By Jared Weiss | The Athletic, 2026-05-31 11:53:24
俄克拉荷马城——压力可以击垮一个人。排山倒海般的期望会让眼前的重担变得更加难以承受。通常情况下确实如此。
但这恰恰是维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 找到舒适区的地方。
贾马尔·克劳福德 (Jamal Crawford) 记得两年前在与文班亚马共进晚餐时了解到了这一点。当文班亚马切开一块三文鱼时，这位 NBC 评论员、前最佳第六人提出了一个层层递进的问题，却得到了一个简单的回答。克劳福德问他，作为圣安东尼奥马刺队的下一位伟大中锋，在承袭蒂姆·邓肯 (Tim Duncan) 和大卫·罗宾逊 (David Robinson) 传奇血脉的压力下，他有什么感受。
“我觉得很安全，”文班亚马告诉他。
压力是一个让他存放、理解并引导自己情绪和目标的地方。在第五场比赛失利、马刺队面临淘汰边缘后，他便躲进了这个茧房，平日里那个随性且沉思的文班亚马不见了。
这一切在最后两场胜利中彻底释放，一个完整的、准备就绪的文班亚马破茧而出。如今，在带领马刺队以 111-103 赢下抢七大战 击败俄克拉荷马雷霆队后，他的季后赛处子秀一路延续到了 NBA 总决赛。
“这场比赛太艰难了，这支球队（雷霆队）太优秀了，你必须倾尽内心的每一种情绪才能赢下比赛，”文班亚马在 NBC 的赛后节目中说道。“比如，有时候这些情绪是激情，是对比赛的热爱。有时候是愤怒。甚至有时候可能是嫉妒，但我不想让自己被这些能量压垮。我把它们释放在球场上。”
这在第一场比赛中表现得尤为明显，当时文班亚马坐在那里，看着谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) 捧起 MVP 奖杯，随后他登场并打出了职业生涯最伟大的表现。在整个西部决赛期间，这种特质在不同时刻屡屡展现——有时情绪左右了他，有时他掌控了情绪。这轮系列赛在最后一分钟以这位 MVP 在内线遭遇文班亚马而画上句号。在决定赛季命运的关头，吉尔杰斯-亚历山大选择了传球，就像其他所有人面对文班亚马时一样。
这是属于文班的“此路不通”终极杰作。
最终，嫉妒转化为力量。恐惧转化为坚韧。困惑转化为决心。
但在抢七大战第二节初期，曾有一个时刻，他真的在身体上倚靠着俾斯麦·比永博 (Bismack Biyombo) 寻求建议。这位老将对他进行了一番开导，谈到了他的打球方式以及他的场上姿态。
他知道“要做什么”，但更重要的是，他正在学习“为什么要这么做”以及“如何去做到”。
“这是你第一次面对 NBA 季后赛，而对手阵中有人拿走了本该属于你的 MVP——这带来了更大的压力。但它也带来了喜悦，”比永博告诉 The Athletic。“我想当你看到他落泪时的所有情绪，就会明白这一路走来有多么艰难。这间更衣室里的每个人都做出了巨大的牺牲，接受了自己的角色，从而带来了如此多的喜悦。而最重要的一点是，维克顶住了压力。我们开始明白，为了让他能如此好地应对压力，我们所有人都必须去帮助他，无论是通过微小的方式还是巨大的支持。”
随着比赛的进行，文班亚马看穿了雷霆队引以为傲的防守，并不断掌控着比赛的走向。他展示了武器库中的每一项绝活，直到他用行动解答了所有质疑，让人无话可说。这位崭露头角的国际象棋大师最终完成了将死。
当终场哨声响起，文班亚马走上前，拥抱了他能找到的每一位马刺队成员。在庆祝活动结束后，他带着“魔术师约翰逊”西部决赛 MVP 奖杯走向球员通道上方探出身体的马刺球迷，让每个人都摸了摸奖杯。
文班亚马学会了通过依靠身边的每一个人来应对这种压力，从教练、他的团队，到球队传奇人物，再到格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich)。甚至还有球迷的支持。他必须与他们分享胜利的果实。这是他们共同赢得的。
“我想说，我学到的是，我可以跨越那些我以前未曾想过会如此之高的障碍，”文班亚马说。“就是坚持挺过去。我在内心深处找到了力量源泉，那就是永不放弃。我以前就知道自己有这股劲，但在这样的舞台上做到这一点，这可是目前地球上水平最高的篮球比赛。”
如今，他已被推至极限之外，并在彼岸找到了另一个“文班”，他正陶醉于自己解锁的新世界中。在退无可退的绝境中爆发出的渴望表明，在他的内心深处，依然还有全新的“维克托”等待着被发掘。
“疯狂的是，也许我这么想很疯狂，但我还想再经历 15 到 20 次这样的过程，”文班亚马说。“希望这不会让我上瘾。也许我已经上瘾了。”
显然他已经上瘾了。这是每一个见证过文班亚马成长的人都预料到他终有一天会达到的高度。他们只是没想到这一天来得这么快。也许波波维奇预料到了。在这位身高 7 英尺 4 英寸、不拘泥于位置的奇才结束新秀赛季后，克劳福德在同意与文班亚马合作训练之前，曾致电当时仍担任马刺队主教练的波波维奇，征求他的意见。波波维奇欣然接受了这个想法，他认为克劳福德帮助文班亚马提升极具创造力的控球技术，将有助于释放出马刺队一直渴望释放的潜能。
“他当时说，‘你知道吗？老实说，我觉得我们甚至限制了他的发挥，’”克劳福德回忆起波波维奇的话说。“‘他的进步超出了我们的预期，而且他是如此独特。我们之前并不知道具体该如何使用他，但我们现在有些琢磨透了。’”
这场比赛展示了他们找到的无数种使用他的方法，以及主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 及其教练组如何成功执行了波波维奇最初制定的蓝图。在这轮充斥着不断调整与反调整的系列赛中，他的继任者证明了自己是一位合格的传人。
但当文班亚马含泪结束了一轮又一轮的拥抱后，他不得不在没有得到波波维奇拥抱的情况下离开。他迫不及待地想和波波维奇通话，分享这一时刻，去回味自波波维奇最初意识到必须给他自由以寻找伟大以来，他已经走了多远。
“我需要给他打电话。我需要见他。我需要和他聊聊，因为我现在根本无法想象他是什么感受，”文班亚马说。“我不知道他会不会就此接受采访，或者我们能不能看到他的采访。是的，我猜他不会去接受采访。所以当我跟他聊天时，这些话只会记在我的脑海里，除非我偷偷录音，但我必须尽快和他聊聊。”
