By Jon Krawczynski | The Athletic, 2026-06-04 22:02:20
《The Athletic》正在为您图文直播尼克斯对阵马刺的2026年NBA总决赛第二场。
在卡尔-安东尼·唐斯 (Karl-Anthony Towns) 的职业生涯中，有无数个夜晚，他的得分更高、篮板更多、三分更准，在集锦中出现的次数也远超他在总决赛首战中交出的18分、12个篮板和1次盖帽。
但他从未登上过比周三晚上圣安东尼奥更宏大的舞台。他也从未面对过比圣安东尼奥那高耸入云的维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 更具压迫性的身体挑战。而他的表现也从未像在纽约尼克斯队以105-95击败马刺的比赛中那样出色，这场胜利也帮助尼克斯夺回了主场优势。
或许，他在如此白热化且高强度的对抗中所展现出的掌控力与沉着冷静，本就不该令人感到意外。每当球馆内气氛热烈、所有人都在对他大喊大叫时，正是这些时刻让他感觉离母亲最近。杰奎琳·克鲁兹 (Jacqueline Cruz) 于2020年因新冠肺炎并发症去世，这夺走了唐斯家族的女家长，也让唐斯失去了他最忠实的球迷。在过去的任何一座球馆里，他总能在嘈杂的人声中清晰地听到她的声音，而在第一场比赛中，他再次感受到了她的存在。
“我不想说得太煽情或怎样，”他在ESPN的《Inside the NBA》赛后节目中告诉沙奎尔·奥尼尔 (Shaquille O’Neal)，“我不知道那是什么感觉，但我就是感到一种平静与安宁，那一定来自天上的那个女人。我对今天非常有信心。我感觉很好，感觉就像个孩子。在这里打球真的很有趣。”
在篮球场上，“掌控力”和“沉着冷静”这两个词很少会与杰奎琳联系在一起。唐斯的父亲卡尔·唐斯 (Karl Towns) 总是说，他不得不坐在看台的另一个区域，这样他才能专注于比赛，而不至于在杰奎琳为儿子加油时被她在耳边的大喊大叫所干扰。
在2019年费城那个著名的冲突之夜，当时效力于明尼苏达森林狼队的唐斯与宿敌乔尔·恩比德 (Joel Embiid) 因打架被驱逐出场，随后两人还在社交媒体上展开了丑陋的口水战。那一晚留下的一个经典画面，至今仍能让唐斯一家会心一笑：杰奎琳站在球员通道上方，在恩比德退场时指着他大声斥责，而老卡尔则在一旁试图拉住她。
“我打球更多是因为我喜欢看着我的家人看我打球，这是一项我非常擅长且取得成功的运动，”在母亲于2020年去世几个月后，唐斯说道，“每当看到妈妈坐在底线或看台上，开心地看我打球时，我总会露出笑容。”
她已经离开六年了，但仅仅是肉体上的离开。唐斯的耳后和前臂上都有纪念她的纹身。当他在周三晚上的采访中提起她时，这是他致敬母亲并让她的记忆永存的方式。
“在某种程度上，我感觉就像在看台上看到了她，”他告诉奥尼尔，“这很有趣，真的很有趣。这让人感到非常宽慰，因为在总决赛的第一场比赛中，每个人都会告诉你将要面对怎样的压力，一切会是怎样。我不知道该怎么说。”
这种宁静让人想起他职业生涯中另一场重大胜利前几个小时的场景。当时他效力的森林狼队在2024年西部半决赛第七场中击败了卫冕冠军丹佛掘金队。比赛当天，面对森林狼20年来首次重返分区决赛的巨大压力，唐斯在投篮训练结束后留了下来，静静地坐在空无一人的波尔球馆里，等待着灵感的降临。
他在那场比赛中斩获23分和12个篮板，并在最后几分钟用一次补扣锁定了胜局。那天晚上当他走出球馆时，他谈到了那天早些时候他所感受到的平静，就像他的母亲搂着他，告诉他一切都会好起来的。
唐斯表示，在去年的季后赛中，他也再次感受到了母亲的存在。当时在多米尼加母亲节那天，他带领尼克斯队在东部决赛第三场中击败了印第安纳步行者队。
在这段令人心潮澎湃的季后赛征程中，尼克斯队的球迷们展现出了不可思议的能力，他们总能抢到门票并占领客场球馆。这支正在寻求自1973年以来首个总冠军的球队目前已经取得了12连胜。
周三晚上，杰奎琳也来到了霜银中心球馆，但她不需要座位。她没有用大喊大叫来压过马刺球迷的声音以激发唐斯的斗志，而是在儿子的耳边轻声细语——就在那个“4:13”纹身的上方——让他平静下来。她看到他限制住了文班亚马，在唐斯作为最近防守球员时，让文班亚马的投篮仅有12投2中。她看到唐斯在前三节挑起了进攻重担，而杰伦·布伦森 (Jalen Brunson) 则在寻找状态，并试图摆脱膝盖和脚踝酸痛的影响。
她看到了他。
“感觉就像有一种非常温暖、充满爱意的存在在这里，”唐斯说道，“我觉得自己可以在总决赛的第一场比赛中享受到乐趣，这真的很奇妙，因为你本以为这时候的压力会是最大的。”
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：Karl-Anthony Towns' inspiration in huge Game 1 of the NBA Finals? His late mother
Karl-Anthony Towns’ inspiration in huge Game 1 of the NBA Finals? His late mother
The Athletic has live coverage of Knicks vs. Spurs in Game 2 of the 2026 NBA Finals.
