And Xiao Hua was thinking even further ahead: Wang Yi was already 34.
Even with the best possible care for his body, and even with his extraordinary physique, he had at most three or four years left at his peak.
The league had to cultivate its next face to keep making money for the league.
And the best way to cultivate that next face was to have the newcomer the league wanted to promote beat Wang Yi.
And beat him multiple times.
But so far, no one had even managed to beat Wang Yi once in the Playoffs, let alone multiple times.
So Wang Yi still needed nerfing.
It was just like how the league had once suppressed James to promote newcomers.
James had suffered plenty of that treatment in the middle and later stages of his career.
Other players who were good at Foul Baiting could drive into the paint and easily draw a foul.
But when James drove into the paint, his arms and shoulders got smacked again and again, and he rarely got a foul call.
It was no wonder James was always throwing his hands up.
If it were us, and our hands got hit like that without a foul being called, we wouldn't just throw our hands up—we'd probably kick someone.
The most glaring example was when James went up for a game-winning layup and Tatum hit his hand.
It happened right in front of the baseline referee, with no one blocking the view. Tatum's hit on his hand was obvious.
Yet the referee actually pretended not to see it.
The league's intention to promote newcomers and suppress veterans was plain to see.
There were also several times when James was hit on the hand while going up for a clutch layup, or had his