By Ramona Shelburne, 2026-06-11 20:00:00
在过去的几周里，拉特里尔·斯普雷维尔 (Latrell Sprewell) 以及他那支上一次打进NBA总决赛的纽约尼克斯队的队友们，几乎被问遍了所有与这次对阵圣安东尼奥马刺队相关的每一个可能的问题。
他被问到，尼克斯队正在与27年前的同一个对手交手，这是否有什么特殊意义。他被问到，对于尼克斯队队长杰伦·布伦森 (Jalen Brunson) 有什么记忆——布伦森在1999年时只有3岁，当时他的父亲里克 (Rick) 还是那支球队的轮换角色球员，而他则在场边跑来跑去。他也被问到，那轮系列赛中的任何经验是否能帮助这支球队最终实现突破，为尼克斯队带来1973年以来的首个总冠军。
但是，当斯普雷维尔在周三深夜站在麦迪逊广场花园的球场中央时——在此之前，尼克斯队完成了NBA总决赛历史上最伟大的逆转，以107-106险胜，在这场七局四胜制的系列赛中取得了3-1的领先——斯普雷维尔被问到了同一个问题，而每一个在现场目睹或在家里观看这场比赛的人，也都在试图用语言来解答这个问题。
尼克斯队在第三节还剩9分40秒时曾落后29分，在第三节结束时落后15分，在第四节还剩9分33秒时仍落后20分。
刚才到底发生了什么？
“我甚至无法用语言来形容，”斯普雷维尔告诉ESPN。“我们当时只是在想，‘把比分迫近。缩小到25分，缩小到20分，缩小到15分，缩小到10分。把压力抛给他们。’”
赛后，过去五十年来各个时期的尼克斯队球员涌入球场，与从看台上走下来的朋友、家人和名人们一起庆祝。
平时安保严密的现场工作人员也明白眼前的现实：没有人会离开。
这场比赛对太多人来说意义过于重大，其中包括几十年来无数尝试过却未能给这座城市和渴望了53年的球迷群体带来总冠军的尼克斯队球员和教练们。
“我从未想过他们能完全翻盘，”斯普雷维尔坦言，此时扬声器里正播放着旅行者乐团 (Journey) 的《Don’t Stop Believin’》。“我的意思是，一旦我们追平或者分差缩小到4分以内，我说，‘好吧，我们真的有机会了。’”
但从落后29分一路逆转？甚至在乔什·哈特 (Josh Hart) 在还剩1分57秒时错失那记双手上篮之后？在还剩1.2秒时OG·阿奴诺比 (OG Anunoby) 的那记“上帝之补”？
这怎么可能。
现场音乐切换到了弗兰克·辛纳屈 (Frank Sinatra) 演唱版本的《纽约，纽约主题曲》(Theme From New York, New York)。就像许多沉浸在这一刻的人一样，斯普雷维尔拿出手机相机进行录像，希望能将尼克斯队历史上最伟大的夜晚之一，同时珍藏在自己的记忆和云端之中。
“不过，我们还差一场，”他说。“还差一场。”
在1999年那支仅在对阵马刺队时赢下一场比赛的队伍之后，斯普雷维尔再也没能重返总决赛。他当时还足够年轻，但因跟腱断裂而未能参加99年总决赛的尼克斯队队长帕特里克·尤因 (Patrick Ewing) 却不再年轻了。NBA有一个残酷的现实：有时你只有那一次机会。有时你甚至连一次机会都没有。
卡梅隆·安东尼 (Carmelo Anthony) 为尼克斯队效力了七个赛季，砍下10,186分——在队史得分榜上排名第七——并六次入选全明星阵容。但他甚至从未带队打进过分区决赛。
“这是你应得的！”慈善·辛迪福特-阿泰斯特 (Metta Sandiford-Artest)（他们一起打球时他叫慈善·世界和平 (Metta World Peace)）在赛后球场上找到安东尼时对他说。“是你开启了这一切。”
安东尼笑了。整晚他都在自己的座位上向场上的现役尼克斯队球员大声喊着指导和观察到的情况，包括在尼克斯队投进绝杀球之前的那一刻。
“我一直在朝他们大喊：‘有前场板！有前场板！’”安东尼告诉ESPN。“暂停回来后，我和他们进行了眼神交流，并大喊‘有前场板！去个人！’”
“我不知道谁会冲过去。但我就是一直在喊，‘去个人！’”
那个“某人”最终成了阿奴诺比，他将球发给布伦森，然后在布伦森的投篮飞越马刺队身高7英尺4英寸的中锋维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 时，向篮筐冲去。
阿奴诺比跃过了三名都漏掉卡位的马刺队防守球员——迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper)、斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell)——用右手将篮板球补进，随后摔倒在地上。此时，球馆内的每一个人都开始意识到他们刚刚目睹了多么伟大的奇迹。
哈特就是其中之一。他在30秒前的卡位失误导致卡斯尔两罚全中，让圣安东尼奥取得了1分的领先优势。
“本赛季的每一场比赛、每一秒钟、每一次训练，都将我们带到了这一刻，”哈特说。“现在我们必须在周六前往圣安东尼奥，为另一场恶战做好准备。”
“特别要感谢OG，伙计，因为他拯救了我，至少在这场比赛中，让我免遭终生遗憾。”
当阿奴诺比冷静地跑向尼克斯队的替补席时，卡尔-安东尼·唐斯 (Karl-Anthony Towns) 紧紧地拥抱了他，狂喜之情溢于言表。
