By Sam Amick | The Athletic, 2026-06-10 10:00:32
纽约——如果不是拥有极强的集体自信，圣安东尼奥马刺队就无法赢下第三场比赛，并在与纽约尼克斯队的总决赛中继续保留悬念。
这是一支年轻的队伍，在主场遭遇两场惨痛的失利后，于周一晚上在麦迪逊广场花园挑战全美最令人畏惧的客场环境之一。如果他们当时彻底放弃（松开那根象征坚持的绳索），大比分落后到0-3，谁也不会感到意外。
这项任务需要极强的意志力、专注度、爆发力，当然，还有“适当的恐惧”——因为这就是马刺的方式。他们需要鼓起所有的勇气来迎接这样一个时刻，一个看起来似乎已经溜走的时刻。
相反，这支由维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 领衔的马刺队，现在有机会在周三晚上麦迪逊广场花园进行的第四场比赛中彻底扭转系列赛的局势。事实证明，马刺在客场展现出的这些令人印象深刻的特质，正是传奇教练格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 两天前在球队出发离开圣安东尼奥时发表的演讲的核心内容。
就在马刺队的行李被装上飞往大苹果城（纽约）的包机后不久，并不随队出征的波波维奇登上了飞机，发表了一番罕见且令人难忘的动员讲话。由于排在马刺包机前面的一架飞机轮胎爆裂导致严重延误，他们在跑道上有充足的时间交流。于是，这位77岁的老帅——他的执教生涯在2024年11月因中风而被迫中断，目前担任球队篮球事务总裁——决定在本赛季首次登上球队飞机，提醒大家这轮系列赛还没有结束。
“他基本上是说，虽然我们给自己挖了个坑，但我们有能力自己爬出来，”马刺后卫达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 向《The Athletic》透露，“他告诉我们要保持自信——来到这里并充满信心，我们能走到这一步是有原因的。”
随着马刺资深高管R.C. 布福德 (R.C. Buford) 和总经理莱特 (Brian Wright) 执掌管理层，以及上赛季接过教鞭的米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 在教练席主持大局，波波维奇近期大多退居幕后。但在今年的季后赛中，他似乎在寻找特定时机在幕后发声，以施加自己的影响力。这其中包括在西部决赛对阵俄克拉荷马城雷霆的第三场比赛后造访更衣室，当时马刺大比分1-2落后，他的语气要严厉得多。
这一次，福克斯表示，波波维奇是在提醒大家，他们有理由保持信念。他向全队发表了近10分钟的讲话，随后坐在当家球星文班亚马身旁，又花了20分钟与球员和教练们进行单独交流。之后，他走下飞机，马刺队随后启程飞往纽约。
在福克斯看来，波波维奇偶尔传递的信息既深思熟虑又充满深意，这让这些话语显得更加弥足珍贵。
“他能来总是件好事，”福克斯说道，他在比赛还剩12.2秒时迎着OG·阿奴诺比 (OG Anunoby) 投中的中距离致命一击帮助马刺领先5分并锁定胜局。“他来的时候并不总是对全队讲话，偶尔会和个人聊聊。但是，是的，每当波波维奇对全队讲话时，感觉真的很棒。他不会为了说话而说话。”
正如约翰逊在周二的马刺媒体采访中所分享的那样，这支去年未能打进季后赛的队伍，整个赛季都展现出了将信念转化为顶级赛场表现的能力。拉斯维加斯的博彩商最初预测他们只能拿到44.5场胜利，但他们最终仅落后卫冕冠军俄克拉荷马城雷霆队两场，取得了全联盟第二好的战绩（62胜20负，雷霆为64胜18负）。
即使在这轮系列赛中，当他们输掉前两场比赛时，队内也弥漫着一种奇特——甚至近乎妄想——的平静。文班亚马在第一场失利后坚称自己“一点也不担心”，并且在马刺输掉第二场后依然保持乐观。而现在，马刺深知第四场的胜利将在哥谭市（纽约）引发恐慌，同时让他们处于在第五场主场夺回系列赛主动权的绝佳位置，他们将努力延续这一势头。
“我们现在已经打了100多场比赛了，”约翰逊说，“我们知道信念一直都在。这并不意味着仅仅因为你相信与否，就能决定一场比赛的输赢。这其中涉及很多因素。但我们一整年都对自己很诚实。所以，每当我们不断被问到——‘我们相信吗？我们有信心吗？我们能做到吗？’——我们的回答是肯定的。这并不意味着我们总能打出最好的表现，不意味着我们不犯错误，也不意味着我们不会输掉比赛。
“（但是）我们相信我们为此付出的努力，相信彼此，相信我们的行事和运转方式，以及我们将如何应对。这贯穿了我们整个赛季的逆境与顺境。……这不是年龄或经验的问题，而是性格和特质决定的。”
卡斯尔的崛起与火箭的“如果当时”
当马刺二年级后卫斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 在2024年选秀大会前审视乐透签形势时，有一个主导想法在他的应对过程中起到了关键作用。
