And James took pleasure in the malice from the crowd.
Far from having weak knees from dread as the outside world had anticipated, he even smiled at the camera.
This was an atypical game.
Like in a sports movie, the Lakers were the villains, the Cavaliers the wounded side of justice, who should prevail despite being the underdogs.
TNT's Kenny Smith said he had never felt so much hatred in an NBA game before.
Kobe wanted to tell him, that meant you haven't really been watching my games.
And as the country singer invited to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" took the stage, Yu Fei felt displeased that they hadn't invited Jay Chou to sing "What Kind of Man Are You." Okay, that song wasn't out yet, so lowering the bar to "You Oughta Know" would've been acceptable.
Then the game began, each side scoring alternately, with the fans incessantly booing and shouting barely intelligible slogans.