“你可以看到我的反应，那种情绪，在那个时刻宣泄了出来，”在第四节贡献了关键5分的唐斯说道。“那是喜悦的泪水……你所能做的就是争取一个机会。”
“而对我个人而言，我只是想要人生中的一次转机。我得到了。在最后一次进攻中，OG补篮得手，随后我们成功防守，我得到了这个转机。”
唐斯在哈德逊河对岸的新泽西州爱迪生市长大。他的父亲老卡尔 (Karl Sr.) 曾参加过尼克斯队的试训，但在当地公园的一次意外中折断了脚踝，从此再也没有获得进入NBA的机会。
“这不属于我，”老唐斯 (Towns Sr.) 赛后告诉ESPN。“这是属于我儿子的。这是命中注定要由他来完成的。”
当然，尼克斯队仍然需要再赢一场。再赢一场就能夺得总冠军，而这个冠军在过去几十年里，对无数篮球巨星来说就像是无法抗拒的塞壬歌声般充满诱惑：安东尼、菲尔·杰克逊 (Phil Jackson)、伯纳德·金 (Bernard King)、帕特·莱利 (Pat Riley) 以及尤因——尤因曾在1994年距离夺冠仅差一步，但随后哈基姆·奥拉朱旺 (Hakeem Olajuwon) 和休斯顿火箭队赢下了第六场和第七场。
如果尼克斯队在周六获胜，这将终结NBA历史上最长的冠军荒。
就像自1973年以来的每一支尼克斯队一样，这支尼克斯队也承载着所有那些破灭的梦想。但这一群人是不同的。
“他们让我们所有人都觉得自己是其中的一部分，”尤因告诉ESPN。“就像我们是他们的一分子一样。”
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：2026 NBA Finals: The Knicks are one win from a long-awaited title
2026 NBA Finals: The Knicks are one win from a long-awaited title
Over the past few weeks Latrell Sprewell and his teammates from the last New York Knicks team to make the NBA Finals have been asked just about every possible question that could be relevant to this matchup against the San Antonio Spurs.
He has been asked if it meant anything that the Knicks were playing the same team they did 27 years ago. He has been asked what he remembered about Knicks captain Jalen Brunson, who was 3 years old in 1999 and running around while his father, Rick, was a role player on that team. He has been asked if anything from that series could help this team finally break through and deliver the Knicks’ first title since 1973.
But as Sprewell stood at center court of Madison Square Garden late Wednesday night – after the Knicks pulled off the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history to win 107-106 and take a 3-1 lead in this best-of-seven series – Sprewell was asked the same question everyone who had witnessed or watched this game at home was trying to find words for.
The Knicks had trailed by 29 points with 9:40 left in the third quarter, by 15 at the end of the quarter and by 20 with 9:33 left in the fourth.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
“I can’t even put it into words,” Sprewell told ESPN. “We were just thinking, ‘Get it close. Get it to 25, get it to 20, get it to 15, get it to 10. Put the pressure on them.’”
