By Mike Finger / San Antonio Express-News, 2026-09-24 16:18:27
2026年5月30日，星期六，俄克拉荷马城佩科姆中心，西部决赛第七场第三节，圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马（1号）在打成一球后庆祝。
和往常一样，规定的行程表上只有篮球。二十年前，马刺可没有派年轻管理层飞跃半个地球去享用大餐、坐观光巴士游览或体验当地文化的习惯。
萨姆·普雷斯蒂 (Sam Presti) 飞往西班牙是为了考察一名新秀。那也是他当时频繁飞往欧洲许多地方的原因。无论你是一名球探、体育记者还是差旅业务员，人们都很容易陷入一种思维陷阱——忘记了除了任务之外，还有一个更广阔的世界。
但在毕尔巴鄂的那次特定行程中，普雷斯蒂做了一件与众不同的事。他去了古根海姆博物馆，欣赏了画作。
“那好像是我去这些国家唯一的一次，”普雷斯蒂说，“除了去看比赛、补觉和写球探报告之外，我真正做了一些别的事情。”
这位俄克拉荷马城总经理在周四长达90分钟的季前年度新闻发布会临近尾声时，穿插了这个小插曲。发布会的大部分时间，他都在详细阐述一支小市场NBA劲旅在把握当下与着眼未来之间努力寻找的平衡。
他的雷霆正力求洗刷在西部决赛中输给他前东家的遗憾。他们正努力将由三位年龄相仿的球星所开创的争冠窗口期最大化。普雷斯蒂的职责，就是做出那些有时极为艰难的决定，以确保不白白浪费雷霆所拥有的良机。
与此同时，他透露自己正在读一本汇集了古巴裔艺术家卡门·埃雷拉 (Carmen Herrera) 作品的书。多年前在毕尔巴鄂古根海姆博物馆的那趟旅程中，埃雷拉的画作曾深深触动了他。
“令人惊叹的画作，对称且线条笔直，”普雷斯蒂赞叹道。
换言之，这与一支NBA球队通往成功的道路截然相反。
而在圣安东尼奥，有一位更年轻、身材也高大得多的“文艺复兴式全才”，他同样在欧洲度过了相当长的时光，并且十分推崇一句话——“成长从非坦途”。在这一点上，维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 理解普雷斯蒂的所思所想。
打进NBA总决赛——然后再想方设法重返那里——其过程鲜少能像埃雷拉的画作那样纯粹而井然有序。
有时你必须做出看似退步的抉择，就此而言，普雷斯蒂今夏在俄克拉荷马城的运筹帷幄，或许预示着马刺总经理布莱恩·莱特 (Brian Wright) 在未来几年也将面临的抉择。毕竟，当雷霆为了削减开支，决定与备受重视的角色球员和长期功臣吕冈茨·多尔特 (Luguentz Dort)、以赛亚·乔 (Isaiah Joe) 和阿龙·威金斯 (Aaron Wiggins) 分道扬镳时，这难道不正是马刺不久后在凯尔登·约翰逊、德文·瓦塞尔或朱利安·尚帕尼身上可能面临问题的翻版吗？
诚然，这两支21世纪西部的模范球队所处的境况并非如出一辙。马刺近年的重建经历了一个比雷霆更漫长、更低谷的休整期，两队累积的薪资结构也存在显著差异。
但笼罩在两队长期前景之上的整体课题却是一致的。具体而言，两家球队都锁定了建队基石（联盟前五级别的巨星）。两边各自两名耀眼的年轻副攻手也即将（或已经）拿到顶薪提前续约合同。即便两支球队在这些核心周围都积累了令人艳羡的阵容深度，但正是围绕这些阵容深度，他们必须做出艰难的抉择。
普雷斯蒂周四特意指出，尽管围绕NBA惩罚性极强的新劳资协议规则有诸多言论，但这其实并非俄克拉荷马城管理层在刻意规避所谓的“第二土豪线”。
2019年7月25日，星期四，俄克拉荷马城雷霆队总经理萨姆·普雷斯蒂在俄克拉荷马城的新闻发布会上接受媒体采访。此前球队经历了一个动荡的夏天，接连交易了球星保罗·乔治和拉塞尔·威斯布鲁克。（美联社图片/Sue Ogrocki）
问题其实更为纯粹。无论工资帽是否存在，像俄克拉荷马城和圣安东尼奥这般规模的球队，大概率都不会向所有角色球员支付他们在其他地方能拿到的薪水。
“对我们来说，运作中那只无形的手是财务状况，”普雷斯蒂说，“倒未必是土豪线。”
借用普雷斯蒂偏爱的另一个比喻：雷霆和马刺起手拿到的底牌，与湖人和尼克斯截然不同。这就是为什么他说NBA更像是一场扑克游戏，而非国际象棋对弈。每个人的底牌都是不一样的。
普雷斯蒂的任务就是将手中的牌发挥到极致。在过去几年里，雷霆在这方面敢为人先——他们率先打造了深厚的轮换阵容，并不拘一格地打破传统位置界限起用球员。如今，他们展现出了前瞻性，提前送走像多尔特这样级别的球员（他曾像约翰逊那样是球队更衣室的中流砥柱），从而为卡森·华莱士 (Cason Wallace) 的成长腾出空间。
再过一年左右，马刺是否也不得不对约翰逊、瓦塞尔或尚帕尼做出类似的抉择，从而不仅为迪伦·哈珀和斯蒂芬·卡斯尔，更为卡特·布莱恩特和杰登·昆坦斯等人确保成长空间？
这看起来确实大有可能。
无论马刺最终决定如何应对，他们都需要像雷霆那样进行一番审慎的自我剖析。
“在竞争势均力敌的时代，”普雷斯蒂说，“关键在于认清球队在整个生命周期中所处的历史节点，并真正权衡利弊、把握契机。”
倘若马刺新一代的管理层也试图追寻对称与笔直的线条？与其在球队的建队规划中寻找，他们倒不如去普雷斯蒂当年顿悟的地方找找看。
去博物馆里找吧。
2026年5月30日，星期六，俄克拉荷马城佩科姆中心，西部决赛第七场第三节，圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马（1号）持球推进。
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。
查看原文：As Spurs and Thunder eye future, why progress isn't a straight line
As Spurs and Thunder eye future, why progress isn’t a straight line
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) celebrates a play during the third quarter of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Saturday, May 30, 2026.
