NBA Cup 2025: Players, coaches on future of in-season tournament
NBA Cup 2025: Players, coaches on future of in-season tournament
NBA杯2025：球员与教练谈季中赛未来
As the New York Knicks and Orlando Magic tipped off the first of two Emirates NBA Cup semifinal games Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, plenty of empty seats -- particularly in the upper level -- were scattered across the building.
当纽约尼克斯队与奥兰多魔术队于周六在拉斯维加斯T-Mobile竞技场打响两场阿联酋航空NBA杯半决赛的首战时，场馆内散布着大量空座——尤其是上层看台区域。
The NBA Cup, which is in its third season, has largely accomplished the objective laid out by commissioner Adam Silver when he first championed the in-season tournament. It has successfully increased the spotlight on the NBA during the early part of the season, when college football and the NFL traditionally dominate the sports calendar. Players have bought in, too, if for no other reason than the more than $500,000 at stake for title-winning players.
NBA杯赛事已进入第三个赛季，基本实现了联盟总裁亚当·萧华最初倡导这项季中锦标赛时设定的目标。该赛事成功提升了NBA在赛季初期的关注度——此时段通常被大学橄榄球和NFL赛事主导着体育赛事日程。球员们也积极参与其中，即便仅因冠军球员可获得逾50万美元奖金这一原因也值得投入。
What hasn't caught on is the atmosphere of the tournament's final stretch to decide a champion. That's in part why the league announced in September that 2025 would be the final Cup featuring a neutral-site semifinals, a recognition that the approach has lacked the energy and enthusiasm the league had hoped to create.
尚未形成热潮的是赛事决胜阶段的冠军争夺氛围。这也正是联盟在九月宣布2025年将作为最后一次采用中立场地半决赛的杯赛的原因——这表明该模式未能激发联盟期望营造的激情与热忱。
And it seems the NBA is pondering another change. Sources familiar with the situation told ESPN recently that the league is considering also moving the title game out of Las Vegas.
据悉，NBA正考虑进行另一项变革。据熟悉内情的消息人士近日向ESPN透露，联盟正考虑将总决赛也移出拉斯维加斯。
Beyond the tournament's future in Las Vegas, there has been plenty of chatter in the lead-up to Tuesday night's finale between the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. From the motivation of prize money and continued frustrations over the schedule, to the growing trend of the knockout rounds showcasing the league's young talent, here is what players and coaches have said about the third installment of the NBA Cup.
除了赛事在拉斯维加斯的未来走向，在周二晚尼克斯与马刺的决赛开打前，各界议论纷纷。从奖金激励到赛程安排的持续不满，再到淘汰赛阶段日益凸显的年轻球员风采，以下是球员与教练们对本届NBA杯的看法。
The semifinal shift is a welcome one
半决赛改回主场制获好评
If the venue changes for the semifinals of the Cup began this season, those matchups would have been held in Orlando and Oklahoma City because the Magic and Thunder entered the knockout stage as the top seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference brackets, respectively. Both teams lost Saturday in Vegas.
若本赛季杯赛半决赛赛场变更，这些对决本应在奥兰多和俄克拉荷马城举行——因为魔术队和雷霆队分别作为东部和西部的头号种子晋级淘汰赛阶段。但两队周六在拉斯维加斯的比赛中均告失利。
Not surprisingly, the two coaches who would've benefitted -- Magic coach Jamahl Mosley and Thunder coach Mark Daigneault -- approved of the move.
不出所料，两位本应受益的教练——魔术队教练贾马尔·莫斯利和雷霆队教练马克·戴格诺——都对这一举措表示赞同。
"Oh, absolutely," Mosley said with a smile when asked about the change ahead of Saturday's game. "Who wouldn't want to take a home-court advantage?
“哦，当然了，”莫斯利在被问及周六比赛前的变阵时笑着说道，“谁不想争取主场优势呢？”
"I think it's similar to playoffs. You earn the right to get the higher seed ... I think that's very important."
我认为这类似于季后赛。你必须赢得获得更高种子排名的资格……我认为这非常重要。
Saturday's matchups could occur again in the 2026 playoffs. Orlando and New York have had some feisty games over the past couple of seasons to create a nascent rivalry between the two franchises. Meanwhile, there is plenty of history between the Thunder and Spurs, who met in the playoffs in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Young star big men Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren have faced off numerous times, a rivalry that began at the FIBA U-19 championship game more than four years ago.