After the game, Knicks players from the past five decades filled the court while friends, family and celebrities who had come down out of the stands celebrated with them.
The normally tight security knew the reality: No one was leaving.
This game meant too much, to too many people, including the decades of Knicks players and coaches who’ve tried and failed to deliver a championship to a city and a fanbase that have been desperate for one for 53 years.
“I never thought they totally had it,” Sprewell conceded as Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” played over the loudspeakers. “I mean, once we got even or we got within four, I said, ‘OK, we have a real shot.’”
But all the way back from 29 points down? Even after Josh Hart blew the two-handed layup with 1:57 left? The OG Anunoby “Tip of God” with 1.2 seconds left?
No way.
The in-house music switched to Frank Sinatra’s version of “Theme From New York, New York,” and, like so many others basking in the moment, Sprewell took out his cellphone camera to record it, hoping to capture one of the greatest nights in Knicks history into both his memory and his cloud.
“We still got one more, though,” he said. “One more.”
Sprewell never made it back to the Finals after that 1999 team, which won just one game against the Spurs. He was young enough, but Knicks captain Patrick Ewing – who didn’t get to play in the '99 Finals because of a torn Achilles – wasn’t. There’s a harsh reality in the NBA: Sometimes you get only that one shot. Sometimes you don’t even get that.
Carmelo Anthony played seven seasons for the Knicks, scored 10,186 points – seventh on the franchise’s career list – and made six All-Star teams. But he never even made it to the conference finals.
“You deserve this!” Metta Sandiford-Artest (who was Metta World Peace when they played together) said to Anthony as they found each other on the court after the game. “You started this.”
Anthony smiled. He had spent the night yelling instructions and observations out to the current Knicks players from his seat, including just before the Knicks’ game winner.
“I was yelling at them the whole time: ‘The offensive rebound is there! The offensive rebound is there!’” Anthony told ESPN. "Coming out of that timeout, I made eye contact with them and was yelling ‘The offensive rebound is there! Somebody go!’
“I didn’t know who was going to go. But I just kept yelling, ‘Somebody go!’”
That somebody ended up being Anunoby, who inbounded the ball to Brunson and then ran toward the rim as Brunson’s shot flew over 7-foot-4 Spurs center Victor Wembanyama.
Anunoby leapt past three Spurs defenders – Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell, who all neglected to box out – and tipped the rebound with his right hand before falling to the ground as everyone in the building started to grasp the enormity of what they had just seen.
Hart was one of them. His missed boxout 30 seconds earlier had resulted in two made free throws from Castle to give San Antonio a one-point lead.
“Every game, every second, every practice of the season, it led us to this point,” Hart said. "Now we have to go into San Antonio on Saturday and get ready for another battle.
“Special shoutout for OG, man, because he saved me, at least for this game, a lifetime of regret.”
As Anunoby coolly ran toward the Knicks’ bench, Karl-Anthony Towns wrapped him in a hug, the jubilation pouring out of him.
“You could see my reaction, the emotion, it kind of spilled out of that moment,” said Towns, who had five crucial fourth-quarter points. "It was tears of joy … all you can do is ask for a chance.
“And for me personally, I just wanted one break in life. And I got one. I got one at that last play with OG making the shot and us getting the stop.”
Towns grew up across the Hudson River in Edison, New Jersey. His father, Karl Sr., once tried out for the Knicks but broke his ankle on a freak play at a local park and never got another NBA shot.
“It wasn’t meant for me,” Towns Sr. told ESPN after the game. “It was meant for my son. It was meant for him to do it.”
The Knicks still need one more win, of course. One more win to clinch a title that has been the great, irresistible siren’s call to so many basketball luminaries over the decades: Anthony, Phil Jackson, Bernard King, Pat Riley and Ewing, who was one win away in 1994 before Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets won Games 6 and 7.
If the Knicks win Saturday, it would close the longest gap between championships in NBA history.
Like every Knicks team since 1973, these Knicks carry all those dashed dreams with them. But this group is different.
“They make us all feel a part of it,” Ewing told ESPN. “Like we’re a part of them.”
By Ramona Shelburne, via ESPN