While things were heating up over here, the NBA had announced this season's Defensive Player of the Year on the other side.
The award went to Draymond Green of the Warriors.
The announcement caused an uproar among fans.
In fact, Green's defensive efficiency this season hadn't been as good as Gobert's.
But Gobert had been blown apart by Wang Yi, and the league couldn't very well give the award to Gobert, so it ultimately chose Green.
In fact, Wang Yi and Green had posted similar defensive efficiency numbers this season.
Gobert had the best defensive efficiency in the league.
His defensive efficiency was 101.7.
In other words, with him on the court, the Grizzlies gave up 101.7 points per 100 possessions.
When he was off the court, the Grizzlies gave up 110.8 points per 100 possessions.
The difference of 9.1 was an astonishing figure, even by historical standards.
Wang Yi and Draymond Green were about the same, with their teams' defensive efficiency differing by around 7.0 points depending on whether they were on the court.
Now that Gobert had been blown apart by Wang Yi, the league should have chosen between Wang Yi and Draymond Green for this season's Defensive Player of the Year.
But the league had considered that it couldn't let Wang Yi monopolize every honor. Just imagine: in America's basketball league, every award goes to a guy from China. Plenty of people in the United States wouldn't be happy about that. In the end, it decided to give the award to Green.
The league's reasoning was that Wang Yi's defense focused more on individual play, while Green's was more team-oriented. Basketball was a team sport, so Defensive Player of the Year should go to Green.
When Warriors fans and Green's fans heard the news, they were thrilled.