周六的对决可能在2026年季后赛重演。奥兰多与纽约过去几个赛季交锋激烈，两支球队之间正形成新的竞争关系。与此同时，雷霆与马刺之间渊源颇深，双方曾在2012年、2014年和2016年季后赛交锋。年轻内线新星维克托·温班亚马与切特·霍尔姆格伦已多次交锋，这场对决始于四年前的国际篮联U19锦标赛决赛。
Imagine a scenario where Wembanyama, who had missed the previous 12 games because of a calf strain, returned inside a cauldron of intensity in Oklahoma City as the Thunder looked to continue their record-setting start? Or if the Magic got an extra home game to play a Knicks team it could face again late in the East playoffs?
试想这样一个场景：因小腿拉伤缺席此前12场比赛的温班亚马，在雷霆队力争延续创纪录开局之际，重返俄克拉荷马城那座沸腾的竞技场？又或者魔术队获得额外主场作战的机会，迎战可能在东部季后赛后期再次交锋的尼克斯队？
"It's a good change by [the league], and it's further incentive [for teams]," Daigneault said. "They want these Cup games to be elevated. Obviously, the cash prize does that. The difference of branding or whatever does that. They are on TV. They are isolated to certain nights. They have done a nice job there.
“这是联盟做出的积极改变，对球队而言更是额外激励，”戴尼奥表示。“他们希望提升杯赛的档次。显然，奖金能实现这一点，品牌效应等因素同样有效。这些赛事通过电视转播，集中安排在特定夜晚进行，这方面的工作做得相当出色。”
"But I think it's further incentive to really go after those games if you can potentially get an extra home game out of it, for sure."
但我认为，如果能因此多获得一场主场赛事，这无疑会成为更强有力的激励，促使我们全力争取这些比赛。
Money remains a motivating factor
奖金仍是最大驱动力
Plenty of discussion over the past few days centered on the cash prize for every player, and what they would do with the money their team won.
过去几天，关于每位球员的现金奖励以及他们将如何处理球队赢得的奖金，引发了大量讨论。
"[Jaylin Williams] reminds us the exact dollar amount every single day." Thunder forward Jalen Williams said Friday, one day before OKC lost to the Spurs in a thrilling semifinal game.
雷霆前锋贾伦·威廉姆斯周五表示：“[杰林·威廉姆斯]每天都会提醒我们确切的金额。”此言发表于雷霆在激动人心的半决赛中负于马刺的前一天。
"Half a million dollars is a lot of money, regardless if you make what I make or whatever the case may be, you know what I mean. That's enough money to get you going and play hard."
“五十万美元可不是小数目，不管你收入和我一样多还是怎样，你懂的。这笔钱足够让你开始享受生活，尽情挥霍了。”
After San Antonio clinched a spot in the knockout round of the tournament with a win over the Denver Nuggets, Spurs forward Keldon Johnson said, "for $500,000, I'd play in a back-to-back-to-back. I'll run through a wall."
圣安东尼奥马刺队击败丹佛掘金队后锁定季后赛席位，马刺前锋凯尔顿·约翰逊表示：“只要给我50万美元，我愿意打三连客。我能冲墙而过。”
One major motivator among players is giving teammates on two-way contracts or young guys at the end of the roster a chance at life-changing money.
球员们的重要动力之一，是让那些签有双向合同的队友或阵容末端的年轻球员获得改变人生的巨额合同机会。
"We don't speak on the value of it [to the two-way players] as much as what it really is," Mavericks guard D'Angelo Russell said. "A lot of guys that didn't really need it [were motivated] knowing that those guys get an extra piece of the cake."
“我们谈论的重点不在于它（对攻防两端球员）的价值，而在于它真实的意义，”独行侠后卫达安吉洛·拉塞尔表示。“很多原本不需要它（激励）的球员，在得知那些球员能分得额外蛋糕时，也受到了激励。”
That has been a common refrain over the past couple of years, with LeBron James and Anthony Davis two years ago and then Damian Lillard last year openly talking about their happiness at getting those end-of-roster players more money.
