By Charlie Thaddeus / Pounding The Rock, 2026-10-22 01:26:20
我想，我根本就没做好迎接新赛季开始的准备。
在经历了六月份那场车祸般的系列赛，眼睁睁看着马刺的神奇之旅化为灰烬之后，我彻底关闭了所有感知。我只是竭尽全力不去想它。我试着看棒球，试着走出门去户外。如果你是在用一种健康的方式处理，那就不叫“压抑情感”，对吧？
而且这招奏效了。大体上是这样。我整个夏天都没有用OG补篮的录像，或者尼克斯球迷在我们主场蹦跳庆祝的画面来折磨自己。我没看选秀，没关注休赛期。我抵制了今年《周六夜现场》最具争议的主持人（杰伦·布伦森）。你知道的，人们常说真男人从不回头看爆炸，但伤心的人也同样不会回头看。烈焰炽热，心若冰霜。
对于一切我感觉都还挺好，从某种意义上说，是因为我完全麻木了。这种策略唯一的负面效果，就是当我意识到自己入戏太深时，揭幕战已经毫无预兆地砸到脸上了。周二晚上？就是这个周二？不可能吧。真的吗？如果马刺周二有比赛，我肯定早听说了。
尽管我竭尽全力忽视走廊深处水龙头滴水的声音，但昨晚对阵雷霆的跳球哨一响，我那已被情绪淹没的地下室现实，以极其粗暴的方式闯入了我的视线。我整个夏天苦心经营的平静瞬间烟消云散。哈尔滕施泰因上篮得手。谢伊命中三分。我们已经落后两分了，而我想死的心都有了。新赛季才打了三分钟，我就像六月份眼睁睁看着对阵尼克斯的第四节领先优势再次化为乌有时一样痛苦。
真见鬼。
在我的记忆中，马刺重新回到生活中头一次变得毫无乐趣可言。我没有沉浸在新赛季通常带来的期待喜悦中。以往我总会对着新赛季可能向好的前景垂涎三尺，而现在，我却完全被各种可能恶化的可能性所吞没。
我是不是觉得自己的消极情绪穿越了时空，把糟糕的气场传染给了马刺，才导致了如此丑陋的上半场？不至于吧。真的吗？不，怎么可能。但是！我所看到的比赛，是不是诡异地呼应了我篮球灵魂深处正在滋生的腐烂气息？不得不说，极度吻合。米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 赛后表示，他们开局打得过于亢奋，把能量用错了地方。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 则说，他们一有机会就出手投篮，而没有让俄克拉荷马城在防守端付出代价。我懂这种感觉。这就是你花了几个月假装看不见角落里的怪物，结果当房间里走进来别的东西时，你只会不管不顾地胡乱挥拳。
我用了这么多废话和用力过猛的比喻，其实就想说一句……整支球队的氛围感觉不对劲。在媒体日上，马刺全员的表态听起来都像是一支准备正面迎战的球队。文班说他们绝不会逃避任何事情。动力、担当。我很愿意相信，摆脱去年六月的阴影、重整旗鼓重新出发，只需要做到这些就够了。听上去很有道理。但尼克斯那轮系列赛是雷·阿伦级别的精神重创，无论他们这个夏天做了什么，周二登场的他们看起来绝非一支已经释怀一切的球队。
感觉真的不太好。
第二节我们落后九分时，达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 把切特·霍姆格伦掀翻在地。就是那种完全WWE式的抱摔放倒。我面色阴沉地点了点头。比赛正在失控，投篮怎么投都不进，我内心某种野蛮的部分开始不想看打球，而是想看打架了。去他的篮球，干脆干一架吧，最后站着的人周五继续去打休斯敦。坦白讲，那是整晚唯一让我无法移开视线的时刻。
随后的六分半钟里，他们打出了一波22-5的高潮。待尘埃落定时，比分变成了59-33。
也许我错了。我以前就干过把自己各种古怪情绪投射到一群只想上场打球的小伙子身上的蠢事，我向你保证我以后还会这么干。但在我看来，这支球队身上仿佛有一道伤口。一道尚未愈合的深可见骨的伤口，而随着赛季的深入，我实在吃不准情况会变成什么样。这支球队不像2014年那套阵容，那是一帮身经百战、历经磨难且深谙如何触底反弹的老将。这是这批年轻人头一次面对如此接近最高荣誉、却在最宏大的舞台上梦想破灭所带来的痛苦与心碎。
米奇·约翰逊还不是格雷格·波波维奇。目前还不是。卡斯尔和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 也还不是托尼和马努。目前还不是。维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 也还不是蒂姆·邓肯。
目前还不是。
要如何解决这个问题，目前没有明确的路线图。这将是一个漫长的过程，而且在一段时间内可能会相当难看。这可能会像梦魇一样纠缠我们，时间之长甚至会超出我们任何人的心理承受底线。做好心理准备吧。
这群年轻人能否在实战中边打边调整，时间会给出答案，但如果说我们昨晚学到了什么，那就是去年六月破碎的东西至今尚未修补好，在此之前，其他一切宏图都只能搁置。
复盘总结
- 对于文班现在在全美舞台上几乎沦为反派这件事，我感到非常无所适从。前一秒大家还在支持我们去推翻雷霆，转眼之间，他在联盟里扮演反面角色的事实似乎就被大家全盘接受了。外界一致认为他已经欣然接受了这种“反派转型”，而我们只能被动接受。我并不喜欢这样。事实上，我甚至有点讨厌这种舆论。我知道这背后有原因。人们觉得他傲慢（确实是），觉得他是法国人（确实是），觉得他肘击了纳兹·里德的头部（据称）。无所谓了。听着，除了我们怎么看他之外，其他都不重要，既然我们觉得他酷毙了，那我们就坚定不移地支持他。但这看起来确实有失公允！
- 话虽如此，文班啊，兄弟，你真得多投进几个球才行。
- 揭幕战这场灾难唯一的一线生机在于，这场比赛其实不算数，因为托拜厄斯·哈里斯 (Tobias Harris) 没打。俄城，好好享受你们那打了巨大折扣的好心情吧。托比马上就来制裁你们了！
- 我知道这只是一场比赛，但瘫坐在椅子上，看着三分球一个个投出，随后只换来刺耳的打铁声，真的令人绝望。马刺全场三分球37投仅10中，而卡斯尔一个人就包揽了一半。一整年都这么打的话，我觉得我真活不下去了。
