By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-06-02 16:40:15
2026年6月2日星期二，圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)（左）在球队训练和媒体采访后，走在圣安东尼奥霜银中心（Frost Bank Center）的走廊上。此时，他的球队正准备在总决赛中迎战纽约尼克斯队。
那些总冠军旗帜并不属于维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)，不属于斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle)，也不属于迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper)。他们还没有为之立下汗马功劳。
至少现在还没有。
但是，当他第一次踏入霜银中心——那是一个和本周二一样炎热的六月下午——文班亚马就注意到了悬挂在球馆穹顶的荣誉。三个夏天前的那个周末，他与几位身材高大的中年人共进晚餐，他们的退役球衣号码分列在五面NBA总冠军旗帜的两侧。从那时起，他就立志要向他们致敬。
通过尊重他们所建立的一切。
并努力让这份辉煌重焕新生。
这就是马刺新一代球员在通往总决赛之路上处理得极其精妙的平衡艺术。这也是他们可以在周三晚上的总决赛第一场——重温1999年对决的舞台上——开始完成的闭环。
这支马刺队季后赛得分前九名的球员中，有七人在27年前马刺击败尼克斯夺冠时甚至还没有出生。当时，一位来自纽约的客队记者曾将圣安东尼奥称为“沉睡的牛仔小镇”，另一位记者则写道，当时的阿拉莫城真正想要的，只是“换换口味，赢下点什么”。
马刺中锋维克托·文班亚马：“我爱上篮球是很小很小的时候。我的意思是，我有自己抱着篮球的照片，那时候我还小到根本记不得事。……我想，所有孩子都喜欢奖杯和奖牌。” pic.twitter.com/okSGX2Xq5l
— 马刺国度 (@ Spurs_Nation) 2026年6月2日
但这种传承纽带依然存在。在即将首次登上这个蒂姆·邓肯 (Tim Duncan)、大卫·罗宾逊 (David Robinson)、马努·吉诺比利 (Manu Ginobili) 和托尼·帕克 (Tony Parker) 曾彻底改变球队与城市声誉的舞台前夕，文班亚马的语气显得十分笃定。
“感觉就像是他们在托举着我们，你懂吗？”文班亚马在周二说道，“他们在指引我们走向正确的方向。”
当然，这个方向并不能保证他们本周稳操胜券。尼克斯队不仅像大多数打进总决赛的球队一样势头正盛，而且他们来到圣安东尼奥时深知马刺绝非不可战胜。
去年12月，纽约队在NBA季中锦标赛（NBA Cup）的决赛中击败了文班亚马领衔的马刺队，并在今年3月的麦迪逊广场花园球馆再次取胜。与27年前不同，当时崭露头角的邓肯身边环绕着一群经验丰富的季后赛老将，而本周，尼克斯队在体型和经验上都占据优势。
2025年10月26日星期日下午，在圣安东尼奥霜银中心举行的马刺队对阵布鲁克林篮网队的主场揭幕战前，一面致敬前圣安东尼奥马刺队主教练格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 的新旗帜揭幕。旗帜上写着“Pop 1,390”，代表波波维奇在马刺队执教期间创造的NBA历史常规赛胜场纪录。
要克服这一切，像文班亚马、卡斯尔和哈珀这样的年轻球员不能仅仅依靠仰望球馆穹顶来寻找灵感。他们需要统治比赛——或者至少在比赛的某些阶段展现统治力——就像他们在前三轮中所做的那样。
他们需要以一种为“马刺之道”注入现代诠释的方式来做到这一点。如果他们打得比以前那些夺冠老马刺更快——如果文班亚马在场上拔起投篮，而那是邓肯甚至在电玩娱乐城里都做梦想不到去尝试的动作；又或者如果卡斯尔飞天遁地完成十几个扣篮，而以前波波维奇执教的某些马刺队可能好几个月都不会尝试这么多次——这并不需要让人觉得矛盾。
从1999年到2014年，那些巅峰期的马刺队最擅长的事情就是适应与进化。正如当前马刺更衣室里的一位老将所指出的，文班亚马领衔的这支队伍想要实现的目标，与当年邓肯统治时期的马刺帝国并无二致。
“说实话，我认为这两者是一回事，”哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes) 说道，“我们如何为那份传奇锦上添花，并将其转化为属于我们自己的东西？”
正如德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 所说，他们带着“一种尊重和责任感，深知当你穿上这件球衣时，你就承载了人们的期望。”
维克托·文班亚马谈到尼克斯队：“这是一支由经验丰富的球员组成的优秀球队，他们能走到这里绝非偶然，而是多年来不懈努力的结果。……在我看来，他们理应站在这里。他们每一个人都会以自己的方式展现出极度饥渴的求胜欲。” pic.twitter.com/VnCzeyvJK3
— 马刺国度 (@ Spurs_Nation) 2026年6月2日
他们通过汲取过去有益的经验，同时拥抱每一个新时代、每一个新赛季以及每一次新对决所带来的变化来实现这一目标。
