After the journalists left, LeBron James sat silently in front of his locker.
To him, that slap from Roger was more humiliating than anything he had previously encountered.
Slapping and fighting are completely different.
Fights generally occur between two people of equal status, and regardless of winning or losing, it's an equal competition between men.
People often mock Shaq and Kobe's fighting skills, but no one calls them cowards or sissies, because they lost in a fair fight.
However, a slap usually occurs between someone of higher status and someone of lower status. Besides physical harm, it also involves serious mental humiliation.
That's why some art films with sadomasochistic tendencies feature a lot of slaps rather than ordinary punches and kicks.
In the NBA, Shaquille O'Neal is the one who loves slapping his teammates the most because he knows how humiliating a slap can be for a man.