“我当时只是在看（圣安东尼奥的）防守端，在我看来，能够与维克托搭档绝对是一个加分项，”卡斯尔最近告诉《The Athletic》，“我只是觉得那会是完美的契合，而我也确实觉得就是这样。”
尽管这位康涅狄格大学（UConn）出品的球员认为自己是选秀中最好的球员，但他并不太在乎是否成为状元，而是更看重契合度。当时有报道称，卡斯尔选择不参加几支球队的单独试训，是因为他希望避开那些已经拥有成熟首发控球后卫的球队。
其中一支球队就是休斯敦火箭队，他们最终用探花签选中了来自肯塔基大学的里德·谢泼德 (Reed Sheppard)（在此之前，扎卡里·里萨谢 (Zaccharie Risacher) 被亚特兰大老鹰队用状元签选中，亚历克斯·萨尔 (Alex Sarr) 在第二顺位被华盛顿奇才队选中）。据联盟消息人士透露，火箭队主帅、前马刺助理教练艾米·乌度卡 (Ime Udoka) 非常欣赏卡斯尔（卡斯尔表示他对此心知肚明）。但由于老将弗雷德·范弗利特 (Fred VanVleet) 坐镇控卫位置，年轻的杰伦·格林 (Jalen Green) 担任得分后卫，卡斯尔和他的经纪团队向休斯敦方面释放了某些信号，最终促使他如愿加盟圣安东尼奥。
“我认为去（圣安东尼奥）一直是我名单上的首选，”在2025年获得年度最佳新秀的卡斯尔说道，“在内心深处，我一直觉得自己是那届选秀中最好的球员。（但是）我不知道会发生什么。我的经纪人总是告诉我，选秀中什么都可能发生。比如，你可能没有为某支球队试训过，也没有和他们交谈过，但他们仍然可能选中你。所以，我的意思是，我当时并没有真正计划去休斯敦打球。我不太清楚这一切是如何运作的。我只是希望自己能顺理成章地落到圣安东尼奥。这对我来说确实挺顺利的。”
确实如此。
当然，讽刺的是，自将卡斯尔招致麾下后，马刺又引进了两名核心后卫（福克斯和他们去年在第二顺位从罗格斯大学选中的迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper)）。但正如卡斯尔在对阵尼克斯的第三场比赛中所展现的那样——他砍下23分（14投8中）、5个篮板、5次助攻，且只有2次失误，正负值为+6——他对于球队的建队蓝图依然像以前一样重要。
交易传闻及一些想法
- 据联盟消息人士透露，萨克拉门托国王和夏洛特黄蜂最近就国王内线多曼塔斯·萨博尼斯 (Domantas Sabonis) 进行了接触。虽然交易并非迫在眉睫，且在6月23日选秀大会前似乎不太可能达成，但消息人士称，黄蜂对这位30岁、曾三次入选全明星的球员有一定兴趣。目前的问题似乎在于，国王一直希望在这笔交易中获得夏洛特两个首轮签中的一个（黄蜂拥有第14号和第18号签），而黄蜂则表示希望保留选秀权，并在今年夏天晚些时候再讨论萨博尼斯的交易。萨博尼斯的合同还剩两年（下赛季为4540万美元，2027-28赛季为4860万美元）。
- 发生在纽约街头的这些荒唐事必须停止。在第三场比赛结束后，几名马刺球迷遭到袭击，纽约市警察局（NYPD）报告称有五名警员受伤。过错方并不能代表整个球迷群体，但仅仅因为穿着客队球衣就可能被打得头破血流，这既令人不齿又让人感到恐惧。好在双方的球员和教练都在周二站出来对此予以谴责（相关报道链接)。
- 正如文班亚马经常说的那样，他是一个非常看重自己日常习惯的年轻人。为此，他习惯在每场赛后新闻发布会结束后，立即与他的两位经纪人布纳·恩迪亚耶 (Bouna Ndiaye) 和杰里米·梅贾纳 (Jeremy Medjana) 会面。这种非正式的聚会通常安排在球馆后方的角落里，媒体成员虽然在周围走动，但不会侵占他们的空间。然而，在世界媒体之都纽约却并非如此。在第三场比赛结束后，这三人被各种长枪短炮的摄像机团团围住。从笔者的角度来看，令人敬佩的是，这三个人居然能表现得好像聚光灯根本不存在一样，继续（大概是）讨论着当晚那场改变系列赛走向的比赛。
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：Gregg Popovich influences Spurs, Steph Castle's draft reflection and trade chatter
Gregg Popovich influences Spurs, Steph Castle’s draft reflection and trade chatter
NEW YORK — The San Antonio Spurs don’t win Game 3, and stay alive in these NBA Finals against the New York Knicks in the process, without having a significant level of collective self-belief.
