By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-02-27 13:35:34
2026 年 2 月 26 日，星期四，在纽约举行的一场 NBA 比赛下半场，圣安东尼奥马刺队的凯尔登·约翰逊 (3) 在布鲁克林篮网队的丹尼·沃尔夫 (2) 和奥查伊·阿巴吉 (30) 面前投篮。(美联社照片/Frank Franklin II)
纽约讯——这台大音响简直离谱。它个头太大，声音也太响。在过去的四个月里，它走遍全国，用那荒谬的歌单震落了客队更衣室墙上的油漆。这台音响的主人是一位身高 6 英尺 6 英寸的“兼职农民”，他像扛着一捆方形干草一样把它架在肩头，带进一座又一座球馆。
在拉斯维加斯，它播放着 Weezer；在亚特兰大，是 Gucci Mane；在洛杉矶，则是达里乌斯·拉克 (Darius Rucker) 的《Wagon Wheel》；到了布鲁克林，变成了奥利维亚·迪恩 (Olivia Dean)；而瓦妮莎·卡尔顿 (Vanessa Carlton) 的歌则是无处不在。
不过，如果这台音响想要在周日进入麦迪逊广场花园，它可能需要一个新“座驾”了。
凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 或许不该再亲自扛着它了。本周在多伦多的一次挤过掩护时，这位体格强壮的马刺前锋感到左肩锁关节 (AC joint) 响了一下，随之而来的疼痛令他难以忍受。
“那种感觉很糟，你懂吗？”约翰逊说道，“但我挺过来了。”
如今，他能用这种心态面对的，已经不仅仅是他试图忽视的最新伤病。周四深夜，随着他的音乐在巴克莱中心回荡，这位马刺队现役效力时间最长的球员并没有掩饰他为何如此执着于上场，尤其是在马刺以 126-110 完胜篮网的比赛中。事实上，在本赛季已进行的 59 场比赛中，他也从未缺席。
在经历了漫长而痛苦的六年 NBA “毒打”之后？
这一切，终于迎来了美好的回报。那是充满乐趣的部分。用他音响里播放频率最高的金曲之一来说，这就是一场“Party in the USA”（美国派对）。
“我想要享受每一个瞬间，”约翰逊说道。
谁能责怪他有这种感觉呢？谁又能责怪他在内心深处怀疑，这一切美好得有些不真实？
即便马刺在未来还有宏伟的目标要去实现，谁又能责怪他在这一波 11 连胜中，想要调大音响的音量去庆祝当下呢？
约翰逊并非篮球庸才。他拥有取之不尽的活力，能冲抢前场篮板，能投进及时的外线冷箭，他已经成为了联盟中最出色的第六人之一。但他和维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 不同。
他的伟大并非天命所归。他的成就也并非必然。如果马刺在过去几年里没有重新找回选秀抽签的运气，约翰逊很有可能在平庸中度过整个职业生涯，在偶尔还算凑合的球队里刷出不错的数据，然后带着他的山羊和鸡群退役，从未体验过季后赛荣耀的滋味。
即便如此，也没什么好丢人的。但他一直有能力追求更多，而现在，人们终于注意到了。他证明了自己不仅仅是一名有产出的球员，更是一名能赢球的球员。
对于像他的主教练——自始至终见证了约翰逊 NBA 历程的米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 这样的人来说，凯尔登在大赛舞台上的崭露头角，是马刺 2025-26 赛季实现突破过程中最令人欣慰的部分之一。
“他是一名领袖，”米奇·约翰逊评价道。
文班亚马的称赞同样热情洋溢，因为他已经意识到，在自己身边围绕着这样一群知道如何协作的竞争者是多么重要。文班亚马说，最重要的是理解自己的角色。
“或者就凯尔登而言，他明白为了让团队变得更好，需要做出哪些牺牲，”文班亚马说，“因为他是我认识的最无私的人之一。”
这并不是说 26 岁的约翰逊从未有过虚荣心。两年前，就在他场均砍下 22 分的一个赛季后，他被移出了首发阵容。当时，他很难不将其视为一种对个人的轻视。
是教练组不再信任他了吗？教练们认为年轻人更优秀吗？最终，他意识到那种想法是错误的。
他依然可以领导球队，依然可以让自己变得无可替代。
“有时候，这伴随着牺牲，”周四晚，约翰逊在与几位《快报新闻》(Express-News) 的体育记者交流时反思道，“你必须接受这一点。我也接受了。”
而当约翰逊决定“接受”某件事时，这意味着他会用自己唯一懂得的方式去拥抱它——那是充满喜悦、喧闹且全情投入的方式。
尽管主教练在多伦多的第四节不得不把他强行按在板凳上，他依然在背靠背的第二晚坚持上场。周日对阵尼克斯，他肯定也会准备就绪，尽管他走出巴克莱中心时，肩膀上还缠着一个巨大的冰袋。
“成为今年这些特别时刻的一部分，”约翰逊说，“让你比以往任何时候都更想留在场上。”
至于那台离谱、太大、太吵的大音响？无论周日它以何种方式被运进这座世界上最著名球馆的客队更衣室，它都会再次响起。
庆祝当下。
这一刻，真的等了很久。
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 Keldon Johnson’s boom box has Spurs celebrating the present
How Keldon Johnson’s boom box has Spurs celebrating the present
San Antonio Spurs’ Keldon Johnson (3) shoots over Brooklyn Nets’ Danny Wolf (2) and Ochai Agbaji (30) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
NEW YORK — The boom box is ridiculous. It’s way too big and way too loud, and for the past four months it’s been across this country peeling paint off locker room walls with the preposterous playlists of a 6-foot-6 part-time farmer who hoists it into arenas atop his shoulder like a square hay bale.