波波维奇无疑会感到骄傲、兴奋，而且可能并不会太惊讶。克劳福德也同样不感到惊讶。
当他和文班亚马结束晚餐并在第二天踏上球场时，他无法相信这位未来的西决 MVP 能够如此迅速地“下载”他传授的每一条信息。文班亚马就像是篮球界的蜂群思维，是篮球知识的集大成者。
在克劳福德看来，只要他能想象得出来的动作，文班亚马就能做得到。于是克劳福德向他展示了控球技巧、后撤步，以及所有让克劳福德当年极难防守的绝活。他知道，无论他教给文班亚马什么，最终都会成为历史的一部分。而所有支持文班亚马的人，也都是这段历史的见证者。
第四节，文班亚马打进了他在这轮系列赛中的最后一球，那是一记单打后撤步跳投。在克劳福德看到文班亚马注视着防守球员杰林·威廉姆斯 (Jaylin Williams) 眼睛的那一瞬间，他就在直播中预言了这一球。克劳福德熟悉那个眼神。他也知道即将到来的结果。
“我早就料到了！”他说道。“我早就料到了！”
如今，这一刻终于来了。
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：Victor Wembanyama finds true self in cocoon of pressure, leading Spurs to NBA Finals
Victor Wembanyama finds true self in cocoon of pressure, leading Spurs to NBA Finals
OKLAHOMA CITY — Pressure can bury people. A mountain of expectations makes the burden of the moment harder to carry. Usually.
But that is where Victor Wembanyama found his comfort zone.
Jamal Crawford remembers learning that over dinner with Wembanyama two years ago. As Wembanyama cut into a piece of salmon, the NBC commentator and former Sixth Man of the Year posed a layered question that yielded a simple answer. Crawford asked how he felt about the pressure to live up to the lineage of Tim Duncan and David Robinson as the next great San Antonio Spurs center.
“I feel safe,” Wembanyama told him.
The pressure was a place to store, understand and channel his emotions and goals. It was the cocoon he entered after a Game 5 loss that left the Spurs facing elimination, as the typically loose and pensive Wembanyama disappeared.
It all came out in these last two victories, when the complete Wembanyama, the ready Wembanyama, emerged. Now, after leading the Spurs to a 111-103 Game 7 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, his playoff debut has run all the way to the NBA Finals.
“This game is so hard, this team [The Thunder] is so good, that you gotta use every single emotion you got in you in order to win,” Wembanyama said on NBC’s postgame show. “Like, sometimes, these emotions (are) passion. It’s love for the game. Sometimes it’s anger. Sometimes it might even be jealousy, but I don’t wanna weigh myself down with any of these energies. I use them on the court.”
That was apparent in Game 1, when Wembanyama sat there watching Shai Gilgeous-Alexander receive the MVP trophy and then went out and delivered the greatest performance of his career. It showed at various times throughout the Western Conference finals, when his emotions got the best of him, or he got the best of them. The series ended with the MVP meeting Wembanyama in the paint in the final minute. With the season on the line, Gilgeous-Alexander passed out of it, just like everyone else does.
