I think if he hadn’t of won the Oscar, he may have played it more low key, and not attended an after party. But he had his ego stroked with the win. Plus it looked like 100% support and admiration from his peers.
Unfortunately, he was on top of the world after the win with the audience reaction, and ready to party. So full of himself.
Yes, Will said Denzel Washington said to him after the slap, "At your highest moment, be careful. That’s when the devil comes for you." Will was trying to insinuate that Chris was a devil or hater coming after him. But, there's another way to interpret that sentence. Denzel could have meant one's own ego, thinking one is above it all, has become entitled, privileged, so much so, that one can decide to just walk across a stage and smack someone else if they want to.
ABC said their sources saw Will and Denzel at the Governor's Ball afterward, when there were finally no cameras, the two men were, according to the description, having a long "spirited conversation." Maybe it was then that Denzel was trying to set Will straight on his meaning of that sentence, as in "What the heck were you thinking???"
Meanwhile, TMZ, ABC and Extra have said their sources saw Chris Rock at a different afterparty, and he was still bewildered about the whole incident.
Harvey Levin at TMZ, also reported he personally talked to an extremely, extremely successful and powerful black entertainer who was at the awards, on the phone the next morning. He said that man said, "Every black person in the audience felt broken after that slap." There are three extremely, extremely successful and powerful black entertainers I can think of off-hand, who Harvey would have their private phone numbers and would take his call: Denzel, Tyler Perry, and Samuel L. Jackson. Three men who worked so hard to get their achievements, yet still understand how easily, due to social perceptions or a social injustice, it could all be taken away.