After James gave that long speech at the press conference, he said nothing more and didn't answer the reporters' questions.
He only waved to the dozens of cameras in the room.
It was also a wave to hundreds of millions of fans around the world.
"Goodbye."
Seeing James wave as he bade farewell to his 22-year career and the courts where he had competed for 22 years, all the reporters felt a pang of sadness. Everyone watching the scene fell silent, too.
But then James spoke up. "I mean, we'll see each other again soon."
Without giving anyone time to react, he turned and left the room.
Wang Yi knew why James hadn't given the reporters time to ask questions. He had also said that he would answer every question about him on Twitter.
In fact, James and his team had planned all of this in advance.
According to a report released by social media marketing company Opendorse, which evaluated and ranked the market value generated by athletes' personal tweets worldwide, soccer stars C Ronaldo, Iniesta, and Neymar ranked first, second, and third among all athletes.
The average value of each of their tweets was $868,604, $590,852, and $478,138, respectively.
James ranked fourth, with each of his tweets worth $470,356.
To cash in on that value, he needed traffic.
When he was still an athlete, monetizing his influence this way might have affected his public image. Now that he had retired and was becoming a businessman, using Twitter to make money was perfectly reasonable.
As an aside, James once asked a spectator sitting nearby for a piece of the red candy Red Vines during a break in a game. A camera happened to catch the moment.
Within just a few hours, searches for the candy skyrocketed, and its sales increased