Regarding provocative, Australian sport has 3 famous cases

The first one was Nicky Winmar in 1993. Nicky is an indigenous Australian. After having a blinder of a game, he was racially taunted. He responded to the taunts by lifting up his shirt and pointing to his black skin. The phrase “proud indigenous man” is used frequently today and is associated with that incident.

Then in 2013, Adam Goodes, an indigenous AFL player for Sydney and one of the best players in the league, pointed out to security staff during a game a 13 year old girl who had used a racial slur against him. The girl was ejected and it became a big story. Goodes gave an interview the next day saying he didn’t blame the girl, because she learned those words somewhere and learned it was OK to use them. The situation was partially diffused, it two years later, during a game that was designated a celebration of indigenous culture, Goodes scored a dramatic goal and was jeered (not racially) by the opposing fans. He approached that section of fans doing an indigenous war dance and pantomimed throwing a spear at them. From that moment on, Goodes was loudly booed every time he touched the ball in every stadium in Australia for the rest of the year until he gave up the game at season’s end.

Today, the polarizing figure is an NRL rugby player named Lattrel Mitchel. While no incident has risen to the level of Goodes, Latrell is the most hated (indigenous) player in Australia.

The difficulty in these situations is that not all indigenous players receive this treatment. So the notion of is it provoked is mildly interesting. There seems to be a combination of being very good and being proud of your minority culture that seems to trigger the racist moments in the majority. One commentator on the Goodes situation described it as minorities are welcome as long as they stay in their box of acceptable behavior. But if you become more than the role society has carved out for you, watch out for the backlash.