By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer / San Antonio Express-News, 2026-10-16 06:05:13
2026年9月28日，星期一，圣安东尼奥马刺中锋维克托·文班亚马在胜利资本训练中心举行的NBA球队媒体日上拍摄定妆照。
作为一个见多识广且热衷冒险的人，维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 可不会让紧凑的日程表束缚住自己休赛期的生活步调。
他下国际象棋，阅读书籍，还与一支橄榄球队一同训练——这种修行方式，显然与他一年前造访中国僧侣时的禅意体验大相径庭。
这位马刺的全明星中锋甚至还抽空打了打篮球，代表法国国家队出战了两场男篮世界杯预选赛。
文班亚马最近这个忙碌的夏天与以往有何不同？得益于马刺在6月份出人意料地杀入NBA总决赛，文班亚马不得不把他的休赛期活动压缩进短短的两个月内。
“很充实，”文班亚马说，“也很短暂。”
对于文班亚马和马刺的未来而言，短暂的休赛期将成为新的常态。
正如上赛季所证明的那样，四月中旬就打卡放假的日子已经一去不复返了。
对马刺来说，周二对阵俄克拉荷马城雷霆的赛季揭幕战标志着一个全新阶段的开始——在这个阶段，打到六月份已不再是一种奢望，而是一种理所应当的期待。
“你渴望重新回到那个舞台，”侧翼球员德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 说道，“但你不能走捷径，不能跳过任何一天。训练营、季前赛、揭幕战，你都不能怠慢。赛季很漫长，没有任何事情是有保障的。”
在22岁的文班亚马入选最佳阵容的强势带领下，马刺一路高歌猛进杀入西部决赛，并在那里苦战七场挑落了卫冕冠军雷霆。
狂欢最终在NBA总决赛戛然而止，纽约尼克斯用五场比赛将这支新崛起的马刺打回了现实。
马刺度过了一个短暂的夏天——这个夏天有时甚至漫长得令人煎熬——他们反复咀嚼着那次失利的苦涩，跃跃欲试地想要重启冲冠征程。
“回想起来，我们当时离目标是那么近，”如今已在马刺征战第八个赛季的前锋凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 表示，“你忍不住会去想那些我们本希望能做得更好的地方，那些我们本该做得更好的细节。”
无论是在棋盘前还是在橄榄球场上，文班亚马在这个休赛期的脑海深处始终盘旋着一个数字。
一百。
那大致就是马刺如果想一路披荆斩棘重返总决赛舞台，所需出战的比赛场次。
“我们不会逃避任何事情，”文班亚马说，“我们将直面这些情绪，直面我们还要打一百场比赛的现实。……我们的处境非常好。我们满怀希望，雄心勃勃，并且做好了准备。”
重返巅峰之路绝非坦途。自金州勇士在2018年和2019年完成连线以来，还没有任何一支球队能连续两个赛季杀入总决赛。
哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes) 深知这种持久的统治力需要付出什么。在过去的篮球生涯中，这位马刺替补前锋曾作为勇士的一员，在2015年和2016年两度踏上总决赛赛场。
巴恩斯表示，再次做到这一点的秘诀，在于不要把重返总决赛视为理所当然的特权，而是需要一场一场、一节一节重新去拼争得来的荣誉。
“我不认为这是那种你可以轻轻松松把势头从一个赛季延续到下一个赛季的事情，”巴恩斯说，“你必须重新归零，从第一天开始踏上征程。”
替补中锋卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 同样深知争冠窗口期是多么稍纵即逝。他曾是波士顿凯尔特人2024年最近一次夺冠阵容中的一员。
一年后，凯尔特人的卫冕之路在东部半决赛面对纽约时戛然而止，部分原因在于明星后卫杰森·塔图姆在第四战遭遇了毁灭性的跟腱撕裂。
这段经历让科内特深刻体会到，要登顶巅峰需要多少天时地利人和——而攀登的过程又是多么容易急转直下。
“很大程度上，你需要保持谦逊，明白打进总决赛是多么艰难，”科内特说，“即便你有幸夺冠，其中也有很多球的弹跳运气，换个方向结果就完全不同了。”
即便抛开其他不谈，上个赛季至少为马刺提供了期待已久的证明：他们完全有能力与NBA最顶尖的豪强掰手腕。
球队保留了上赛季总决赛阵容中得分和出场时间排名前10的全部球员，这为马刺奠定了极少数争冠热门才能匹敌的深厚基石。
作为联盟历史上首位全票当选的最佳防守球员，文班亚马准备再次在防守端成为马刺的定海神针。
冉冉升起的年轻后卫斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 已经蓄势待发，准备迎来新的飞跃。28岁的全明星控卫达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 依然正值巅峰。
以上所有人，如今都在履历上增添了宝贵的总决赛经验。
“去年‘经验’这个词被提及了很多次，”主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 说道，“现在我们这支团队有机会汲取去年的范例与经历，并将其运用到今年。我们必须妥善运用，才能让其发挥真正的价值。”
管理层在休赛期完成了一笔重磅引援，以一份为期两年、价值3080万美元的合同签下了老将前锋托拜厄斯·哈里斯 (Tobias Harris)。34岁的哈里斯兼具身高、投射、篮板能力以及长达15个赛季的NBA征战经验，对于一支期望将上赛季的突破转化为更高飞跃起跳板的球队来说，他是极佳的补充。
哈里斯离开了一支上赛季斩获60胜、高居东部榜首的底特律活塞，其明确目标就是来到圣安东尼奥追逐总冠军。
“这支球队去年在总决赛中离目标已经非常接近了，他们打出了一个不可思议的赛季，”哈里斯说，“不仅在于我能带来的能力完美契合球队，更在于我们的目标完全一致。”
如果一切按计划进行，马刺希望明年的夏休期能像今年一样迟迟才到来。
就文班亚马而言，他的2027年夏季待办清单上已经有了一个明确的目标——一个足以让又一个极短的休赛期变得无比值得的目标。
那就是圣安东尼奥河畔的总冠军游行。
“我想象不出比这更好的动力了，”文班亚马说。
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：For the Spurs and Wembanyama, only one goal remains: NBA title
For the Spurs and Wembanyama, only one goal remains: NBA title
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama poses for official photos during the NBA basketball team’s media day at the Victory Capital Performance Center in San Antonio, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026.
