By Lee Dresie | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-04-01 13:00:00
亚当·萧华 (Adam Silver) 确实倾向于在每年的这个时候发布一些惊人的公告，2026年也不例外。事实上，今年的公告对马刺球迷来说意义尤为深远，因为它直接且立即影响到了这支银黑军团。该公告还影响了本赛季所有球队的季后赛进程，并将在未来数年持续发挥作用。
公告内容如下：NBA已将圣安东尼奥马刺队调整至东部联盟，立即生效。此前已有传闻称，一旦两支扩军球队加入联盟，马刺队可能会被移至东部，因为那两支新球队——拉斯维加斯扑克脸队 (Las Vegas Poker Faces) 和西雅图超音速队 (Seattle Supersonics)——显然需要被划分在西部联盟。然而，我的联盟线人证实，此前甚至没有任何迹象表明马刺队的“东游”会在扩军球队加入之前发生。
萧华在宣布这一即时变动时解释了他的逻辑——而这一逻辑确实让人难以反驳。以下是萧华的公告内容：
“即刻起，圣安东尼奥马刺队将成为NBA东部联盟的一员。虽然我预料到那些希望在通往总决赛之路上能轻松一点的东部季后赛球队会有所抵触，但这恰恰是现在做出这一改变的原因。我们都能看到，2025-2026赛季表现最好的两支球队是马刺队和俄克拉荷马城雷霆队。如果不做此调整，西部决赛的胜者实际上就等同于当年的总冠军，这意味着总决赛的收视率甚至会比去年两支小市场球队之间的对决还要糟糕。
“请理解，这并非为期一年的临时变动。有两个因素支持将这一举措延续到未来。首先，即将有两支位于太平洋时区的扩军球队加入。其次，或许也是更重要的一点，马刺和雷霆似乎都准备好开启一段长期的强盛期。两支球队目前都极具统治力，拥有一群优秀的年轻核心球员，并且未来手握大量的选秀权。对于你们这些NBA体育记者来说，‘大量的 (bevy)’就是‘很多’的意思。[编者注：前一句话似乎是亚当·萧华幽默感的尝试。]
“在联盟办公室，我们更倾向于让两支顶尖球队分属于不同的分区。许多人认为，20世纪80年代湖人与凯尔特人的宿敌对决拯救了NBA。如果湖人和凯尔特人在同一个分区，那可能就不会发生。正因为这些球队在总决赛相遇，才使得总决赛成为了必看的节目。
“我不能让马刺与雷霆的宿敌对决在总决赛之外的任何地方收场，从而冒着损害NBA生存能力的风险。否则，我们可能会看到1999年至2003年间马刺和湖人横扫尼克斯、步行者、篮网和76人夺冠的局面重演。在那几年的五次总决赛中，东部球队总共只赢了6场比赛：西部20胜，东部6胜。那些东部球队甚至排不进西部前四，更不用说打进总决赛了。坦率地说，那些东部球队有点烂，这意味着总决赛也一样烂。如果当年的总决赛是奥尼尔和科比的湖人对阵邓肯和罗宾逊的马刺，难道不会更好吗？答案显而易见。
“为了平衡各分区并填补马刺留下的空缺，密尔沃基雄鹿队将立即在西部联盟征战，直到扩军球队加入。我这样做是为了让扬尼斯·阿德托昆博 (Giannis Antetokounmpo) 有机会参加本赛季的季后赛。他是我最喜欢的球员。
“我也希望在此时做出这一举动能有助于解决联盟的摆烂问题，尽管我不确定具体如何操作或为何有效。但也许会有用。”
这显然是一个令人震惊的公告。我的看法如下：
由于这次变动，雷霆将继续稳居西部榜首，而马刺将跃居东部头名。这将使凯尔特人、活塞和其他东部球队的排名顺延下降一位。这还在东部季后赛席位竞争的底层引发了一场疯狂的混战，因为目前处于第7至第10位的球队中，将有一支彻底无缘附加赛。在两个分区中，这一震撼性的进展应该会产生额外的益处，即为常规赛最后几周注入一些兴奋感。提醒一下，NBA常规赛将于4月12日结束，因此还有大量的常规赛要打——剩余的比赛时间足以让季后赛排位发生重大变化。只是没有像把马刺搬到东部那么重大！
最后，为了看看这个公告是否是最令人震惊的，我对以往关于每年此时发布的公告的文章进行了一些历史调研。读者们，你们可以自行评判，这次马刺迁往东部的举动是否比以下事件更令人难以置信：(1) 马刺与维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 的法国母队达成先签后换，在2023年NBA选秀前将其带到圣安东尼奥；(2) 亚当·萧华宣布更改一些愚蠢的球队名称，例如犹他爵士队；(3) 2025年将文班亚马交易至新奥尔良以换取鹈鹕队全队阵容；(4) 科怀·伦纳德 (Kawhi Leonard) 宣布重返马刺；(5) 马刺所有权层在2020年决定将球队卖给比尔·盖茨 (Bill Gates)，从而将球队迁至西雅图。
值得注意的是，今天——2026年4月1日——正是这些故事中每一个故事的周年纪念日。
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：NBA shifts the Spurs to the Eastern Conference
NBA shifts the Spurs to the Eastern Conference
Adam Silver certainly has a tendency to make remarkable announcements at this time of year, and 2026 is no exception. In fact, this year’s announcement is especially profound for Spurs fans because it directly and immediately affects the Silver and Black. The announcement also affects this season’s playoffs for all teams, and will continue to do so for years to come.
