By Michael C. Wright, 2026-06-14 15:16:08
圣安东尼奥——当尼克斯队的夺冠庆典在马刺主场弗罗斯特银行中心达到高潮时，维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 坐在马刺更衣室外黑幕后的一张椅子上，默默消化着总决赛第五场 94-90 的失利，这场失利也宣告了圣安东尼奥马刺队本赛季的结束。
几分钟后，这位法国人坐在新闻发布台前，深吸了一口气，然后发出一声“哦”的长叹以保持冷静。文班亚马目视前方，当被提醒许多历史级伟大球星在最终登上最高舞台夺冠前也都经历过失败时，他再次发出了一声“哦”的叹息。
“这很痛苦，”文班亚马说道。“但我不会逃避。我会以此为动力。我相信你提到的那些伟大球员，他们绝不会满足于在季后赛首轮被淘汰或者无缘季后赛。我同样不满足于没能赢下总冠军。这是我人生中最大的一课。作为一个团队，没有什么经历能比我们刚刚经历的一切更宝贵了。”
但在此时此刻，对于任何视弗罗斯特银行中心为主场的人来说，这种感觉并不好受。
在这轮总比分 1-4 告负的系列赛中，圣安东尼奥在全部五场比赛中都曾取得过两位数的领先，其中包括在第五场第二节一度手握 16 分的领先优势。然而，在随后的 8 分 29 秒里，尼克斯队在半场结束前将分差蚕食至仅剩 5 分。
尽管如此，凭借文班亚马在上半场的 5 次盖帽，马刺队成功将尼克斯队限制在 37 分，这也是尼克斯本赛季（包括常规赛和季后赛）半场得分最低的一次。问题在于，圣安东尼奥在进攻端未能保持持续的执行力。
“这其中有很多因素，”马刺队主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 说道。“我们配不上赢得这些比赛。执行力体现在很多层面。可能是篮板球，可能是比赛最后的细节，也可能是开局取得领先却无法保持。我们还没有做好赢得 NBA 总冠军的准备。更好的那一支球队赢了。我们做了很多好的方面，但我们没有完成最后的工作。”
这正是最让文班亚马感到刺痛的地方。
比赛的剧本原本几乎要写成：20 岁的菜鸟新秀迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 打出了超越年龄的表现，砍下全队最高的 25 分，配合文班亚马开局阶段统治级的防守，以及朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 的强势复苏——后者摆脱了三分球低迷的泥潭，在外线飙中四记三分。
“有很多回合我都想重新来过，做出不同的选择，”哈珀说道。
尽管在全部五场比赛中都曾取得两位数的领先，维克托·文班亚马和马刺队依然在总决赛中以 1-4 落败。美联社图片/Ross D. Franklin
但尼克斯队在第四节打出一波 10-0 的高潮，在比赛还剩 4 分 48 秒时将比分扳平。随后他们以一波 21-7 的攻势收尾，其中总决赛 MVP 杰伦·布伦森 (Jalen Brunson) 6 投 4 中砍下 15 分。布伦森最终轰下全场最高的 45 分。
纽约在这轮系列赛中赢下的四场比赛总共净胜 16 分，这追平了夺冠球队在四场胜仗中净胜分差第三小的纪录。
“容错空间非常小，”文班亚马说道。“我们打出统治力的时段是绝对的。在系列赛的大部分时间里，我们都占据了绝对统治地位。但我们的失误和犯错受到的惩罚太严重了，我们不能有这么多起伏，你懂吗？起伏中的‘起’没问题，但‘伏’正是我们输球的原因。”
文班亚马在这轮系列赛中也经历了不少这样的起伏。在五场比赛中，他在第四节场均仅得到 7.8 分，投篮命中率仅为 34%，另有 3.2 个篮板。而对于这支需要他发挥巅峰水平来守护那些在比赛后期被蚕食的领先优势的球队来说，这样的表现显然不够。
NBA年度最佳第六人凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 戴着黑色牛仔帽，穿着棕色皮夹克，站在马刺更衣室入口附近，在整个赛后采访过程中一直用一条灰色毛巾擦拭泪水。约翰逊阐述了这支年轻球队在这一路打破季前预期的赛季中所建立起的“真挚情谊”。
与此同时，圣安东尼奥前锋德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 闭上了双眼，空气中弥漫着点燃的雪茄烟味。在赛后采访中，每当尼克斯队的庆祝声变大时，他都会用指尖重重地敲击桌面。
“现在听到那些声音，看到他们在我们的主场冲进球场庆祝，这真的很难受，”瓦塞尔说道。“我们不想要什么‘重在参与’的安慰奖。我们想赢。”
所有的马刺球员都是这么想的。他们也曾真诚地相信自己能做到。没有人会在意他们是自 1977 年波特兰开拓者队以来打进 NBA 总决赛最年轻的球队（平均年龄 25 岁）——当年那支开拓者队在总决赛 0-2 落后费城 76 人队的情况下，最终通过六场大战夺得了总冠军。
最终，圣安东尼奥在本赛季（常规赛或季后赛）首次在弗罗斯特银行中心遭遇主场三连败。
“让我感到愤怒的是，在我们能够重返总决赛之前，可能还要打上百场比赛，”文班亚马说道。“我不知道用英语该怎么表达。但我必须把这种情绪深藏在心底，沉下心来，耐心等待，并在接下来的上百场比赛中去执行。这一切[将塑造我未来的心态]，包括我们是谁、我们的特质以及我们的经历。”
“就积累经验而言，这是极其不可思议的一年。我不认为我们能从一次季后赛之旅、一个赛季，以及我个人过去 18 个月的经历中学到更多、收获更多。这是我人生中最大的一课，也是最伟大的学习时刻。我无法确切地告诉你这一课具体是什么。但我们正在从中吸取教训。我正在经历人生中学习收获最多的时期。”
ESPN Research对本文亦有贡献。
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：Wemby says Spurs losing in Finals 'biggest lesson of my life'
Wemby says Spurs losing in Finals ‘biggest lesson of my life’
SAN ANTONIO – As the Knicks’ championship celebration reached a crescendo at Frost Bank Center on his home court, Victor Wembanyama sat in a chair behind a black curtain outside the Spurs’ locker room, processing the 94-90 loss in Game 5 of the NBA Finals that ended San Antonio’s season.
