"Damn it!"
"Bastard!"
"That guy betrayed us!"
Only Gates said nothing. His expression shifted unpredictably, and no one knew what he was thinking.
A. Nikola's appearance had surprised the head coach, as well as Wang Yi and the others. The referee didn't immediately announce the result, either, waiting for the coach to make a decision.
The coach glanced at Wang Yi.
Then he looked at the other assistant coaches. They all nodded at him, and finally, head coach Dako nodded to A. Nikola as well.
"Nikola, go warm up first."
Nikola nodded firmly, took off his warm-up jacket, then stood by the sidelines, loosening his wrists and ankles and slowly stretching.
He could feel several vicious glares from the bench as he did so.
He was a little afraid, too.
But things had come to this, and he could only grit his teeth and press on.
Besides, going along with the other substitutes as they constantly clashed with Wang Yi and the coaching staff had never sat right with him.
In fact, when Wang Yi first arrived and announced that playing time would be decided on a first-come, first-served basis, Nikola had thought it was too heavy-handed. But after thinking it over, he realized that they really had been late that day.
They were the ones who had been in the wrong, yet instead of recognizing their mistake, they had gone out of their way to defy Wang Yi and the coaching staff.
Once he'd realized his mistake, he'd wanted to apologize to Wang Yi and the head coach. But he was timid by nature and afraid the other substitutes would give him trouble, so he'd never dared to do it.
It wasn't until today, seeing the starters battle on the court for nearly forty-eight minutes, Pang Bo playing so