Chapter 241 Preparations for the Olympics 7
"And you Jake, go to a good university now, do you think you can get a place in the starting lineup from the first year?"
"I don"t think so, maybe if it"s the same way Coach Mike did with Lucas and Nathan, maybe I"ll go into some reserve games and then start later if I play well."
Jake knew it would be hard to become a starter playing at a university with a strong basketball team as it was the University of North Carolina; he was not arrogant to think that the coach would trust him right away.
But as he talked to Mark the question was not whether he could become the team owner but when that would happen, Jake had a lot of confidence as his target was the NBA and Mark also believed that this would not be a problem for Jake.
"If I can I"ll see you playing on television, I want to see how many t.i.tles you will earn at university, it won"t be as easy as playing with weaker opponents in high school, I"m sure some are even better than you."
"I have no doubt about that, but I am confident that I will be able to improve until the end of university, as for winning the t.i.tles you know that it is not just up to me."
"I know that, but Jake, we all want to see you in the NBA one day, my dream is that you will become MVP in a few years and I can be proud of my coworkers that I played with you, that I taught you playing as Center and you"re my friend."
After finis.h.i.+ng talking Mark eventually started crying, it must be hard for someone who loves basketball as much as Mark knew he couldn"t be a player if he decided on his own it wouldn"t be so painful.
But he was pretty much obliged, Jake didn"t know how to comfort his friend, after all, Mark could be happier in the future having a good job than spending a lifetime trying to become a player.
Jake also knew that knowing that Mark had practically given up on being a player broke the spirit of all of Jake"s teammates who were going to college this year.
After all, Mark was the best after Jake, if neither Mark could become a pro they also thought that unfortunately, they could not be the reality of thousands of young people every year.
Many high school basketball geniuses did not even have the opportunity to enter a good university to showcase their talents, and many at the university did not have the opportunity to become professionals.
Of course, this wasn"t everyone"s basketball dream, but many saw his dream of falling apart after years, Jake knew Mark wasn"t that skilled, he was good at rebounding and was improving fast.
But if even Jake didn"t currently have the ability to stand out, his friend Mark and his other teammates much less, then Jake thought it might be better if they quit early as Carter and Harrison did.
Of course, Jake didn"t know if Mark could get the chance to become a pro if he kept trying this way, so Jake had the best thing to do was back whatever decision they made.
Jake knew he was lucky to have such an understanding mother as if his mother were like Mark"s, he might not have the opportunity to go back and everything would be different.
"Are you going to race at the Jake Olympics?"
"Yes I will, I didn"t think you knew."
"Of course we knew, we all have a television at home, we saw your television commercials too, I didn"t expect you to be good at running either, that explains why you can play a whole game full of energy."
"Hahaha that"s not true, all of us on the team can play an entire game without being replaced."
"True, but seriously I hope you can win, so we"ll be much more proud to talk about playing with you."
"I will try."
After crying a little Mark seemed much more relaxed, they talked much longer before saying goodbye and Jake going home, Eva was happy to receive more chocolate from Jake.
After a few more days Jake was still going through his training routine and finally got a call to record, but it wasn"t director Crowe to talk about the movie, but NBC asking Jake to help with making some recordings for the station to make some calls to the Olympics.
After all Jake was one of the main subjects of this Olympics, unfortunately, it was not about his talent although he won the Chicago Marathon and came second in New York, it was more because he was young and also playing basketball besides partic.i.p.ating in the marathon compet.i.tion in the Olympics.
Luckily, they now only gathered some information about him in school and sports, but didn"t get too deep into it if everyone found out about the sponsors.h.i.+p he received or even his various investments would be problematic for him.
After all, a genius athlete in two sports and being young was already drawing too much attention, if it turned out that he was also a talented young millionaire and investor it would often be more complicated for him to get out of the media focus.
What"s more, the sports media didn"t favor Jake"s chances of getting a medal, they thought that a lack of focus on a sport would make Jake stand out in neither athletics nor basketball.
It was all too normal that even seasoned athletes would lose after getting nervous in compet.i.tions at the Olympics, it was perfectly normal for everyone to expect Jake to fail as well.
Marathon compet.i.tion would also take place only at the end of the Olympics, so they did not want to focus too much on an athlete who was unlikely to win and would not compete at the start of the compet.i.tion.
Jake was very happy that this happened, he didn"t want to stand out before the compet.i.tion started, even though Jake liked to receive respect for his victories was only after he won.
Jake was one day at one of the NBC studios and took several pictures and made some videos he didn"t even know would be used, Jake expected an interview too, but it seemed that the station didn"t think it was necessary.
They just asked Jake to confirm some information about him that would be spoken on the broadcast and after that, he was dismissed, even though Jake didn"t expect much he didn"t think he would be so despised.
It seemed that people thought very little of athletics athletes, Jake remembered seeing an old athlete saying that, only those who won the compet.i.tions and got a gold medal were a little respected.
After all, US athletics was known to be the strongest of all countries, so if American athletes beat everyone they thought it was normal and if they came second they would often be considered losers.
After that Jake continued his training for several weeks, the month of April had arrived and was almost over just as Jake"s high school time, in just over a month his last semester would end and Jake would go to university.
Jake told his friend Joseph that he was much calmer after securing a good university for him and Liza, after all with good grades and the money the two families had, it was not difficult to secure a place.
But Joseph seemed to have matured and was no longer so arrogant as in recent years, Jake found it interesting to see how his friend changed so much in his teens, of course, he knew this was normal, Jake just did not go through it because his mind was no longer young.
Even though Jake also underwent some personality changes after going through adolescence for the second time, now he also slowly returned to his old personality, Jake spent many years trying to pretend that he was young was an important experience for him to train acting.
"Jake, I know you"re busy with your training and the Olympics are coming for you too, but you"re not going to miss the school prom, are you?"
"I don"t think I"m going to Joseph, it"s not for me after all the prom is nothing more than a dance party and I have no one to dance with me."
Jake had already missed his first ball after suffering the accident, so he wasn"t interested in the second ball either, if he could invite someone outside he would take Lola to the ball, but Elite school was a private school and had several rules, One was that only people at school could attend the ball.
So Jake had no interest in that anymore, after all, even though he"d made a lot of colleagues this past semester, everyone would be with his peers, and Jake didn"t want to hold sail for anyone.
"Don"t say that Jake, you can invite any of our cla.s.s, girls won"t reject you if they don"t have any partners so far."
"I"ll think about it, if I feel like it, I"ll show up."
Jake didn"t really want to go to the prom, for him the high school time was over after the national champions.h.i.+p was over now Jake just had to stay and wait for the semester to end because of his student responsibilities.
Even though after a few years he might miss high school it wouldn"t be now, and maybe he wouldn"t even miss it after a few years, after all, he had the opportunity to go through it twice.
The university got Jake"s attention much more, besides basketball he wanted to know what the envy would be like, so jealous so many years after suffering the accident and missing the opportunity to study.
He hoped he wouldn"t be too disappointed, after all, he would just go there for the moment, to play basketball and get his degree, after all, Jake didn"t think there was anything else to learn at university after reading books on economics and business administration for over 10 years.
Also, Jake wanted to take his time at university to see if he could find some business talent to work with him in the future, even if he couldn"t find it at his university he was sure he could find someone at the other top universities. such as Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia.
After all Jake is past the time to worry about how to make money, he already had a lot of money and also secured his future, he just had to think about how to manage his money in the short term to make the most of it.