By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-02-28 15:53:53
2023年7月9日（周日），在拉斯维加斯举行的2023年NBA夏季联赛中，时任马刺队主教练的格雷格·波波维奇（Gregg Popovich，左）与时任助理教练的米奇·约翰逊（Mitch Johnson，右）在看台上观看球队对阵波特兰开拓者队的比赛。如今，约翰逊作为主教练迎来了他的第一个完整赛季，他带领马刺队成为了西部联盟的有力竞争者。
纽约——恰恰身处世界媒体之都的中心，周围环绕着鳞次栉比的优质餐厅、美酒和名胜，这位圣安东尼奥马刺队的主教练却无暇脱身。
他有许多手要握，有许多全美媒体的采访请求需要配合。即便是在对任何事物都不太感冒的曼哈顿本地人面前，依然有人对他所说的话感兴趣。
很自然地，这让米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 想起了格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich)。
当然，他经常会想起波波。但在一个周六的下午，当这位年仅39岁、正执教着全NBA最炙手可热球队的主教练终于准备离开耐克总部的训练场时，一段特殊的记忆浮现在脑海中。
约翰逊回忆起了一次教练组晚餐——那是波波维奇典型的长达三小时的饭局，席间美酒流淌，菜单上的每一道菜都被一扫而空，交谈话题涵盖了大事小事。
然而，在2021年冬天的这次特定晚餐中，气氛变得凝重。球队即将进入赛季中期的休整，但波波维奇注意到，据他记忆所及，马刺队将首次在全明星周末期间完全没有代表。
这支千禧年以来最成功的特许经营球队之一，竟然没有派出一名全明星。没有教练。没有扣篮大赛的扣将。没有三分球大赛的射手。没有技巧挑战赛的选手。
即使是像波波维奇这样众所周知讨厌热闹的老顽固，也感到有些失落。
“那一刻对我来说真的很沉闷，”约翰逊周六告诉我说，“当时我加入波波维奇团队时间还不长，我觉得自己有责任也有义务成为他和 R.C. 莱福德 (R.C. Buford，首席执行官) 以及整个家族共同建立的这台机器的一份子。你想要延续它，保持它的运转。”
但约翰逊不禁感到自己做得不够。自2016年被聘为发展联盟助教以来，他一直在该机构工作。马刺队在次年春天打进了西部决赛，在那之后就再也没能突破季后赛首轮。
这种下滑是教练组里最年轻的人的错吗？当然不是。但他依然感到担忧。而在2021年，当教练组围坐在那张餐桌旁，意识到在大多数关注NBA的世界看来，马刺队可能就像不存在一样时……
2026年2月26日（周四），在纽约进行的马刺对阵布鲁克林篮网队的NBA比赛上半场，圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练米奇·约翰逊（左）正与卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant)（11号）交谈。（美联社照片/Frank Franklin II）
“这与我们现在讨论的情况正好相反，”约翰逊说，“我永远、永远不想再回到那种状态。”
这就是为什么他如此愿意握住每一只手，回答关于维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)、斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 的每一个问题。这就是为什么他不担心太多的炒作会让这支年轻球队头脑发热。这就是为什么，在休息日的中城被几个人认出来时，他感到的不是厌烦，而是感激。
约翰逊不想听起来像是在说陈词滥调，但有些真理之所以成为陈词滥调是有原因的。
“无论成功伴随着什么，”约翰逊说，“我都会接受。”
就世界范围的知名度而言，他要赶上波波维奇还有很长的路要走。例如，本周末还没有纽约记者连珠炮似地向他询问国际事务。如果约翰逊的前任仍然在任，考虑到当天的头条新闻，周六马刺队的训练可能会由 CNN 来报道。
然而，就体育明星效应和互联网热度而言，如今很少有球队能与他们匹敌。马刺队可能位于联盟最小的市场之一，他们在21世纪20年代可能还未在季后赛中亮相，但每一位评论员都对这支已经取得11连胜的球队发表着辛辣的见解。
有人说文班亚马是最有价值球员 (MVP)。有人说马刺要打进总决赛。还有人说他们即将开启三连冠。紧接着反馈也随之而来，有人说他们软弱、被高估，注定会在关键时刻崩溃。
事情就是这样。这一切都有点滑稽。但约翰逊知道，如果试图去对抗这些，那他就太傻了。
“这就是我们生活的世界，”约翰逊说，“社交媒体、营销品牌、电视、播客。每个人都在谈论一切，好的和坏的。每个人都有观点。每个人都是专家。而这不会改变。
2026年2月4日（周三），在圣安东尼奥弗罗斯特银行中心进行的对阵俄克拉荷马城雷霆队的NBA比赛中，圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练米奇·约翰逊在第二节暂停期间与他的团队交谈。
“但当你对自己团队的情况很清楚，大家步调一致，并将一切都保持在应有的位置时，它就能让你免于处理情绪上的过山车。”
到目前为止，这种方法似乎奏效了。在整份名单中，大多数马刺球员似乎仍然对额外的关注视而不见。达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 在周六掏出手机，向记者展示了他的 Instagram 和 Twitter 动态，里面全是关于音乐、汽车和房子的帖子，唯独没有关于篮球的。
周四击败布鲁克林后，当一名记者询问文班亚马作为西部热门球队如何“屏蔽噪音”时，这位身高7英尺4英寸的中锋给出了本赛季最有趣的回答之一。
“你是第一个告诉我这件事的人，”文班亚马说，“所以要屏蔽噪音？我想我得把（记者的）麦克风拿走。”
五年前，在那场凝重的教练组晚宴上，桌旁的任何人都无法预见到这样的时刻。他们当时不知道竟然存在文班亚马这样兼具天赋和个性的人。他们也不知道氛围的改变会如此迅速。
而既然现在一切都变了？
约翰逊很乐意去适应它。
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：What dinner with Pop taught Mitch Johnson about embracing spotlight
What dinner with Pop taught Mitch Johnson about embracing spotlight
Then-Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich (left) talks with then-assistant coach Mitch Johnson (right) as they watch their team from the stands as they play against the Portland Trailblazers during the 2023 NBA Summer League games in Las Vegas on Sunday, July 9, 2023. Now in his first full season as the head coach, Johnson has the Spurs in position as a contender in the Western Conference.
