By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-02-20 18:55:08
奥斯汀——维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 差点毁掉了一切。
穆迪中心 (Moody Center) 内绝佳的氛围、两座大城市之间日益增长的友好往来、以及德克萨斯州最成功的 NBA 球队与该州最大的高等教育机构之间利润丰厚的合作伙伴关系。
如果圣安东尼奥马刺队的中锋卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 周四晚上没有阻止他那位用意良苦的法国队友犯下德克萨斯大学最严重的禁忌，所有这一切可能都会陷入混乱。
文班亚马当时正准备抬头看向观众，并做出“钩角 (Hook‘em Horns)”的手势：但他的食指和小指却是指向地面的（即“朝下”）。
“他以为（牛角）朝下才是正确的做法，”科内特说道，“我说，‘噢，不，不。绝对不行。千万别那样做。’”
这段趣闻竟然成为了马刺本周最大的“潜在危机”，这既说明了球队现状有多么顺利，也反映了文班亚马在过去一年里发生了多大的变化。
在马刺大胜菲尼克斯太阳队、取得七连胜的下半场，文班亚马以正确的方式举起了“牛角”手势，穆迪中心座无虚席的观众为这位全球超级巨星发出了震耳欲聋的欢呼。去年二月，奥斯汀的球迷们根本没有这样的机会。
当时，文班亚马刚刚收到一份医疗诊断报告，那份报告结束了他的第三个 NBA 赛季，让他的职业生涯陷入停滞，但也解开了一个令人困惑的谜团。
“它（并不能）解释一切，”文班亚马回顾他发现自己患有肩部深静脉血栓的那一天时说道，“但我认为它解释了很多事情。”
在周四晚上之前，文班亚马从未详细说明最初是什么导致医生去检查他是否存在血栓。但在诊断公告发布 364 天后，当我问及此事时，他证实了我们许多人一直以来对事情起因的猜测。
在 2025 年全明星周末之前的几周里，这位 7 英尺 4 英寸的中锋看起来和感觉上都很迟钝。起初，他将其归因于流感后的缓慢恢复。在那次牛仔节客场之旅中，他表现得并不算糟糕，但在对阵孟菲斯灰熊、夏洛特黄蜂和奥兰多魔术的比赛中，他的动作确实不像往常那样敏捷。
在全明星赛前的最后一场波士顿客场比赛结束后，他在更衣室里承认自己筋疲力尽。他是遇到“新秀墙”了吗？NBA 赛季的节奏和残酷对他来说是否难以承受？无论如何，他当时表示期待能在全明星活动期间喘口气。
然而，现实的“重墙”给了他更沉重的一击。
“去年的全明星赛是我一生中在篮球场上感觉最糟糕的一次，”文班亚马周四表示，“我的意思是，当时我右臂的血流量可能只有 5%。”
他也从未分享过这个数字。尽管他谨慎地指出，不能确定去年二月的疲劳完全是由血栓引起的，但他重申，“在确诊前的几周里，感觉非常、非常糟糕。”
从某种程度上说，一旦文班亚马度过了可怕医疗消息带来的最初震惊，并得知深静脉血栓可以治愈且不会威胁其长期健康，这些细节反而让他感到安心。
事实证明，他去年二月之所以如此疲惫，并不是因为他的体能储备不足，也不是因为他不够坚强，无法承受 82 场比赛的严苛考验。
如果他还需要更多证据？过去几周的表现已经给出了充分的证明。
去年赛季同期，文班亚马的双脚仿佛陷在水泥地里，而今年二月的七场比赛中，他场均贡献 25 分、10.9 个篮板、3 次助攻和 3 次盖帽。他在全明星赛的 20 分钟里统治了赛场，打得比场上任何人都努力且高效。
而当他回想起一年前？
“我不会把比赛视为理所当然，”文班亚马说道，“因为我亲眼见过，一切都可能很快结束。”
幸好，周四晚上在穆迪中心对阵太阳队的比赛中，气氛从未变得如此沉重。
科内特这位范德堡大学的校友，他的灵感启发了文班亚马。科内特在达拉斯长大，他的姐姐后来就读于俄克拉荷马大学。在第二节暂停跑向替补席时，科内特对着观众微笑，高举双手，做出“钩角”手势。
文班亚马注意到了。半场休息在更衣室里时，他试了一下这个动作，并询问科内特做得对不对。
他做得不对。
“幸运的是，”科内特说，“我们纠正了那个错误。”
另一场危机被化解了。
这一次，一切都变得简单了。
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：How Wemby's diagnosis solved a mystery and left him grateful
How Wemby’s diagnosis solved a mystery and left him grateful
AUSTIN – Victor Wembanyama nearly ruined everything.