It blasts Weezer in Las Vegas. Gucci Mane in Atlanta. Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel” in Los Angeles. Olivia Dean in Brooklyn. Vanessa Carlton everywhere.
If it’s going to make it into Madison Square Garden on Sunday, though, the boom box might need a new ride.
Keldon Johnson probably shouldn’t be carrying it anymore. While fighting through a screen in Toronto this week, the big-bodied Spurs forward felt a pop in the AC joint of his left shoulder, and the pain was excruciating.
“It was tough, you know?” Johnson said. “But I got through it.”
These days, he can say that about more than just the latest injury he’s tried to ignore. With his music blaring inside Barclays Center late Thursday night, the longest-tenured current Spur made no secret about why he was so hellbent on playing in San Antonio’s 126-110 romp over the Nets, nor about why he’s been impossible to keep off the floor on each of the team’s 58 other game nights this season.
After six painful years of taking his nightly NBA lumps?
This, at last, is the good stuff. The fun part. The “Party in the USA,” to borrow the title of one of his most-played boom box bangers.
“And I want to enjoy every moment,” Johnson said.
Who could blame him for feeling that way? Who could blame him for suspecting, somewhere in the back of his head, that this might all be too good to be true?
Who could blame him, even with the Spurs having so much left to accomplish in their future, for wanting to crank up the tunes in the middle of an 11-game winning streak and celebrate the present?
Johnson is no basketball slouch. He’s a bottomless well of energy and offensive rebounding and timely shooting, and he’s become one of the best sixth men in the league. But he’s not like Victor Wembanyama.
His greatness wasn’t predestined. His accomplishments weren’t inevitable. Had the Spurs not rediscovered their draft-lottery luck over the past few years, there was a chance Johnson might have toiled away in relative anonymity for his entire career, putting up decent numbers for occasionally decent teams before heading into retirement with his goats and chickens, having never experienced anything resembling playoff glory.
There would have been no shame in that. But he always had the capacity for more, and now people finally are noticing. He’s showing he’s not just a productive player, but a winningplayer.
And to folks like his head coach, who’s watched Johnson’s NBA journey from the beginning, his big-stage emergence has been one of the most satisfying parts of the Spurs’ 2025-26 breakthrough.
“That’s a leader,” Mitch Johnson said.
Wembanyama’s praise is just as enthusiastic, because he’s grown to realize the value of surrounding himself with the types of competitors who know how they fit together. Of upmost importance, Wembanyama said, is understanding your role.
“Or, in the case of Keldon, (understanding) what to sacrifice to make the team better,” Wembanyama said. “Because he’s one of the most selfless persons I know.”
It’s not that the 26-year-old Johnson always has been immune to bouts of pride. When he first was moved to the bench two seasons ago, a year after averaging 22 points per game, it was hard not to take it as a personal slight.
Did the staff not trust him anymore? Did the coaches think the younger guys were better? Eventually, he realized that was the wrong way to look at it.
He still could lead. And he still could make himself irreplaceable.
“Sometimes it comes with sacrifices,” Johnson said Thursday night, reflecting on all of this with a couple of Express-News sports writers. “You gotta be OK with that. I’m OK with that.”
And when Johnson is “OK with” something? That means he embraces it the only way he knows how, which is joyfully and loudly and with all of his soul.
Of course he played the second night of a back-to-back even though his head coach had to hold him off the court in the fourth quarter in Toronto. And of course he’ll be ready Sunday against the Knicks, even though he walked out of Barclays with a giant ice bag bandaged to his shoulder.
“Being part of something special this year,” Johnson said, “it makes you want to be out there even more.”
As for his ridiculous, way-too-big, way-too-loud boom box? However it gets transported into the visiting locker room at the world’s most famous arena on Sunday, it will be blaring again.
Celebrating the present.
Which has been a long time coming.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News