Wemby’s magnum nope-us.
Ultimately, jealousy turned into power. Fear turned into strength. Confusion turned into determination.
But there was a moment in the early second quarter of Game 7 when he was leaning, quite literally, on Bismack Biyombo for advice. His vet gave him a speech about how he was playing and carrying himself.
The what, which he knows, but more importantly, the why and the how, which he’s learning.
“It’s the first time you’re facing the NBA playoffs with somebody else on the other side that won the MVP that you were supposed to win — that’s even more pressure. It brings joy,” Biyombo told The Athletic. “I think when you see all the emotions of crying, the road has been so tough. To bring so much joy into how much sacrifice that people have done in this locker room, accepting their roles, and the most important thing is that Vic has handled the pressure so well. (We) kind of started understanding that in order for him to handle it so well, we all got to help him, rather, in a small way or big way.”
As the night went on, Wembanyama figured out the Thunder’s vaunted defense and continuously manipulated the shape of the game. He tapped into every single skill in his arsenal until there were no more follow-ups to all the questions he answered. The aspiring grandmaster eventually found checkmate.
When the buzzer sounded, Wembanyama went through and hugged every member of the Spurs organization he could find. After the celebrations, he brought the Magic Johnson series MVP trophy to the Spurs fans dangling over the tunnel and let every one of them touch it.
Wembanyama has learned to deal with this pressure by leaning on everyone in his community, from his coaches to his camp to the franchise legends to Gregg Popovich. Even the support of the fans. He had to share the spoils with them. They all earned it.
“I would say what I learned is I can go through hurdles that I didn’t know those hurdles could get so high,” Wembanyama said. “It’s just pushing through. I found resources inside of me, relentlessness. I already knew that, but doing it at this level, this is the best basketball on the planet that’s being played right now.”
Now that he’s been pushed beyond his breaking point and found another Wemby on the other side of it, he’s reveling in the new world he’s unlocked for himself. The desperation he found with his back against the wall showed that there are still new Victors to discover deep down inside.
“The crazy thing is, maybe I’m crazy for that, but I want to do that 15, 20 more times,” Wembanyama said. “Let’s hope it doesn’t become an addiction. Maybe it is already.”
It clearly is. This was a place everyone who has seen Wembanyama expected him to get one day. They just didn’t see it coming this soon. Maybe Popovich did. Before Crawford agreed to work with Wembanyama after the 7-foot-4 positionless wonder’s rookie season, he called Popovich, then still the Spurs’ coach, to run it by him. Popovich embraced the idea, feeling that Crawford building up Wembanyama’s creative ballhandling would help unlock something the Spurs had come to embrace.
“He was like, ‘You know what? Honestly, I think we’ve even held him back,’” Crawford recalled Popovich saying. “‘He was ahead of where we thought he would be, and he’s so unique. We didn’t know exactly how to use him, and we kind of figured it out.’”
This game showed the myriad ways they figured it out, and how coach Mitch Johnson and his staff have successfully carried out the plan first laid by Popovich. His successor proved to be a worthy apprentice in a series shaped by constantly clashing adjustments and counters.
But when Wembanyama finished his tearful parade of hugs, he had to leave without an embrace from Pop. He couldn’t wait to talk to him, to share this moment, to revel in how far he’s come since Popovich first recognized he needed to be set free to find his greatness.
“I need to call him. I need to see him. I need to talk to him because there’s no way I can understand right now how he feels,” Wembanyama said. “I don’t know if he’s going to do an interview about it or if we can get one. Yeah, I figured he’s not going to. So when I talk to him, it’s going to be only stored in my head, except if I record in secret, but I need to talk to him so quick.”
Popovich will undoubtedly be proud, thrilled and probably not too surprised. Crawford isn’t.
When he and Wembanyama finished their dinner and hit the court the next day, he couldn’t get over how quickly the future Western Conference Finals MVP could download every bit of data Crawford fed him. Wembanyama is the basketball hive mind, a bundle of knowledge of the game.
It was clear to Crawford that if he could imagine it, Wembanyama could do it. So Crawford showed him the handles, the step back, everything that made Crawford so hard to contain. He knew that eventually, whatever he taught Wembanyama would become part of history. All of those who support Wembanyama are part of it.
In the fourth quarter came Wembanyama’s final basket of the series, a step back in isolation, one that Crawford foreshadowed on the broadcast the second he saw Wembanyama look his defender, Jaylin Williams, in the eyes. Crawford knew the look. And he knew the result that was coming.
“I saw it coming!” he said. “I saw it coming!”
Now, it’s here.
By Jared Weiss, via The Athletic