The impeccable vibes inside the Moody Center. The burgeoning goodwill between two major cities. The lucrative partnership between the state’s most accomplished NBA franchise and its largest institution of higher learning.
All of that could have been thrown into turmoil Thursday night if Spurs center Luke Kornet hadn’t stopped his well-intentioned French teammate from committing the ultimate University of Texas faux pas.
Wembanyama was about to look up at the crowd and flash a “Hook‘em Horns” hand sign: With his index finger and pinky pointed toward the floor.
“He thought (Horns) down was the way to do it,” Kornet said. “I said, ‘Oh, no, no. Definitely not. Don’t do that.’”
That this bit of hilarity qualified as the Spurs’ biggest near-crisis of the week says something about how well things are going, and also about how much has changed for Wembanyama in the past year.
When he put his Horns up — the correct way — in the second half of a romp over Phoenix that became the Spurs’ seventh consecutive victory, a sellout Moody Center crowd roared in appreciation for a global superstar. Last February, Austin fans never got the chance.
Back then, Wembanyama had just received the medical diagnosis that put an end to his third NBA season, put his career on hold, but also solved a perplexing mystery.
“It (didn’t) explain everything,” Wembanyama said, looking back on the day he found out he had a blood clot issue known as deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder. “But I think it explained a lot.”
Before Thursday night, Wembanyama never had gone into detail about what led doctors to check him for a blood clot in the first place. But when I asked about it 364 days after the announcement, he confirmed what many of us always guessed about how it happened.
For weeks leading up to the 2025 All-Star break, the 7-foot-4 center looked and felt sluggish. At first, he chalked it up to a slow recovery from a bout with the flu. He never played terribly on that rodeo road trip, but in games at Memphis and Charlotte and Orlando he just wasn’t moving like he usually did.
After the last game before the break, in Boston, he admitted at his locker that he was exhausted. Was he hitting a wall? Were the pace and relentlessness of an NBA season proving to be too much for him? Either way, he said he was looking forward to getting a breather around the All-Star festivities.
Instead, the proverbial wall smacked him even harder.
“The All-Star Game last year was the worst I had ever felt on a basketball court in my life,” Wembanyama said Thursday. “I mean, I had maybe 5% of blood flow in my right arm.”
He’d never shared that number before, either. And even though he took care to point out that he couldn’t be sure that his fatigue last February was entirely due to the clot, he reiterated that he “was feeling very, very bad the few weeks before (he) had the diagnosis.”
And in a way, once Wembanyama got past the initial shock of the scary medical news and learned that the deep vein thrombosis could be treated so it wouldn’t threaten his long-term health, the details were reassuring.
As it turned out, the reason he was so exhausted last February wasn’t because his conditioning was poor, or because he wasn’t tough enough to withstand the rigors of an 82-game season.
If he needed more proof of that? The past couple of weeks have provided plenty of it.
At the same point in the season when his feet looked stuck in cement last year, Wembanyama is averaging 25 points, 10.9 rebounds, three assists and three blocks in seven February games. He dominated his 20 minutes at the All-Star Game, playing as hard and as efficiently as anyone on the floor.
And when he thinks back to a year ago?
“'I’m not trying to take the game for granted,” Wembanyama said, “because I’ve seen that it can end very quickly.”
Thankfully, against the Suns at the Moody Center on Thursday night, things never got that heavy.
Kornet, a Vanderbilt alumnus who spent part of his childhood in Dallas with a sister who wound up attending Oklahoma, served as Wembanyama’s inspiration. As he jogged to the bench for a second-quarter timeout, Kornet smiled at the crowd and raised his arms high, flashing the “Hook’em” sign with both hands.
Wembanyama noticed, and in the locker room at halftime he tested the move, asking Kornet if he was doing it right.
He was not.
“Fortunately,” Kornet said, “we got that corrected.”
And another crisis was averted.
It was easier this time.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News