an hour and a half.
Once they were able to get through, the drivers waved as a show of thanks to Alva as they passed his backhoe. They weren’t sure what they were going to see down the river.
It wasn’t long before Alva found out. Like many other locals, including coaches and his fellow players from the Ingram Moore athletic teams, he volunteered to go on search and rescue missions up and down the Guadalupe.
Dozens of bodies were discovered. Alva’s group found one, about four miles from Camp Mystic. He starts to describe what he saw before catching himself.
“I try to forget about that,” Alva says. “Try to keep my mind on the positive side.”
The positive side, he says, is that the flooding brought out the good in people. That’s the same side his football coach, Ingram Moore athletic director Tate DeMasco, sees.
“Our town never will be the same,” DeMasco says. “What some of the kids in this gym saw — discovering bodies — that changes the perspective of people’s lives. But I’ve seen a community come together, with help of some outside organizations.
“I wouldn’t want anybody to go through what happened in our county on the Fourth of July ever again. But if it does, Ingram, Texas, will be there to help wherever that happens, because we’ve had so much generosity towards us.”
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson addresses middle and high school students from Hill Country schools affected by the July 4, 2025, floods before an NBA basketball game between the Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in San Antonio. The Spurs hosted about 120 students and family members as part of an ongoing outreach effort following the floods.
Making a difference
The morning when Alva operated the backhoe and DeMasco organized volunteers at Ingram Moore, a plane carrying Johnson and a few other key Spurs personnel landed in San Francisco.
They’d flown California to watch the franchise’s new draftees during the NBA’s summer league. But once the horrific details of what had happened in Kerr County flashed across their phones, they started thinking about their responsibility back home.
Johnson, who lives near Boerne and has grown to love the Hill Country, knew the Spurs would just be in the way if they tried to visit too soon. But about four weeks after the flood, he drove with CEO R.C. Buford, general manager Brian Wright and vice president Kaleb Thornhill to Ingram. There, a few locals gave them a guided tour.
“What we saw with our own two eyes was heartbreaking,” Thornhill says. “And hearing the stories and the pain and the hurt of the community, we were like, man, how do we help them heal? Starting with Coach Mitch, it was, how do we continue to show up?”
They didn’t have a plan right away. Would people who’d just lost everything even want a professional basketball team around? Beyond cutting a check, could the Spurs really make a difference?
Johnson had that question answered once he arrived at the cafeteria full of community members. He can’t recall every detail of what he told them, but what he’ll never forget is the appreciation they showed him.
Even though he felt he hadn’t done anything yet.
“You would never think that just showing up would have that much of an impact,” Johnson says. “To have someone else’s presence make them feel good during that time, that was overwhelming.”
He made up his mind right then that the Spurs could do more. Together with Buford, Wright and Thornhill, they bounced ideas off of DeMasco, the high school football coach.
And on September 10, during what a gym full of middle school and high school kids thought was a typical Wednesday afternoon assembly, Wembanyama bounced through the door in full uniform, followed by the entire Spurs roster, and the noise just about brought the whole building down.
The players dunked, ran three-man weaves, and gave out high-fives and autographs. Kids swarmed the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama for selfies, stretching their cell phones out in front of them as far as they could to fit him in the frame. Media members who’d covered playoff games in dozens of NBA arenas could have sworn they’d never heard a louder crowd.
Bridget Symm, a Hunt school board trustee and designated “team mom” for Ingram basketball, can’t help but smile at the memory.
“The kids are in awe, you know?” Symm says. “The (Spurs) players have been very genuine with them. That’s been extremely beneficial.”
Among the parents and administrators and school officials in Ingram and Hunt, this is a common refrain. All of these gestures by the Spurs matter, because they’re part of the recovery project:
The part the comes after the structures are rebuilt.
“We’ve done a really good job of getting people back in homes,” Symm says. “But there are stages in a process that’ll take a while. There’s still another layer of something that needs to be fixed.”
‘Always there’
The other football teams in District 13-3A had no idea what they were up against. Neither did the opponents Ingram Moore faced in the playoffs.
The Warriors lost their first four games last fall, which was understandable considering the circumstances. But DeMasco, the head coach, had a bunch of mentally tough players who’d endured much worse. He also had the insights of one of the most successful franchises in professional sports at his disposal.
“We feel like we’re part of the organization now,” DeMasco says of the Spurs.
He’s listened to Johnson and Wright talk about team-building. He bounces ideas off of the CEO, who he refers to as “Coach Buford.” And this isn’t an occasional thing.
“(After the flood), you can’t imagine how many calls we got from people saying they were going to be there to help,” DeMasco says. “And that’s great. But the Spurs are still calling, asking how the kids are doing, keeping up with us.”
They kept up with the Warriors through that 0-4 start, and then through the seven victories they had in their next eight games. For only the second time in school history, Ingram Moore made it to the third round of the playoffs.
Alva, a senior tackle, was the most valuable player on defense. He insists that the emotional boost the team received from the Spurs was a real part of the Warriors’ turnaround.
“You actually feel it,” he says.
Now 18, Alva has plenty on his schedule. When he’s not helping his dad install septic systems in new homes for people displaced by the flood, he’s preparing for college at Schreiner in Kerrville, where he’ll play football next fall.
Saturday, though, wasn’t about grown-up responsibilities. It was a day to be a kid, and a lucky one at that.
After the two busloads of Ingram and Hunt students hung out and ate lunch at the Spurs’ practice facility, they made it over to Frost Bank Center, where they watched players warm up from beside the court and collected more autographs.
Before the Spurs’ victory over the Mavericks, Johnson gathered the whole group of youngsters outside the tunnel and answered their questions about which player is funniest (Luke Kornet), which player can jump the highest (Stephon Castle), and which player can lift the most weight (Bismack Biyombo).
Then Johnson thanked the students and their coaches for coming, assuring them they could ask the Spurs for anything.
“We’ll always be here,” Johnson told them.
They looked like they believed him.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News