As usual, the required itinerary contained only basketball. Two decades ago, the Spurs were not in the habit of sending young executives halfway around the world to eat fancy meals, or to sit on a tour bus, or to soak up the local culture.
Sam Presti flew to Spain to watch a prospect play. It was the same reason he flew to lots of places in Europe back then. And whether you’re a scout or a sports writer or a traveling salesman, it’s easy to fall into the trap of forgetting there’s a world outside of the assignment.
But on this particular trip to Bilbao, Presti did something different. He went to the Guggenheim and looked at paintings.
“It was like the one time that I actually was in one of these countries,” Presti said, “and I actually did something besides go to the game and catch up on sleep and write reports.”
The Oklahoma City general manager slipped in that anecdote Thursday near the end of his 90-minute annual preseason press conference, the bulk of which was spent detailing the balance a small-market NBA powerhouse is trying strike between seizing the moment and preserving the future.
His Thunder are trying to avenge their Western Conference finals loss to his former employer. They’re trying to maximize the championship opportunities they’ve created with three stars of roughly the same generation. Presti’s job is to make the sometimes-difficult decisions that come with trying not to waste the chances the Thunder have.
In the meantime, he said, he’s reading a book filled with the work of Cuban-born artist Carmen Herrera, whose pieces struck such a chord with him on that trip to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao all those years ago.
“Amazing paintings, symmetrical and straight lined,” Presti marveled.
In other words, not at all like an NBA team’s path to success.
In San Antonio, there is a younger, much taller renaissance man who’s also spent a fair amount of time in Europe, and he’s quite fond of the phrase “progress isn’t linear.” In that way, Victor Wembanyama understands what Presti does.
Making it to the NBA Finals — and then figuring out a way to get back — rarely looks as clean or as orderly as one of Herrera’s paintings.
Sometimes you have to take what looks like a step back, and in that way, Presti’s summer in Oklahoma City might foreshadow one awaiting Spurs general manager Brian Wright in the coming years. After all, when the Thunder decided to cut ties with valued role players and longtime contributors Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins to cut costs, wasn’t this their version of an issue the Spurs might soon face with the likes of Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell or Julian Champagnie?
To be sure, the situations around the Western Conference’s model 21st-century franchises aren’t carbon copies of each other. The Spurs’ recent rebuild took them through a longer, deeper fallow period than the Thunder’s did, and the two balance sheets they’ve accumulated contain some significant differences.
But the same general themes hang over the long-term outlook for both. Specifically, the franchise star (a top-5 player in the league) is locked down in both places. Two pairs of dazzling young sidekicks are about to get (or already are getting) maximum extensions. And even though both franchises have accumulated impressive depth around those cores, it’s within that depth where difficult choices will need to be made.
Presti took care Thursday to point out that, despite so many narratives surrounding the NBA’s punitive new salary cap rules, this isn’t really about Oklahoma City’s owners trying to avoid the so-called “second apron.”
Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti speaks to the media during a news conference in Oklahoma City, after a whirlwind summer that saw the team trade stars Paul George and Russell Westbrook, Thursday, July 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
It’s actually simpler than that. Whether or not the salary cap existed, teams in places like Oklahoma City and San Antonio probably wouldn’t pay all supporting players the salaries they could command elsewhere.
“For us, the ghost in the machine is the finances,” Presti said. “Not necessarily the aprons.”
To use another metaphor Presti loves, the Thunder and Spurs don’t start with the same hands as the Lakers and Knicks do. That’s why he says the NBA is more of a poker game than a chess game. Everybody’s hole cards are different.
Presti’s job was to make the most of his. Over the past few years, the Thunder did this by being forerunners at building deep rotations, and by utilizing players out of traditional positions. Now, they’re being proactive by moving on early from a player like Dort (who’d been a Johnson-esque pillar of the team’s locker room) and making way for the growth of Cason Wallace.
In a year or so, might the Spurs have to do the same with Johnson or Vassell or Champagnie to ensure space for the likes of not just Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle, but also for Carter Bryant and Jayden Quaintance?
That sure seems like a possibility.
However the Spurs decide to handle it, they’ll need to do the same kind of self-examination that the Thunder have.
“In the age of parity,” Presti said, “it’s understanding the moment in time that you have with your organization, over your organizational life cycle, and really thinking through the tradeoffs. And the opportunities.”
And if the Spurs have a new generation of executives seeking symmetry and straight lines? Instead of looking for that stuff in the organizational plan, they can find it where Presti did.
At the museum.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) drives the ball forward during the third quarter of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Saturday, May 30, 2026.
By Mike Finger / San Antonio Express-News