过去几年间，这已成为一种常见的论调——两年前勒布朗·詹姆斯和安东尼·戴维斯，去年达米安·利拉德都公开表达了对为这些末位球员争取更高薪资的欣喜之情。
"A lot of people in the league don't make the funds of all the franchise players, the superstars," Suns forward Ryan Dunn said. "Having that chance, having that opportunity is big for them."
太阳队前锋瑞安·邓恩表示：“联盟中许多球员都无法获得像那些当家球星、超级巨星那样的薪资待遇。能获得这样的机会对他们而言意义重大。”
"You want to win for those [two-way] guys."
“你想要为那些双向球员赢得胜利。”
The schedule -- and frustrations regarding it -- aren't changing
赛程抱怨依旧，但数据并不支持
This month, several team officials complained about the condensed schedule as the league tried to fit Cup games into the early part of the NBA calendar.
本月，随着联盟试图将杯赛安排在NBA赛季初期，多名球队官员对赛程过于紧凑表示不满。
There's only one problem: The data doesn't back it up.
问题是：数据并不支持这一说法。
Through Sunday night's action, there had been 354 games played this season -- four fewer games from the same point last season and two more than two seasons, before the addition of the in-season tournament.
截至周日晚间的比赛，本赛季已进行354场比赛——比去年同期少4场，比两个赛季前（即增设季中锦标赛之前）多2场。
Meanwhile, stretches of five games in seven days remain from past seasons, and overall, they will be down from 2024-25. But with many teams getting multiple four- or five-day gaps in their schedule as the knockout rounds play out, those dates have to be made up at some point during the regular season.
与此同时，过去赛季中七天内连续五场比赛的赛程安排仍将保留，且整体数量将低于2024-25赛季。但随着淘汰赛阶段的推进，许多球队赛程中将出现多次四至五天的间隔期，这些比赛日期必须在常规赛期间择期补赛。
The added travel was a more immediate concern to the teams playing in Las Vegas. Last year, it was Oklahoma City going from its Cup title game defeat to a road back-to-back set against Orlando and the Miami Heat. Last month, Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers described the toll winning the 2024 NBA Cup took on his team.
额外的行程对在拉斯维加斯参赛的球队来说是更直接的困扰。去年，俄克拉荷马城雷霆队刚在总决赛失利，就不得不连续客场作战，先后对阵奥兰多魔术队和迈阿密热火队。上个月，密尔沃基雄鹿队主帅道格·里弗斯描述了赢得2024年NBA总冠军对球队造成的消耗。
"I think the attention that it gets has been amazing," Rivers said. "Now, I will say, on the back end of it, the team that has won it has struggled coming out. I found that out last year. It's hard."
“我认为这项赛事获得的关注度令人惊叹，”里弗斯表示。“不过话说回来，夺冠球队在赛后往往会陷入困境。去年我就亲身体会到了这种艰难。”
This season, the Magic would have faced a 16-day road trip if they had beaten the Knicks on Saturday -- Orlando starts a four-game western road trip Thursday against the Denver Nuggets.
本赛季，魔术队若能在周六击败尼克斯队，本将面临一场为期16天的客场之旅——奥兰多将于周四开启西部四连客之旅，首战对阵丹佛掘金队。
"Move it to New York," Knicks coach Mike Brown said with a smile. "I'd like that. Let somebody else fly that way for six hours or whatever it was. You know, again, Vegas is great. But to move it around. ...
“搬到纽约去吧，”尼克斯队主帅迈克·布朗笑着说，“我倒乐意。让别人飞六个小时去那里吧。毕竟，拉斯维加斯固然不错，但比赛地点该轮换了……”
"Initially, I doubted them on the Cup, Initially, I doubted them on the play-in games, and they are both phenomenal. So, I really don't know what the hell I'm talking about, so I'm going to leave it up to Adam [Silver]."
起初，我对他们在总决赛的表现心存疑虑；起初，我对他们在附加赛的表现也心存疑虑；而这两次他们都表现得惊艳绝伦。所以，我真的不知道自己在胡说八道什么，还是交给亚当·西尔弗来评判吧。
The Cup spotlight remains a springboard
杯赛舞台仍是年轻球员跳板
Last season, the Thunder were in the early stages of their historic championship season when they arrived in Las Vegas for the NBA Cup semifinals. And though the Thunder played one of their worst games of that season in the title matchup against the Bucks, OKC guard Jalen Williams said the experience helped prepare the young team for the bright lights of the NBA Finals.