Several minutes later, the Frenchman sat on a dais inhaling deeply and letting out those breaths with an “ooh” to keep his composure. Wembanyama stared straight ahead, releasing another “ooh” when reminded about some of the all-time greats who failed first before ultimately succeeding on the game’s biggest stage.
“It’s painful,” Wembanyama said. “But I’m not running away from that. I’m using it to fuel me. I’m sure all these guys you named, they’re not satisfied with being eliminated in the earlier rounds or not making the playoffs. I’m not satisfied with not winning. This is the biggest lesson of my life. As a team, there’s no better experience than what we just lived.”
In the moment, it didn’t feel that way for anyone calling Frost Bank Center home.
San Antonio ran off double-digit leads in all five games of a series it lost 4-1, including storming to a 16-point advantage in the second quarter of Game 5. Over the next 8 minutes, 29 seconds, the Knicks would whittle down that lead to five points at intermission.
Still, behind five first-half blocks from Wembanyama, the Spurs managed to limit the Knicks to their lowest-scoring first half of the campaign (regular season or playoffs) at 37 points. The problem was that San Antonio failed to execute consistently on offense.
“There’s a lot that goes into it,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “We didn’t deserve to win the games. There’s a lot of levels of execution. There can be rebounding. There can be end-of-game details. There can be starting the game where you get the lead and then you don’t sustain that. We weren’t ready to win an NBA championship. The better team won. We did a lot of good things, and we didn’t finish the job.”
That’s what stung most for Wembanyama.
The storyline nearly became about a 20-year-old rookie in Dylan Harper playing beyond his years, scoring a team-high 25 points, paired with Wembanyama’s lockdown early defense and a resurgent performance from Julian Champagnie, who shook off a 3-point shooting slump to drill four shots from range.
“There were a lot of possessions I want to take back and do differently,” Harper said.
Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs lost 4-1 in the NBA Finals despite holding double-digit leads in all five games. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
But the Knicks ran off a 10-0 scoring run in the fourth quarter to deadlock the contest with 4:48 left to play. They closed on a 21-7 run, with NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson scoring 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Brunson would finish with a game-high 45 points.
New York’s four wins in the series came by a combined 16 points, which ties for the third-smallest margin in four wins by a championship team.
“The margin for error is very thin,” Wembanyama said. “Our domination stints are absolute. We absolutely dominated for most of the series. But our errors, our mistakes are punished so hard that we can’t have ups and downs like this so much, you know? The ups are OK. The downs are the reason we lost.”
Wembanyama experienced plenty of those in the series, averaging 7.8 points in the fourth quarter on 34% shooting and 3.2 rebounds over five games for a team that needed him at peak performance to protect all the late leads it surrendered.
NBA Sixth Man of the Year Keldon Johnson stood near the entrance to the Spurs locker room in a black cowboy hat and a brown leather jacket, wiping away tears with a gray towel throughout his postgame interview. Johnson explained the “genuine love” the young team developed for one another over the course of a campaign that defied preseason expectations.
San Antonio forward Devin Vassell, meanwhile, closed his eyes, as the smell of lit cigars wafted through the air. He tapped the table loudly with his fingertips every time the Knicks’ celebration grew louder during his postgame interview.
“Hearing that right now, seeing them storming the court on our home court, it’s tough,” Vassell said. “We don’t want a participation trophy to where we just got here. We wanted to win.”
All the Spurs did. They sincerely believed they would pull it off too. None of them cared about being the youngest team – an average age of 25 – to reach the NBA Finals since the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, who won the title that season in six games after trailing the Philadelphia 76ers 2-0.
Ultimately, San Antonio lost three consecutive games at Frost Bank for the first time this campaign (regular season or playoffs).
“What I’m pissed about is there’s probably a hundred games before we can be back in the Finals,” Wembanyama said. "I don’t know how to say it in English. But I’m going to have to hold that inside of me, slow down, wait and execute for a hundred games. It’s going to be all of it [shaping my mentality in the future], who we are, what we’re made of, our experiences.
“This has been a hell of a year in terms of experience. I don’t think we could have learned more and gained more experience in one playoff run and in one season, and personally in 18 months. This is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment. I can’t tell you exactly what the lesson is. But we’re learning from that. I’m learning more than any other time in my life.”
ESPN Research contributed to this report.
By Michael C. Wright, via ESPN