A man of the world and a man of adventure, Victor Wembanyama wasn’t about to let a calendar cramp his offseason style.
He played chess. He read books. He trained with a rugby team, a decidedly different exercise in Zen from the Chinese monks he visited a year earlier.
The Spurs’ All-Star center even managed to squeeze in some hoops, suiting up for France in a pair of FIBA World Cup qualifying games.
The difference between the most recent busy summer and previous ones for Wembanyama? Thanks to the Spurs’ surprise run to the NBA Finals in June, Wembanyama had to stuff his offseason exploits into two minuscule months.
“It was good,” Wembanyama said. “It was short.”
When it comes to offseasons for Wembanyama and the Spurs going forward, short is the new normal.
As last season proved, the days of punching out by mid-April are done.
For the Spurs, Tuesday’s season opener against Oklahoma City marks the beginning of a new phase — one in which working into June is no longer a hope, but an expectation.
“You want to get back in that situation,” swingman Devin Vassell said. “But you can’t skip a day. You can’t skip training camp. You can’t skip preseason. You can’t skip opening night. The season is long, and nothing is guaranteed.”
With the 22-year-old Wembanyama leading the way through an All-NBA season, the Spurs rode the good times all the way to the Western Conference finals, where they toppled the defending champion Thunder in seven games.
The music finally stopped in the NBA Finals, where New York brought the upstart Spurs back to earth in five games.
The Spurs spent a short summer — one that at times must have felt interminable — stewing over that defeat and champing at the bit to resume their title pursuit.
“When you look back, we were close,” said forward Keldon Johnson, now in his eighth season with the Spurs. “You can’t help but think about those things that we wish we could have done better, things we should have done better.”
Whether in front of the chess board or on the rugby pitch, Wembanyama spent the offseason with a number in the back of his mind.
One hundred.
That’s how many games, give or take, the Spurs will have to play before potentially clawing their way back onto the Finals stage.
“We don’t want to hide from anything,” Wembanyama said. “We’re going to face these emotions, face the reality that we have a hundred games to play. … We’re in a great spot. We’re very hopeful, very ambitious, and we’re ready.”
The path back will not be easy. No team has reached the Finals in consecutive seasons since Golden State did it in 2018 and 2019.
Harrison Barnes knows what that kind of staying power requires. In a previous basketball life, the Spurs reserve forward was part of a Warriors team that reached the Finals in 2015 and 2016.
The secret to doing it again, Barnes said, is to treat another Finals trip not as a birthright, but as something to be earned all over again — game by game and quarter by quarter.
“I don’t think it’s one of those things where you simply carry momentum from one season to the next,” Barnes said. “You have to come back and start the journey from day one.”
Backup center Luke Kornet likewise understands how fleeting a championship window can be. He was part of Boston’s most recent title team in 2024.
A year later, the Celtics’ repeat bid ended in the Eastern Conference semifinals against New York, derailed in part by the devastating Achilles tendon tear star guard Jayson Tatum suffered in Game 4.
The experience left Kornet with an appreciation for how much must go right to reach the mountaintop — and how quickly the climb can go sideways.
“A big part of it is the humility to know how difficult it was to make the Finals,” Kornet said. “And even if you’re fortunate enough to win, there’s a lot of bounces that could have gone the other way.”
If nothing else, last season provided the Spurs with long-awaited proof they could compete with the NBA’s best.
The club brings back its top 10 players from last season’s Finals roster in both scoring and minutes played, giving the Spurs a foundation few championship hopefuls can match.
Wembanyama, the league’s first-ever unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, is poised to again anchor the Spurs on that end of the floor.
Up-and-coming young guards Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper are limbered up to make another leap. All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox, at age 28, remains firmly in his prime.
All of the above now come with the added bonus of Finals experience on their resume.
“That word ‘experience’ came up a lot last year,” coach Mitch Johnson said. “Now we have an opportunity with this group to be able to take examples and experiences from last year and apply them to this year. We have to do it appropriately to be valuable.”
The front office made one major addition over the summer, signing veteran forward Tobias Harris to a two-year, $30.8 million deal. At 34, Harris brings size, shooting, rebounding and 15 seasons’ worth of NBA experience to a team looking to turn last season’s breakthrough into a springboard for something more.
Harris left a 60-win Detroit team that finished with the top record in the Eastern Conference last season for the express purpose of chasing a championship in San Antonio.
“The team has got very close to that last year in the finals and had a phenomenal year,” Harris said. “We fit in terms of what I bring to the table, but also in terms of what the team is striving for.”
If all goes to plan, the Spurs are hoping next summer takes just as long to arrive as the last one did.
Wembanyama, for one, already has an item in mind for his 2027 summer to-do list — one that would make another abbreviated offseason well worth it.
A championship river parade.
“I couldn’t imagine a better motivation,” Wembanyama said.
By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer / San Antonio Express-News