马刺队39岁的主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 并不像波波维奇那样处理所有事情。是的，他经常向自己的长期恩师请教，后者依然是球队训练馆的常客，但约翰逊和他的教练组已经非常个性化地制定了他们的比赛计划和整体执教方法。
深夜的团队聚餐不像以前那么频繁了。训练和投篮热身的组织方式，也与波波维奇执教末期不尽相同。
不过，这并不意味着其中没有许多熟悉的传承影子。
“我的餐厅名单和红酒清单可能和波波维奇的不一样，”约翰逊说道，“但我们正努力将这一切联系起来，并继续书写新的篇章。”
这些新篇章同样也在球馆之外书写。1999年的总决赛距离现在有多遥远？
在那个时候，圣安东尼奥还不是胜利、球队稳定性、甚至是“枯燥的优秀”的代名词。作为一个体育城市，它当时并没有试图去唤醒过去的辉煌。由于从未享受过捧杯庆典或夺冠河畔游行，它当时仅仅是在努力接受一个在当时还很陌生的想法——一个篮球赛季的结束，除了心碎之外，还可以有其他结局。
“本周，这座城市正处于情感的剃刀边缘，”在阿拉莫穹顶体育馆（Alamodome）承办第一场比赛的前一天，一位来自（纽瓦克）《明星纪事报》的专栏作家这样写道，“它比德克萨斯七月下午穿着紧身内裤的胖子还要焦虑扭动。”
如今，那种焦虑感已经不复从前。如果说本周有哪支球队的球迷群体正处于情感的剃刀边缘，那也是另外一支等待夺冠的时间远超12年的球队的拥趸。
如果这一次局势再次变得紧张呢？文班亚马、卡斯尔和哈珀可以仰望球馆穹顶，心怀感激地谢谢那些曾经指引道路的前辈。
因为他们知道，自己已经准备好去赢取属于他们自己的总冠军旗帜了。
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 Wembanyama and Spurs honor franchise’s past while forging new path
How Wembanyama and Spurs honor franchise’s past while forging new path
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, left, walks down a hallway at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Tuesday, June 2, 2026, following a team practice and media interviews as his team prepares to take on the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals.
The banners don’t belong to Victor Wembanyama, or to Stephon Castle, or to Dylan Harper. They have done nothing to earn them.
Not yet, anyway.
But the first time he set foot in the Frost Bank Center, on a hot June afternoon not unlike Tuesday’s, Wembanyama took note of what was hanging in the rafters. That same weekend three summers ago, he shared a dinner with some of the tall, middle-aged men whose jersey numbers flank the row of five NBA championship flags, and he set out to honor them.
By respecting what they’d built.
And trying to make it new again.
This is the needle the Spurs’ latest generation threaded so brilliantly on their way to the NBA Finals. It’s also the loop they can start to close Wednesday night in Game 1 of a 1999 rematch.
Seven of these Spurs’ top nine playoff scorers weren’t alive to see their franchise forefathers break through against the Knicks 27 years ago, when one visiting reporter from New York referred to San Antonio as a “sleepy cow town” and another wrote that what the Alamo City really wanted back then was “to win something, for a change.”