上赛季，雷霆队正处于他们历史性夺冠征程的初期阶段，当时他们来到拉斯维加斯参加NBA杯半决赛。尽管在与雄鹿队的冠军争夺战中，雷霆队打出了该赛季最糟糕的表现之一，但俄克拉荷马城后卫贾伦·威廉姆斯表示，这段经历帮助这支年轻球队为NBA总决赛的璀璨舞台做好了准备。
"This right now, like doing the media scrum, I'm going to stay here hours after practice," Williams said Friday. "Just that kind of stuff was what happened in the Finals. That's what happened during the playoffs. It gave us a good gauge of what to expect.
威廉姆斯周五表示：“就像现在这样接受媒体围堵采访，训练结束后我还要在这里待上好几个小时。总之就是这种情况——总决赛时是这样，季后赛期间也是如此。这让我们很好地预判了未来会面临什么。”
"The biggest thing is how to use my time wisely, to know when to get treatment and still stay in a routine. We get to practice it, we get to utilize this."
最重要的是如何合理安排时间，既要把握治疗时机，又要保持生活规律。我们得以实践这一点，得以充分利用它
Perhaps the biggest benefit of the Cup has been allowing up-and-coming teams to showcase themselves on a bigger stage.
或许这项杯赛最大的意义在于，它为新兴球队提供了在更大舞台上展现自我的机会。
Two years ago, when the Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics and the Bucks en route to the Cup championship game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton emerged into the national spotlight. Indiana's Cup experience helped the team prepare for what eventually became a thrilling run to Game 7 of the 2025 Finals.
两年前，当印第安纳步行者队先后击败波士顿凯尔特人队和密尔沃基雄鹿队，挺进与洛杉矶湖人队的总决赛时，步行者队明星后卫泰瑞斯·哈利伯顿一举成为全国瞩目的焦点。那次总决赛的经历为球队积累了宝贵经验，助其最终在2025年总决赛中上演惊心动魄的第七场决战。
Even the Houston Rockets, despite losing to the Thunder in the Cup semifinals last year, were a young team that got a taste of a big stage ahead of their seven-game slugfest against the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs.
即便休斯顿火箭队去年在杯赛半决赛中不敌雷霆队，这支年轻队伍也已提前在季后赛首轮与金州勇士队的七场鏖战中，尝到了大舞台的滋味。
For teams like Orlando, which hasn't won a playoff series since 2010, and San Antonio, which hasn't made the playoffs since 2019, the Cup presents an opportunity to experience the pressure of a one-game scenario.
对于奥兰多这样的球队——自2010年以来从未赢得过季后赛系列赛——以及圣安东尼奥这样的球队——自2019年以来从未打入季后赛——世界杯提供了一个体验单场决胜压力的机会。
"It's a tremendous opportunity to play on this stage," Magic star Paolo Banchero said. "You can just tell by all the stuff going on."
魔术队球星保罗·班切罗表示：“能在这样的舞台上比赛是千载难逢的机会，”他补充道，“从现场的一切氛围就能感受到。”
For the young Spurs and coach Mitch Johnson, the road to the NBA Cup title game represents the biggest challenge the group has faced.
对于年轻的马刺队和主教练米奇·约翰逊而言，通往NBA杯决赛的征程是这支队伍迄今面临的最大挑战。
"I think we can all go to any part of our lives, personally, professionally, where usually experience helps you gain some wisdom," Johnson said.
“我认为我们每个人都能在生活的各个方面——无论是个人层面还是职业层面——找到这样的时刻：经验通常能帮助你获得一些智慧。”约翰逊说道。
"We're kind of just trying to take all this day by day and know it's a lot of unknown, for a lot of us, not only individually but most of us as a group. ... Don't try to make it more than that, but also allow it to be a positive influence."
我们只是想把这一切当作日常来面对，明白其中存在诸多未知——对我们许多人而言，不仅是个体层面，更作为集体而言。...不必过度解读，但也要让它成为一种积极的影响。
ESPN's Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin and Michael C. Wright contributed to this report.
ESPN 记者蒂姆·麦克马洪、戴夫·麦克梅纳明、迈克尔·C·赖特对本报道亦有贡献。
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