The fans saw Wang Yi draw another foul on Wemby, and they immediately started booing.
One after another, they chanted, "Soft King!"
Ever since last season's Finals, when Wang Yi refused to take Wemby on head-to-head and kept trying to draw fouls on him, they'd given Wang Yi that nickname.
The deafening chant of "Soft King!" surged like a massive wave, drilling into everyone's ears.
The camera stayed on Wang Yi for a long time.
Facing the deafening cries of "Soft King," Wang Yi showed no fear at all. Instead, he raised his right hand, cupped it behind his ear, and gestured for them to keep going.
It was clearly a direct provocation to the fans in the arena.
There were nearly twenty thousand people in the stands.
When more than twenty thousand people surrounded you and shouted insults all at once, would you be scared?
The feeling that the whole world was against you was more than most people could bear.
Even many NBA players, accustomed to scenes like this, would lose their composure and feel intimidated by the crowd's boos and insults.
But some players got more excited the more the crowd insulted them.
They just wanted to goad the fans.
Like Reggie Miller, who once raised hell at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Like Ice Trae, who also raised hell at Madison Square Garden in New York.
And like Wang Yi, who had raised hell at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Madison Square Garden in New York felt completely unjustly accused: Who the hell did I ever wrong?
Wang Yi's taunting gesture drew even louder abuse from the fans.
This time, even the arena DJ got the crowd going.
Of course, the DJ couldn't directly call him Soft King—unless he wanted to lose his job.