- 我很喜欢三后卫阵容，周二的比赛就是最强有力的证据。福克斯、卡斯尔和哈珀在下半场联袂首发，马刺随即打出一波23-9的高潮，将21分的劣势蚕食至仅差7分。这23分全是由这三个人拿下的，其中卡斯尔独得11分，而文班在此期间一分未得。米奇·约翰逊在上半场的大部分时间里把他们拆开使用，我觉得他们整晚合体的时间大概只有12分钟左右。我很高兴我们在尝试重用这套阵容。加大力度！冲起来！
赛后新闻发布会
又一个赛季拉开帷幕，你准备好了吗？
差得十万八千里。我完全没准备好。你刚才没听我说吗？我一整个夏天都在看棒球。我在徒步爬山。我甚至都不记得这项运动该怎么打了。我连我的Peacock流媒体账号密码都记不起来。我整个人都凌乱了。一切都乱套了。
天哪！
是的，情况很糟。我真的就是，我的意思是，马刺已经很久没有在季后赛走这么远了，我想我只是没做好夏天竟然如此短暂的准备。我之所以这么暴躁，是因为我觉得自己被剥夺了重整旗鼓、找回心绪的时间。
呃，我是说，你差不多有四个月的时间来调整啊。
是啊，但正如我所说，我都在看棒球。
谁会赢下世界大赛？
球迷。
真无聊。
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：What We Learned from the Spurs Opening Night loss to the Thunder
What We Learned from the Spurs Opening Night loss to the Thunder
I don’t think I was ready for the season to start.
After that car crash of a series in June where we watched the Spurs’ magical run go up in flames, I just shut everything down. I simply did my best not to think about it. I tried watching baseball. I tried going outside. It’s not “repressing your feelings” if you’re doing it in a healthy way, right?
And it worked. Mostly. I spent the whole summer without rage baiting myself with clips of the OG’s tip-in or Knicks fans dancing around in our building. I didn’t watch the draft. I didn’t follow the offseason. I boycotted the most controversial SNL host of the year (Jalen Brunson). You know, it’s often said that cool guys don’t look back at explosions, but sad boys don’t look at them either. The flames are hot but the heart is chill.
I was feeling pretty good about everything, in the sense that I was feeling nothing at all. The only real downside to this strategy was realizing I maybe took the bit a little too far when Opening Night sort of materialized out of nowhere. Tuesday night? This Tuesday? No. Really? If the Spurs were playing on Tuesday I would’ve heard about it.
In spite of all my best efforts to ignore the dripping faucet noises coming from down the hall, the reality of my flooded emotional basement was aggressively brought to my attention come tip-off against the Thunder last night. The peaceful calm I had worked all summer to cultivate dissipated in moments. Hartenstein hit a layup. Shai hit a three. We were already down two points and I wanted to die. The season was 3 minutes old and I was as miserable now as I was watching another 4th quarter lead against the Knicks disappear in June.
Crap.
For the first time in my living memory, it was not fun to have the Spurs back in my life. I wasn’t awash in the glow of anticipation that a new season usually brings. Where I normally would be drooling about the prospects of what could go right, I was instead drowning in the possibilities of what could go wrong.
