Someone else said, "Never challenge our livelihood with your hobby."
Wang Yi read this and secretly shook his head.
These kids got discouraged when they fell ten points behind and got carried away when they went up by eight. Looks like they needed to take a hit and learn a lesson.
So when the fourth quarter began, Wang Yi didn't say much or make many adjustments.
Just before they took the court, he said to the kids:
"To test you and see how you make decisions on the fly and handle the game, I won't make any adjustments in the fourth quarter. You're on your own, and you'll have to call your own timeouts, too. If what you say is true—that you're professionals and they're amateurs, that basketball is your livelihood and their hobby—then you should be able to handle them with ease. Are you confident?"
The kids still didn't understand what he meant, but they all nodded. "Yes!"
Wang Yi stopped holding them back and let them play freely. That only made them more excited.
They thought they were much better than the other team and could beat them easily, even without a coach directing them.
So when the fourth quarter began, they stuck with their zone defense.
The other team kept running fast breaks.
At first, they remembered what Wang Yi had told them in the third quarter: the guards should try to slow the pace and not match the other team's tempo, while everyone else should hustle back on defense and prevent fast breaks.
But you couldn't always control the pace of a game just by deciding to speed up or slow down.
For example, you wanted to slow things down, but then you stole the ball and had a chance to fast-break. Should you slow down