Michael Arthur had now been hailed by Americans as the Chosen One.
Many American media outlets had been hyping him up.
They said he was the likeliest person to defeat Wang Yi. Some even claimed he might win MVP this year.
After all, Wang Yi had won MVP two years in a row. People always got tired of the same thing, and this year they planned to give the award to someone else.
Wang Yi knew all this, of course.
But his thought was: If you want to build him up as a hero, then I'll trample your hero underfoot.
Maybe even spit on him a couple of times.
As it happened, the next game was Kings versus Lakers.
The Kings were currently 10–1.
They ranked first in the Western Conference.
The Lakers were 9–1, in second place in the West.
If the Lakers beat the Kings in this game, they would leapfrog them and take first place in the West.
So the Los Angeles media and half the media in America were hyping up Michael Arthur, saying he would definitely beat Wang Yi and the Kings.
At the same time, everyone was looking forward to seeing Michael Arthur face off against James and Wang Yi.
Before the game, Wang Yi drove Nicole to the hospital for a prenatal checkup.
Back in September, when Wang Yi and Nicole were still at the China Basketball School, they had already found out that Nicole was pregnant.
Now that they were back in the United States, she needed regular prenatal checkups every so often.
Nicole had told him that morning that he had a game that afternoon and didn't need to go with her; she could go to the hospital by herself.
But Wang Yi insisted on going with her.
Nicole had