This was a young team coming off two painful losses at home and facing one of the most intimidating road environments of them all at Madison Square Garden on Monday night. No one would have been surprised if they had let go of the proverbial rope and gone down 3-0.
The job demanded extreme will. Focus. Force. Appropriate fear, of course, because that’s the Spurs’ way. They needed to muster all of the moxie that goes into meeting a moment like this, one that looked as if it had already passed.
Instead, these Victor Wembanyama-led Spurs now have a chance to turn the series on its head in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. And as it turns out, the very traits that were required to respond so impressively were the focus of a speech given by legendary Gregg Popovich as the Spurs headed out of town two days before.
Not long after the Spurs’ bags were loaded onto their charter plane bound for the Big Apple, Popovich — who was not joining the team on the trip — made his way onto the plane and gave a rare rallying cry to remember. There was plenty of time to talk on the runway, as a flat tire on the plane ahead of San Antonio’s caused a significant delay. So Popovich, the 77-year-old whose coaching career was cut short by a stroke in November 2024 and who now serves as the team’s basketball president, decided to get on the plane for the first time all season and remind them all that this series wasn’t over just yet.
“He basically said that even though we dug ourselves a hole, that we can dig ourselves out of it,” Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox shared with The Athletic. “He told us just to be confident — to come out here and be confident, that there’s a reason why we got here.”
With longtime Spurs executive R.C. Buford and general manager Brian Wright leading the way in the front office, and Mitch Johnson running the show on the bench after taking over last season, Popovich has mostly stayed in the background of late. But he appears to be picking his spots to make a mark with his voice behind the scenes in these playoffs, including a locker room visit after Game 3 in the Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City, where he took a much tougher tone when the Spurs fell behind 2-1 in that series.
This time around, Fox said, Popovich was reminding them all that they deserved to believe. He spoke to the group for nearly 10 minutes, then spent an additional 20 minutes individually with players and coaches while seated next to star big man Wembanyama. He then left the plane before the Spurs finally embarked for New York.
As Fox sees it, the deliberate and thoughtful nature of Popovich’s occasional messages has made them all the more meaningful.
“It’s always good when he comes around,” said Fox, whose midrange dagger over OG Anunoby with 12.2 seconds left put the Spurs up five and all but sealed it. “He doesn’t talk to the group all the time whenever he’s around. He’ll talk to individuals every once in a while. But yeah, it definitely feels good whenever Pop addresses the group. (He doesn’t) just address the group just to talk.”
As Johnson shared during the Spurs’ media availability on Tuesday, this group, which didn’t make the playoffs last year, has shown the ability to parlay belief into elite basketball all season. The Vegas oddsmakers had them pegged for 44.5 wins, only to see them finish just two games behind the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder for the league’s best mark (62-20 vs. 64-18).
Even in this series, there was a strange — almost delusional — sense of calm when they dropped the first two games. Wembanyama insisted he “wasn’t worried in the slightest” after the Game 1 loss and remained upbeat in defeat even after San Antonio dropped Game 2. And now, with the Spurs well aware that a win in Game 4 would spark panic in Gotham City while putting them in prime position to take control of the series at home in Game 5, they’ll try to keep that trend going.