This is the announcement: The NBA has moved the San Antonio Spurs to the Eastern Conference, effective immediately. Rumors had already been swirling that the Spurs were among teams that could possibly move to Eastern Conference once the two expansion teams joined the league because those two teams — the Las Vegas Poker Faces and the Seattle Supersonics — will clearly need to be in the Western Conference. However, my league contacts confirmed that there had not been even a hint that the Spurs’ move from the West would occur before the expansion teams joined the league.
Silver’s announcement of the immediate move explained his logic — which is difficult to dispute. This was Silver’s announcement:
“Effective immediately, the San Antonio Spurs will become a member of the NBA’s Eastern Conference. While I expect there will some pushback from the Eastern Conference playoff teams that hoped to have an easy path the NBA Finals, that is the exact reason the change in being made now. We all can see that the two best teams in this 2025-2026 season are the Spurs and the OKC Thunder. Without this move, the winner of the Western Conference Finals would effectively be this year’s champions, meaning that the ratings for the Finals would be even worse than last year’s Finals between two small-market teams.
“Please understand that this is not a one-year shift. Two factors support extending this move into the future. First, the upcoming addition of the two expansion teams in the Pacific time zone. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the Spurs and Thunder both appear poised for an extended run of excellence. Both teams are already dominant, have a young core of excellent players, and have a bevy of draft picks in the future. For you NBA sportswriters, “bevy” means “a lot”. [Editor’s note – The previous sentence appeared to Adam Silver’s attempt at humor.]
“At the league office, we much prefer to have the two top teams in different conferences. Many believe that the Lakers – Celtics rivalry in the 1980s saved the NBA. That might not have happened if the Lakers and Celtics were in the same conference. Because those teams met in the NBA Finals, that in turn made the Finals must watch viewing.
“I cannot risk the NBA’s viability by having the Spurs vs. Thunder rivalry conclude each season anywhere other than in the NBA Finals. Otherwise, we could be looking at a rerun of the Spurs and Lakers Finals wins between 1999 and 2003 against the Knicks, Pacers, Nets and 76ers. During those years, the teams from the East won a total of six games in those five Finals: 20 West wins vs. 6 wins by the East. Those teams from the Eastern Conference wouldn’t have been in the top four in the West, let alone made it to the Finals. Frankly, those Eastern Conference teams kind of sucked, which meant the Finals did too. Wouldn’t those Finals have been better if they were the Shaq-Kobe Lakers against the Duncan-Robinson Spurs? The answer is obvious.
“To balance the conferences and replace the Spurs, the Milwaukee Bucks will immediately be playing in the Western Conference until the expansion teams join the league. I am doing that so Giannis will have a chance to play in this season’s playoffs. He is my favorite player.
“I also hope that making this move at this time will help with the league’s tanking problem, though I am not sure how or why. But it might.”
Obviously a stunning announcement. My thoughts:
Because of this move, OKC will remain at the top in the West while the Spurs will move into the top seed in the East. This will push the Celtics, Pistons and the other Eastern Conference teams down a spot. It also creates a mad scramble at the bottom of the Eastern Conference race because one of the teams presently in the 7-10 slots will miss the Play-In tournament altogether. In both conferences, this shocking development should have the added benefit of instilling some excitement in the last weeks of the season. As a reminder, the NBA regular season ends on April 12, so there are plenty of regular season games left to play — and time for those remaining games to shake up playoff seeding in significant ways. Just not as significant as moving the Spurs to the Eastern Conference!
Finally, to see if this announcement was the most stunning, I did a little historical research into my prior articles about announcements at this time of year. Readers, you can decide if this move of the Spurs’ into the Eastern Conference is more incredible than (1) the Spurs sign and trade with Victor Wembanyama’s French team to bring him to San Antonio prior to the 2023 NBA draft, (2) Adam Silver’s announcement that he was changing some stupid team names, such as the Utah Jazz, (3) the 2025 trade of Victor to New Orleans for the entire Pelicans roster, (4) Kawhi Leaonard’s announcement that he was returning to the Spurs, and (5) the Spurs ownership decision in 2020 to sell the team to Bill Gates, thus moving the team to Seattle. Remarkably, today —April 1, 2026 — is the anniversary of each of those stories.
By Lee Dresie, via Pounding The Rock