Spurs center Victor Wembanyama: “Falling in love with basketball happened really early on in my life. I mean, I have pictures of myself with a basketball at an age where I was not even old enough to have memories. … I guess all kids love trophies and medals.” pic.twitter.com/okSGX2Xq5l
— Spurs Nation (@ Spurs_Nation) June 2, 2026
But the link remains. On the eve of his debut on the stage where Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker all changed the reputation of an organization and a city, Wembanyama sounded sure of it.
“It’s like they’re carrying us, you know?” Wembanyama said Tuesday. “They’re guiding us in the right direction.”
That direction guarantees them nothing this week, of course. The Knicks not only enter the Finals on a roll, as most Finals teams do, they arrive in San Antonio knowing the Spurs are far from invincible.
New York beat Wembanyama and company in the championship game of the NBA Cup last December, and did it again at Madison Square Garden in March. Unlike 27 years ago, when an up-and-coming Duncan was surrounded by hardy playoff vets, the Knicks have the edge in both size and experience this week.
A new banner honoring former San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is unveiled before the Spurs’ home opener against the Brooklyn Nets at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 26, 2025. The banner reads “Pop 1,390,” which represents Popovich’s NBA-record regular-season win total with the team.
To overcome all that, youngsters like Wembanyama, Castle and Harper will have to do more than simply look up to the rafters for inspiration. They’ll need to dominate games – or at least stretches of games — the way each of them did during the first three rounds.
They’ll need to do it in a manner that puts a modern spin on the Spurs Way. And if they play faster than those old championship teams did – if Wembanyama pulls up for shots Duncan never would have dreamed of attempting at a Dave and Buster’s, or if Castle skies for a dozen of the kind of dunks some Gregg Popovich teams went months without trying — it needn’t feel contradictory.
What the elite Spurs teams from 1999 to 2014 all did best was adapt and evolve. And as one of the elder statesmen in the current Spurs locker room noted, there’s no difference in what the Wembanyama-led group is trying to accomplish and what the Duncan powerhouses did.
“I think it’s one and the same, honestly,” Harrison Barnes said. “How do we add to that legacy and make this thing our own?”
As De’Aaron Fox noted, they do it “with a level of respect and with a level of responsibility, knowing that when you put this jersey on that you have an expectation.”
Victor Wembanyama, on the Knicks: “It’s a great team of experienced guys who are not here by chance, but by relentless effort over the years. … They’re right where they’re supposed to be, in my opinion. All of them are going to be super hungry in their own way.” pic.twitter.com/VnCzeyvJK3
— Spurs Nation (@ Spurs_Nation) June 2, 2026
They do it by embracing the parts of the past that can help them, while also embracing the change that comes with every new era, every new season, and every new matchup.
Mitch Johnson, the Spurs’ 39-year-old coach, doesn’t do everything the way Popovich did. Yes, he regularly consults his longtime mentor, who’s remained a fixture at the team practice facility, but Johnson and his staff have very much made their game plans and their overall approach their own.
There aren’t as many late-night team dinners as there used to be. Practices and shootarounds aren’t conducted quite like they were at the end of Popovich’s reign.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of familiar threads running through it, though.
“My restaurant list and wine list may not be the same as Pop’s,” Johnson said. “But we’re trying to connect it all, and keep writing new chapters.”
Those new chapters are being written outside the arena, too. How long ago were the 1999 Finals?
Back then, San Antonio was not yet synonymous with winning, or with organizational continuity, or even with boring excellence. As a sports city, it wasn’t trying to reawaken its past. Having never enjoyed a trophy celebration or a championship river parade, it merely was trying to come to terms with the then-foreign idea that a basketball season could end in anything but heartbreak.
“This town sits on the edge of an emotional razor blade this week," a columnist from the (Newark) Star-Ledger wrote about San Antonio the day before the Alamodome hosted Game 1. “It twitches more than a fat guy with tight underwear on a July afternoon in Texas.”
That twitch isn’t what it used to be. If any fan base sits on the edge of an emotional razor blade this week, it’s that of a franchise that has waited a lot longer than 12 years to win a title.
And if things get tense this time? Wembanyama, Castle and Harper can look into the rafters, thankful for those who guided the way.
Knowing they’re ready to earn a banner of their own.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News