The other sponsors had long been fed up with Nike.
They had already met privately, hoping to change the status quo, and today presented the perfect opportunity.
Wang Yi had been suspended for refusing to wear a jersey with a Nike logo, and the league's viewership had plummeted. For the other brands, that meant huge losses.
Meanwhile, Adam Silver was caught between a rock and a hard place.
The easiest way to boost viewership was to lift Wang Yi's suspension.
But first, he'd have no way to explain it to Nike. And second, he'd just said that Wang Yi wouldn't be allowed back on the court unless he corrected his behavior. If Wang Yi played in the very next game, Silver would be publicly humiliated.
Wang Yi hadn't changed. The league had.
How could the league possibly retain any credibility after that?
Adam Silver was sweating bullets.
He immediately notified the NBA's deputy commissioner and several other executives, calling an emergency meeting that night.
Normally, Player Union President Paul should have been invited to a meeting about this matter.
But Paul was playing in a game, and his relationship with Wang Yi went without saying. If Paul were invited, he would certainly side with Wang Yi.
So Adam Silver left Sacramento that night and flew to New York, heading for NBA headquarters.
On his way there, Silver kept checking the stats.
They showed the Kings trailing by seven points in the third quarter.
By then, live viewership had fallen to just over four million.
With five minutes left in the fourth quarter, the margin was still seven points, but live viewership had dropped below four million, down to just 3.79 million.
In the end, with Wang Yi suspended and Middleton and Antetokounmpo both erupting for the Bucks, Antetokounmpo put up