69novels Chapter 40: Ruthless and Talkative
Chapter 40: Ruthless and Talkative
Unlike Yao Ming, Wang Kai attended high school in the United States and knew that there was no fertile ground in that country for the Chinese virtues of "gentleness, kindness, respect, humility, and yielding."
In this country, your weakness will only invite more humiliation.
So when Raja Bell chose to commit a vicious foul on Wang Kai, Wang Kai did not hold back at all. He chose to retaliate directly, and his retaliatory action was very subtle. The elbowing motion looked more like a normal reaction to maintain balance after being choked by Raja Bell.
Players like Raja Bell, who come from the very bottom of the NBA, have a survival logic that they will stop at nothing to win and will use any means necessary to achieve their own interests.
Raja Bell was an undrafted player who entered the league in 2001 after signing a short contract with the Philadelphia 76ers.
From a benchwarmer to a regular starter for the Suns, Raja Bell's efforts certainly deserve everyone's praise. However, in order to make his defense more intimidating, he often goes beyond the norm in his defensive actions.
To maintain their intimidation factor, Bowen of the Spurs could recklessly trip star players; to maintain their intimidation factor, Ben Wallace's blocks always included the ball and the player; to maintain their intimidation factor, Malone didn't even spare his own friend Robinson, knocking him unconscious and forcing him to leave the court.
It can be said that even with David Stern's many efforts, there are still players in the league who are willing to do anything incomprehensible to protect their own interests.
In this game, Raja Bell couldn't tolerate a rookie recklessly grabbing rebounds and daring to drive to the basket in his defensive half. He had to teach this arrogant rookie a lesson.
However, what Raja Bell didn't expect was that the rookie he fouled seemed to be more cunning than he had imagined.
Raja Bell, who was struck in the cheek by Wang Kai's elbow, immediately fell to the ground in pain, while Wang Kai immediately put on a very innocent look.
The referee's whistle blew repeatedly, and players from both sides rushed towards the point of conflict, seemingly on the verge of erupting into chaos.
Baron Davis and Nash immediately pulled their respective teammates aside; neither of them wanted to fight to the death in an ordinary regular season game.
The referee stepped in and immediately separated the players from both sides, preventing a conflict from breaking out.
After discussing the matter for a while, the three referees each issued a technical foul to Wang Kai and Raja Bell, who had clashed.
Wang Kai walked up to the referee and said he was the victim, but the referee ignored him.
Although the league intended to promote Wang Kai, the referees always held prejudices against Wang Kai's rookie status.
Raja Bell's action was enough to get him ejected, but this was just a regular season game, and it was the Suns' home court, so the referees had to consider the home-court advantage.
So in the end, Wang Kai didn't suffer physically, but he did suffer mentally.
The game resumed after a brief interruption, with the second quarter nearing its end and the Warriors continuing to have possession of the ball.
Wang Kai walked up to Raja Bell and said, "Does your trashy face still hurt? Oh, I forgot, someone like you has skin thicker than the Earth's mantle. Sorry, I guess you probably don't know what the mantle is. Go back and look it up in the dictionary, you island native."
Raja Bell was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wang Kai's trash talk hit Raja Bell right where it hurts, something Wang Kai excels at.
"Law student, you rookie, do you have a death wish?"
Raja Bell didn't hesitate to retort, but he didn't dare to make a move now, as the referee was watching him closely.
"Come on, you coward who only dares to sneak attack, let's have a one-on-one match. The one who backs down first is a coward with no warmth."
Raja Bell underestimated Wang Kai's verbal "fighting prowess," a skill honed through his verbal sparring with Kobe Bryant.
"Fake!" Raja Bell was about to retort when Wang Kai used Jason Williams' screen to circle to the three-point line, receive the ball, and shoot.
The previous conflict had distracted both teams' players, except for Wang Kai, who remained focused.
With the end of the second quarter, the Warriors entered the second half with a 9-point lead.
"Good job, kid, that's great. Don't worry about that technical foul, the referee will definitely make up for it in the second half. Keep your anger up and teach that bastard a lesson."
Coach Ke was very satisfied with Wang Kai's performance; at least Wang Kai did what he had always wanted to do.
He used to tolerate Raja Bell because it was the playoffs, but now it's just a regular season game, and he doesn't want to see Wang Kai tolerate the fouls.
After returning in the third quarter, Wang Kai slightly changed his playing style. He began to move to the outside and frequently switched positions with Jason Richardson.
Raja Bell didn't expect that Wang Kai, this rookie, showed no sign of backing down and relentlessly attacked him with various sneaky elbow and knee strikes.
"You bastard, I'll break your legs."
"Oh my god, did you learn English from your gym teacher? Your vocabulary is so limited. Come on, let me teach you how to insult you elegantly. Listen, you soft-bodied creature that's only fit to compete with ewes, your dad could have gotten harder back then than you are now when he shot you against the wall."
While Raja Bell was still wondering why he was standing on the wall back then, Wang Kai had already run to the baseline, cut to the basket, received a brilliant pass from Baron Davis, and dunked successfully.
"It seems you're not only weak, but also incredibly slow. Go play in the women's basketball team; you can keep up with that pace."
It must be said that, besides teaching Wang Kai how to play basketball correctly, this old basketball rogue, Kobe, also taught Wang Kai how to use English and Chinese to conduct some very creative language communication.
Seeing Raja Bell being humiliated by Wang Kai time and time again on the court, D'Antoni had no choice but to substitute Raja Bell. He was worried that Raja Bell, who was already in red, would get another technical foul, which would force him to use a seven-man rotation.
D'Antoni is now very interested in rookie Wang Kai because his performance is really not like that of a rookie.
Although the Suns fans inside the arena were making a lot of noise, it didn't stop the players on both sides from intermittently hearing Wang Kai's trash talk towards Raja Bell.
The Suns players were surprised by how "elegant" Wang Kai's trash talk was, while the Warriors players were surprised by his audacity.
There have been rookies in the league who were more arrogant than Wang Kai, but no rookie dared to be so fierce and talkative in his fifth game of his career.