NEW YORK — Smack dab in the middle of the media capital of the world, surrounded by blocks and blocks of good restaurants and fine wine and sights to see, the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs couldn’t get away.
There were hands he needed to shake. There were national interview requests he needed to accommodate. Even in Manhattan, where the locals don’t tend to be impressed by much of anything, there were people interested in what he had to say.
Naturally, this made Mitch Johnson think about Gregg Popovich.
He does that a lot, of course. But this time, on a Saturday afternoon when the 39-year-old coach of the hottest team in the NBA finally was about to leave a practice at Nike headquarters, one memory in particular came to mind.
Johnson recalled a staff dinner — one of those classic three-hour Popovich affairs where the vino flowed and everything on the menu was consumed and the conversation covered all topics great and small.
At this specific meal in the winter of 2021, though, the mood turned somber. The team was about to part ways for the midseason break, but Popovich noted that for the first time he could remember, the Spurs were going to be completely unrepresented at All-Star Weekend.
One of the most successful franchises of the millennium was sending no All-Stars. No coaches. No slam-dunk dunkers. No 3-point shootout shooters. No skills-challenge challengers.
And even for a noted hoopla-hating curmudgeon like Popovich, it felt like a bummer.
“That was a real flat moment for me,” Johnson told me Saturday. “I was still early being (on Popovich’s staff), and I’d joined with this responsibility and obligation to be part of this machine he’d built, with R.C. (Buford, the CEO) and the whole family. You want to continue that, to maintain that.”
But Johnson couldn’t help feeling he was falling short. He’d been in the organization since 2016, when he was hired as a G League assistant. The Spurs made the Western Conference finals the next spring, then never made it past the first round of the playoffs again.
Was this falloff the fault of the youngest guy on the staff? Of course not. It worried him, though. And when the staff sat around that restaurant table in 2021, realizing that in the eyes of most of the NBA-watching world, the Spurs might as well have not existed?
San Antonio Spurs Head Coach Mitch Johnson, left, talks to Carter Bryant (11) during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
“It’s kind of the opposite of what we’re talking about now,” Johnson said. “And I will never, ever want to go back to that.”
This is why he was so willing to shake every hand and answer every question about Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell on Saturday. This is why he doesn’t worry about too much hype going too fast to a young team’s head. This is why, instead of being annoyed by a couple of people recognizing him in midtown on his day off, he was grateful for it.
Johnson doesn’t want to sound cliché, but some truths became clichés for a reason.
“Whatever comes with success,” Johnson said, “I’ll take it.”
In terms of worldwide notoriety, he has a long way to go to catch Popovich. No New York reporters, for instance, have peppered him this weekend with questions about international affairs. Had Johnson’s predecessor still been in charge, given the front-page news of the day, Saturday’s Spurs practice might have been covered by CNN.
In terms of sports star power and internet buzzworthiness, however, few teams can match them these days. The Spurs might be based in one of the league’s smallest markets, and they might not have appeared in a single playoff game in the 2020s, but every talking head has a hot take on the team that’s won 11 games in a row.
One says Wembanyama is the Most Valuable Player. Then one says the Spurs are going to the Finals. Then one says they’re about to win three championships in a row. Then comes the blowback, when one says they’re soft and overrated and doomed to fall apart when it matters.
That’s how this stuff works. It’s all kind of silly. But Johnson knows he’d be a fool to try to fight it.
“It’s the world we live in,” Johnson said. “Social media, marketing brands, television, podcasts. Everybody’s talking about everything, good and bad. Everybody’s got an opinion. Everybody’s an expert. And that’s not changing.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson talks to his team during a second quarter time out in an NBA game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026.
“But when you’re clear on your group, and you’re aligned, and you keep everything where it’s supposed to be, it allows you not to deal with the emotional roller coaster.”
So far, this approach seems to be working. Up and down the roster, most of the Spurs still seem oblivious to any extra attention. De’Aaron Fox pulled out his cell phone on Saturday and showed reporters his Instagram and Twitter feeds, which contained a bunch of posts about music and cars and houses but none about basketball.
And when a reporter asked Wembanyama after Thursday’s victory over Brooklyn how he can “block out the noise” of being a Western Conference favorite, the 7-foot-4 center gave one of his funniest answers of the season.
“You’re the first one to tell me about it,” Wembanyama said. “So (to) block out the noise? I guess come take away (the reporter’s) mic.”
Five years earlier, at that somber coaching staff dinner, nobody at the table could have seen a moment like that coming. They had no idea that a person with Wembanyama’s talent and personality even existed. They had no idea how quickly a vibe could change.
And now that it has?
Johnson is happy to get used to it.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News