Chapter 389 The Last Major Marathon 3
Coach Guthridge was thinking the same thing as Jake because only he on the team knew that Jake would not play the next game, so they had to ensure that they would win that game and thus ensure the leaders.h.i.+p of the conference even if they lost the next game.
So the days went by quickly and just a day before the next game David called saying he had great news, Jerry West accepted his proposal and would already talk to the Los Angeles Clippers team and exchange two players for their first choice in the draft of this year.
The players would be Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell who would be irrefutable for the Los Angeles Clippers team, which had a very bad team and almost always finished last during the season.
That way Jerry West would be able to guarantee Jake and still be able to release a bit of the high salaries he would have to pay if he decided to hire Glen Rice or keep Eddie Jones who would no longer have many chances to play with Kobe Bryant as the team owner.
The team"s only flaw was that they would not have a quality SF, but with Jake, Bryant, and O"Neal the Lakers" team would have no shortage of players to score points, in addition, the three were also excellent players in defense.
So Jerry West could already imagine the Lakers winning several NBA t.i.tles if Jake played only half of what he did at university, the truth that just the fact that a genius player like Jake who was wanted by all the teams say he would accept a lower salary just for playing on the Lakers team has already made Jerry West want him for the team.
Now he would have to speak to the other executives on the Lakers" team to get authorization to do this, as he had a lot of respect and authority it was almost a certainty that he would be able to do this.
That alone made Jake very happy because it was almost guaranteed that he could win 3 NBA t.i.tle with the Lakers team in his early years, after that he could go to a team with fewer stars to get a higher salary and try to win another one NBA t.i.tle using his skill.
But Jake wanted to ensure that he wouldn"t spend his entire career without winning an NBA t.i.tle as it has done several times in history with great players if David knew about the future as well as Jake he would also think that Jake was right to think about ensuring the victory of three NBA t.i.tle.
Another good thing that happened was that Nike had also accepted the offer of $ 52 million for 5 years of the contract, it would be a verbal agreement and therefore David could not guarantee that the two teams would still fulfill the contract in the end.
Jake already expected this to happen, yet he was confident that something like this would happen, but he understood that David was certain that such a big contract was no guarantee of being fulfilled.
So Jake told David to wait for the game that Jake would lose that might cause some change in the minds of the companies, while it was better if David tried to talk to Adidas to offer more value.
Jake also said that they could try to secure a 4 percent share of the profits that companies would make from selling the shoes that would be because of him, all to pressure them and see if anyone would give up.
What Jake didn"t want was a guaranteed verbal contract and thus losing another company that could offer a contract and in the end, receive less than had been agreed, it was better to establish that value that they had already accepted as a basis and ask for more until the draft of the NBA happened.
David didn"t agree with Jake"s thoughts, but he admitted that Jake was a little right about that and they could try to negotiate a better contract and thus indirectly have a contract like that secured.
It was risky, but David believed that one of the companies would accept it in the end and David was confident that after these 5 years of the contract the companies would be satisfied and offer even more money for renewal.
Jake was sure that some companies would change his mind after he lost a game to run the Tokyo marathon because in the future something like this could happen again in the NBA and it really would happen.
Of course, it was not because Jake would have a contract agreement allowing him to miss games to run the marathons that he would definitely do that, the truth was that Jake intended to run only 1 or more marathons in the year and out of the basketball season.
As David prepared for a negotiation that was almost certain he would not make it, one day pa.s.sed and it was the Tar Heels game day and it was Jake"s last game before running the marathon.
The Tar Heels team players were excited and even with the pressure of having to win they really wanted to beat an important rival like the Duke Blue Devils team, so the enthusiasm of the Tar Heels team was even greater.
The players of the Duke Blue Devils team were also looking forward to this game, they had a great season having also lost just one game and this one was almost tied with the Tar Heels team in the first place of the ACC conference.
Even with the excellent season, they were having, his team was not as talked about as their rival, the Tar Heels team that had won the NCAA tournament last season and haven"t lost a game for over a year.
"Welcome to everyone who is here to follow one of the best games of the season with two of the best teams of the season, we have the Duke Blue Devils team that is tied for the first place of the season with only one defeat in the entire season and one season bright."
"And on the other side, we have the Tar Heels team that is also tied as the ACC"s number one team, no defeat not only this season but also for more than 1 year without losing a game."
"The Duke Blue Devils team has one of the best defenses of the season and a good team that has guaranteed them an excellent season so far, everyone was waiting to see if this team is going to defeat the Tar Heels team."
"And we also have the Tar Heels team that has one of the best attacks of the season and has Jake and Jamison who are the two best players of the season so far."
"It will certainly be an exciting game between two great rivals and that is why ACC is considered the most disputed conference and with the best teams in the entire country."
Just as commentators have said this is one of the most antic.i.p.ated games of this season, after the Wake Forest team failed to defeat the Tar Heels team, everyone hoped that perhaps only the Duke Blue Devils team could defeat this incredible team.
As the Tar Heels team was playing that game at home at the Dean Smith Center and had Jake who had never lost a game in which he played more than 20 minutes, the Tar Heels team was the big favorite to win that game.
Just as in the game against the Wake Forest team, Coach Guthridge had asked the Tar Heels team players to start slowly in the attack and observe the opponent in the first minutes and focus on defense.
Of course, this did not mean that the Tar Heels team would not attack, so Coach Guthridge asked Jake to try to hit some three-point shots so that the Tar Heels team would not be behind the score.
Jake understood and was confident in the victory of the Tar Heels team in that game, he knew that even with him appearing the past was strangely similar to what happened now, the system told Jake that it was because he was helping Jake not to affect the future when he didn"t want to.
Knowing this he could say that Carter and Williams would be playing very well in that game, but Jamison was going to have one of his best games of the season and so Jake would count on them to make the points.
But he would listen to coach Guthridge who helped him so much and in the first few minutes he would try to make some three-point moves and try harder in defense, Jake had decided that he would defend against Trajan Langdon and also try some steals to help the defense.
In the first minutes of the 1st half, the Duke Blue Devils team started the attack because they had confidence in the defense, and the Tar Heels team was struggling in defense and with a slow pace of play when they went on the attack.
So the Duke Blue Devils team took advantage of those first minutes to try to create an advantage on the scoreboard against the Tar Heels team, but even if the Tar Heels team was not pus.h.i.+ng in the attack they could still attack well.
In a move after the Duke Blue Devils team scored 2 points, Jake moved forward to organize the attack for the Tar Heels team, after pa.s.sing through the middle of the court Jake pa.s.sed the ball to Williams who was on the right.
Williams was playing better in these last games, adapting to try to make more moves within the three-point line and not try as many three-point shots, he did it because the team had Jake and because he didn"t hit as many three-point shots this season as did last season.
Even so, he was happy to still be able to make good games and the teammates were supporting him, Jake mainly told Williams not to give up on the three-point play which gave Williams a lot of support.
Williams advanced even before the three-point line and pa.s.sed the ball to Okulaja further on from the right, Okulaja held the ball and the Tar Heels team defense soon came in pressing, so Okulaja pa.s.sed the ball to Carter from the left.
Carter tried to advance using his speed, but the opposing player in defense managed to stop him, so Carter pa.s.sed the ball to Jake who was further back who made a Set shot from outside and managed to make three more points for the Tar Heels team.