“We’ve played over a hundred games now,” Johnson said. “We knew that the belief was going to be there. That doesn’t mean you’re going to win or lose a game, just because you believe or not. There’s a lot of things that go into it. But we’ve just been honest all year. So, every time we keep getting asked — ‘Do we believe? Are we confident? Can we do this?’ — we do. That doesn’t mean we always play our best. Doesn’t mean that we don’t make mistakes. Doesn’t mean we don’t lose games.
“(But) we believe in what we put into this deal, and each other, and how we go about and how we operate and how we’re going to respond. That’s been through adversity and success throughout the season. …That’s not an age thing or an experience thing. That’s a makeup and a personality thing.”
Castle’s ascent and a Rockets what-might-have-been
When second-year Spurs guard Stephon Castle looked at the lottery landscape heading into the 2024 Draft, there was one prevailing thought that played a pivotal part in how he handled the process.
“I was just looking on the defensive side of things (in San Antonio), where being able to pair with Victor was definitely a plus in my eyes,” Castle told The Athletic recently. “I just thought it would have been a perfect fit, and I feel like it was.”
While the UConn product saw himself as the best player in the draft, he was less focused on going No. 1 and more concerned with fit. At the time, there were reports that Castle’s choice not to conduct private workouts with several teams was driven by his desire to avoid teams that already had an established starting point guard.
One of those teams was the Houston Rockets, who ultimately took Reed Sheppard out of Kentucky with the third pick (after Zaccharie Risacher went to Atlanta with the first pick and Alex Sarr went to the Wizards at No. 2). Per league sources, Rockets coach and former Spurs assistant Ime Udoka was a huge fan of Castle’s (which Castle said he was well aware of). But with veteran Fred VanVleet manning the point guard position and young Jalen Green at the two-guard spot, Castle and his camp sent the kinds of signals Houston’s way that eventually led to him landing in San Antonio. Just as he’d hoped.
“I think being (in San Antonio) was always number one on my list,” said Castle, who won Rookie of the Year in 2025. “Internally, I always felt like I was the best player in that draft. (But) I didn’t know what could happen. My agent always told me, like, anything can happen in a draft. Like, you could not work out for a team, not have talked to a team, and they can still take you. So, I mean, I wasn’t really planning on playing in Houston. I didn’t really know how any of that worked. I was kind of hoping I could slide my way to San Antonio. It kind of worked out for me.”
To say the least.
The irony, of course, is that the Spurs have added two lead guards since adding Castle to their roster (Fox and Dylan Harper, who they took second last year out of Rutgers). But as Castle showed in Game 3 against the Knicks, when he finished with 23 points (8-of-14 shooting), five rebounds, five assists, just two turnovers and a plus-six mark, he’s as important to their program as ever.
Trade chatter and a few thoughts
- Per league sources, Sacramento and Charlotte have had recent talks about Kings big man Domantas Sabonis. While a deal is not imminent and appears unlikely before the June 23 draft, sources say the Hornets have some interest in the 30-year-old, three-time All-Star. The problem for now, it seems, is that the Kings have been hoping to land one of Charlotte’s two first-round picks (they have Nos. 14 and 18) in the deal, and the Hornets have signaled a desire to retain their picks and discuss Sabonis later in the summer. Sabonis has two seasons left on his deal ($45.4 million next season and $48.6 million in 2027-28).
- This nonsense on the streets of New York, where several Spurs fans were attacked after Game 3 and NYPD reported that five of their officers were injured, simply has to stop. The guilty parties don’t represent the fanbase at large, but it’s both disgraceful and terrifying to think that the simple act of wearing the opposing team’s jersey might leave you bloodied and battered. Good on the players and coaches, from both sides, for speaking out against it on Tuesday (story here).
- As Wembanyama has often said, he is a young man who greatly values his routine. To that end, he has a habit of visiting with his two agents, Bouna Ndiaye and Jeremy Medjana, immediately after every postgame press conference. The informal gathering is typically off to the side in the back of the arena, with media members milling around but not encroaching on their space. Not in New York, though, the media capital of the world, where the three men were surrounded by cameras of every shape and kind after Game 3. The impressive part, from this vantage point, is that the three men managed to act as if the spotlights weren’t even there as they (presumably) discussed that night’s series-changing events.
By Sam Amick, via The Athletic