The entire second half had been chopped to pieces by the refs. There was a whistle every few seconds, and it was easily the ugliest game he'd ever watched.
And four of the opposing team's starters had been ejected. How the hell were they supposed to play now?
Besides,
Wang Yi was already 34. For a professional athlete, that was getting on in years.
So the league needed a new face.
That new face had to be a young prodigy. In that regard, Noah was a perfect fit.
Antetokounmpo was already getting old. Xiao Hua had tried to give Wemby a push these past few years, but it hadn't worked.
Tatum was getting old too, and Jalen Green hadn't taken off either.
Xiao Hua had hoped they'd beat Wang Yi and become the league's new face, but year after year, Wang Yi had kept them under his thumb.
Xiao Hua had given up on them.
So this year, the new face he'd picked out was Noah.
And if he wanted Noah to quickly establish himself in the league and be ready to take over as its new face, the best way was to let him show what he could do in a game against Wang Yi.
Noah didn't need to gain an advantage over Wang Yi in their matchup, and he didn't have to beat the Raptors.
He just needed a few standout moments against Wang Yi. The league would make a big deal of them.
Then, after a season or two, when Wang Yi was older and his performance had declined a bit, and Noah had grown more, all it would take was one game for Noah to beat Wang Yi. Ideally, he'd do it in the Finals. Then Noah would naturally become the league's new face.
Xiao Hua