There have been so many nights in Karl-Anthony Towns’ career in which he has scored more points, grabbed more rebounds, hit more 3-pointers and appeared on more highlights than the 18 points, 12 rebounds and one block he delivered in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
He has never appeared on a grander stage than the one in San Antonio on Wednesday night. He has never faced a more imposing physical challenge than San Antonio’s towering Victor Wembanyama. And he has never played better than he did in the New York Knicks’ 105-95 victory that wrestled homecourt advantage away from the Spurs.
Maybe the control and composure that he showed amid such heat and intensity should not have come as such a surprise. These are the moments, when the arena is hot and everyone is yelling at him, that feel closest to his mother. Jacqueline Cruz died in 2020 due to complications from COVID-19, robbing the Towns family of its matriarch and KAT of his biggest fan. He could always hear her voice above the din in any building he was playing in, and he felt her presence in Game 1.
“I don’t want to sound sugarcoating or anything like that,” he told Shaquille O’Neal on ESPN’s “Inside the NBA” postgame show. “I don’t know what it was, but I just felt a calm and a peace that had to be come from the woman above. I felt really confident about today. I felt good. I felt like a kid. It was just fun out here.”
The words control and composure were rarely associated with Jacqueline in a basketball arena. Towns’ father, Karl, has always said that he had to sit in another section of the stands so he could focus on the game without Jacqueline screaming in his ear while she cheered for her son.
On a famously volatile night in Philadelphia in 2019, Towns, who played for the Minnesota Timberwolves at the time, and rival Joel Embiid were ejected for fighting and later got into an ugly war of words on social media. An enduring image from that night, one that still brings smiles to the Towns clan to this day, was Jacqueline standing above the tunnel, pointing and yelling at Embiid as he walked off the court and Big Karl tried to restrain her.
“I play this game more because I just love watching my family members seeing me play a game I was very good and successful at,” Towns said months after her passing in 2020. “It always brought a smile for me when I saw my mom at the baseline and in the stands and stuff, and having a good time watching me play.”
She has been gone for six years, but only in the physical sense. Towns has tattoos behind his ear and on his forearm honoring her. And when he brings her up in interviews like he did on Wednesday night, it is his way of paying tribute and keeping her memory alive.
“In a way, I felt like I was seeing her in the stands,” he told O’Neal. “It was fun. It was really fun. It was really comforting because Game 1 of the NBA Finals, you’re told all the pressure there’s going to be and everything is. I don’t know.”
The tranquility was reminiscent of a scene hours before another significant triumph in his career, when his Timberwolves beat the defending champion Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of the 2024 Western Conference semifinals. On the day of the game, with so much pressure on the Timberwolves to return to the conference finals for the first time in 20 years, Towns stayed after shootaround to sit quietly in an empty Ball Arena and wait for inspiration to arrive.
He scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in that game, sealing the victory with a putback dunk in the closing minutes. As he walked out of the arena that night, he spoke of the serenity that he felt in that moment earlier in the day, like his mother putting her arm around him and telling him that everything was going to be OK.
Towns said he felt his mother’s presence again during last season’s playoffs, when he led the Knicks past the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Dominican Mother’s Day.
Knicks fans have shown an uncanny ability to secure tickets and take over road arenas throughout this thrilling playoff run, which has included 12 straight wins for a team seeking its first championship since 1973.
Jacqueline found her way into Frost Bank Arena on Wednesday night as well, but she didn’t need a seat. She was not yelling to drown out Spurs fans and fire Karl up, but whispering in her son’s ear — right above that 4:13 tattoo — to calm him down. She saw him stymie Wembanyama, holding him to 2-for-12 shooting on shots in which he was the closest defender. She saw Towns carry the load offensively in the first three quarters while Jalen Brunson was finding his way and trying to shrug off knee and ankle soreness.
She saw him.
“It felt like a certain presence was here that was very comforting and very loving,” Towns said, “and I felt like I could have fun out here in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which is the weirdest thing because you expect the pressure to be at the highest.”
By Jon Krawczynski, via The Athletic