Do I think my bad attitude somehow bled across time and space, infecting the Spurs with terrible energy and leading to a truly putrid first half? No. No? Yeah, No. However! Did what I watched eerily reflect the deep, black rot I could feel manifesting itself in my basketball soul? Suspiciously so. Mitch Johnson said afterward that they came out too amped and put their energy in all the wrong places. Stephon Castle said they were taking the first good shot instead of making Oklahoma City work for it. I know that feeling. It’s what happens when you spend months pretending you can’t see the monster in the corner, and then when something else walks into the room you just start swinging at whatever.
What I’m using entirely too many words and overwrought metaphors to say is…the vibes just feel off. At media day, everything the Spurs said sounded like a team facing it head-on. Wemby said they weren’t going to hide from any of it. Motivation, accountability. I’d love to imagine that’s all it takes to shake off last June, reload, and go again. It sounded right. But the Knicks series was a Ray Allen level emotional event, and whatever they did this summer, they didn’t show up Tuesday looking like a team that had made peace with anything.
It doesn’t feel fine.
In the second quarter, we were down nine, and De’Aaron Fox threw Chet Holmgren to the floor. Like, full on, WWE tossed him to the ground. I grimly nodded along. The game was slipping, the shots weren’t falling, and some feral part of me stopped wanting to watch basketball and started wanting to watch a fight. Forget the basketball, let’s just go at it, and whoever is left standing can continue on to play Houston on Friday. It was, frankly, the only moment all night I couldn’t look away from.
Over the next six and a half minutes, they outscored us 22-5. By the time the dust settled it was 59-33.
Maybe I’m wrong. I’ve been guilty of projecting all of my own weird stuff onto a group of guys that are just trying to go out and play some basketball before, and I can assure you I’ll be guilty of it again. But this team seems to me like it has a wound. A deep wound that hasn’t healed yet, and I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to look as the season wears on. This team isn’t like the 2014 squad, a crew of battle-tested vets who had been through the ringer and knew how to claw their way back. This is everyone’s first time dealing with the pain and heartbreak that comes with coming so close to the ultimate prize, only to have their dreams detonated on the biggest stage imaginable.
Mitch Johnson isn’t Gregg Popovich. Yet. Castle and Harper aren’t Tony and Manu. Yet. Victor Wembanyama isn’t Tim Duncan.
Yet.
There’s no real roadmap for how to fix this. It’s going to be a process and it might look pretty messy for a while. It’s the type of thing that might linger a lot longer than any of us are comfortable with. Brace yourselves.
Time will tell if this group can do that work on the fly, but if we learned anything last night, it’s that whatever broke last June isn’t fixed and everything else is on hold until it is.
Takeaways
- I feel very wrong-footed by the idea that Victor is just sort of reviled on the national stage now. One minute everyone was on board with us overthrowing the Thunder and then, all of a sudden, it’s sort of just become accepted that he is a villain in the league. It’s been agreed that he’s just embraced this heel turn or whatever and we’re all just kind of along for that ride. I don’t love it. In fact, I kind of hate it? I know there are reasons. People think he’s arrogant (he is) and people think he’s French (he is) and people think he elbowed Naz Reid in the head (allegedly). Whatever. Look, nothing matters beyond what we think about him and we think he rules so I guess we’re just rallying around the flag. Seems unfair though!
- That said, Wemby, need you to hit a few more shots, brother.
- One silver lining to the fiasco that was opening night is that the game doesn’t actually count because Tobias Harris wasn’t playing. Enjoy the big fat asterisk on your good vibes, OKC. Toby’s coming for you!
- I know it’s just one game, but melting into my seat as three after three got flung up at the basket only to jarringly clang off the rim was dispiriting. The Spurs went 10-for-37 from deep, and Castle accounted for half of those. I don’t think I can live like that all year.
- I like the three-guard lineup, and Tuesday is the best evidence I have. Fox, Castle and Harper started the second half together and the Spurs went on a 23-9 run to chop a 21-point deficit down to seven. Those three scored all 23 points, 11 of them from Castle, while Wemby didn’t score at all. Mitch Johnson had them split up for most of the first half, and I think they only got only like 12ish minutes together all night. I’m glad we’re leaning into it. Let’s lean more! Let’s go!
WWL Post Game Press Conference
Another season on deck, are you ready?
Not even remotely. I’m woefully unprepared. Didn’t you hear me up there? I was watching baseball all summer. I was going on hikes. I don’t even remember how this was sport is supposed to work. I couldn’t remember my Peacock login. I’m a mess. It’s all a mess.
Oh no!
Yea it’s bad. I truly just like, I mean it’s been a long time since the Spurs went that far in the playoffs, I think I just wasn’t ready for the summer to feel so short. I’m lashing out because I feel cheated out of time to like regroup and reconnect with my feelings.
I mean, you did have almost four months to do that.
Yea but, like I said I was watching baseball.
Who’s going to win the World Series?
The fans.
Lame.
By Charlie Thaddeus / Pounding The Rock
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