Chapter 139 Time of Changes 1
But Jake thought he owed a lot to the companies of Tiffany and Clara, they supported him from a very early age when no one knew for sure if he would be a good player or not and they continued with him even when he had to stay a while without playing what would hurt their companies.
Thanks to getting all this value from sponsors.h.i.+p since a long time ago he can take his mother out of the grueling work in the restaurant, have a good time those years while only caring about basketball.
He can also make several trips with his mother taking advantage of the time they had and he can even invest a part of that money to earn much more in the future and even fulfill Eva"s dream of having a restaurant.
In addition, he considered Tiffany and Clara his friends, so for all this, he wanted to continue this contract with them until when their companies wanted, after another 6 years when he enters the NBA he will no longer have to worry about money at all.
"I want to continue this contract until the time the university finishes at least."
"But have not you heard how much will be raised each month on your patronage?"
"It does not matter, I"m sure it will be very good."
So lunch ended and Jake went back to his house, Tiffany stayed on the table for a while and then started to smile, she knew Jake would be like that and that"s why their relations.h.i.+p was from friends plus business.
Maybe if it was only for Tiffany and Clara, Jake could tell that he did not even need to increase the amount of his sponsors.h.i.+p per month, but as a result, whoever won was other company shareholders too he needed to treat it as a business and take advantage of it to make more money.
Jake thought that if he could even compete in the Olympics two or six years from now, it would be great for companies to increase their sponsors.h.i.+p, so Jake was happy about that.
After all, this had happened Jake was now focused on the final game that would be in a few days, after training what was possible the coach Mike sent the whole team home so that the players could be well rested to play in the final.
Anna told Eva that she would be in the final also to see Jake"s game, he was very happy about it and his mother, of course, would be in the final also to support Jake in that game.
As the days went by and the day of the final of the state champions.h.i.+p finally arrived, Jake ate the feast in the morning made by his mother who always prepared a lot of food for Jake in final games.
After Jake packed his bag and went to the place of the game with his mother when he arrived everyone had already arrived too, the gym where the game of the final would be played was full of people even if it was still a long time before the game began.
This time the two teams seemed to be relaxed just waiting for the game to start, Jake could start packing for the game and meanwhile looked at the stands to see where the people he knew were.
Anna got a place near the court to sit next to Eva, Jake saw Eric also with a camera in his hands, he could also see Tiffany sitting in a place farther from the court, then Jake looked across the bleachers, but could not see Jenny anywhere.
He hoped Jenny would come by surprise because she should know about this game for Liza too, but she did not show up, now he hoped she could come to the national champions.h.i.+p final if he could get there.
Jake quickly recovered, he had to win this game if he wanted to think about the national champions.h.i.+p, and even if Jenny did not come to his mother and many people came to support him.
After a while the two teams were on the court just waiting for the game to start Jake"s team opponent in the final was the Sharks team, they knew that the Elite team would be a tough opponent but they were confident they could win.
The Sharks" team had three players who were the highlights, the PF was called Robert, Robert was very fast despite his height, the SF Lucas was a player who was very good at shots from outside and also helped the team PG to organize the plays sometimes that confused the opponents.
And also had the PG of the team that so with Jake was in the third year of school and was already the highlight of the team, his name was Steve and he was the regional team MVP of their team, everyone on the team had a lot of confidence in Steve.
Jake was confident of the victory even though everyone thought Steve was a great player, but Jake thought that if he did not try harder he could not be able to triple-double that final.
Jake talked about this with coach Mike and the coach thought that if he could do this would only benefit the team, after all with a triple-double meant that he helped in at least 30 points for the team and took the chance of the opponent making 20 points, so Mike could only be good for the team.
So the game started and Mike won the first possession of the ball for the Elite team, Jake received the ball and saw that Steve did not seem to want to score up for that game, so Jake advanced to the three-point line and pa.s.sed the ball to David.
David got the ball and instead flew to the side trying to get out of the opponent"s defense when he saw that he could not get away easily David made a feint when the opponents fell into the feint David can pa.s.s by the opponent and run to do the layup and the 2 first points of the final.
After this move, Steve received the ball to organize his team"s first attack in the final, Jake also gave Steve s.p.a.ce up to the three-point line, reaching the three-point line. Steve looked calmly at the positioning of his teammates.
Seeing Robert unmarked he pa.s.sed the ball to him, Robert received Steve"s pa.s.s and then turned to make the mid-range shot to make 2 points and tie the game.
After Jake got the ball and went to organize a new attack, arriving at the line of three points he saw Mark a little free and pa.s.sed the ball to him, Mark received the pa.s.s and can run to do the layup and 2 more points for the team Elite.
Jake can a.n.a.lyze that the opponent"s defense was a bit weak and was confused by their confidence, so Steve reached the three-point line but instead of pa.s.sing the ball he tried pa.s.sing by Jake, Jake defended and Steve failed, then Steve tried and Jake did not even react.
So Steve pa.s.sed the ball to the Center of his team that managed to make the 2 points for the team of Sharks, and the game continued like this until the end of the first period, Elite team wins by 4 points of difference.
Jake thought that the opposing team was more difficult than he thought it would be, Jake had 8 points and 4 a.s.sists in that early period and managed to make 3 steals in that period.
But none of the teams tried the shots out in that first period so it was hard to know what the game would be like from now on, Jake was also a bit worried about Steve who tried to get past him a few times, but he did not get anything.
Jake heard that he was a player who had a very strong attack and so was curious because Steve did not try anything in the first period.
Jake also saw that Carter seemed to be having difficulties with Robert in the defense, so Robert was the one who received the ball in the Sharks team and Jake got two steals in him helping Carter.
When the second period began Jake calmly advanced to the court of attack, he pa.s.sed the ball to David, David received the ball and made a step back and made a shot from outside to score his first 3 points in the game.
Steve received the ball to organize the attack of his team, arriving in the line of three points he pa.s.sed the ball to Lucas who managed to get rid of Harrison and made the shot from outside to make 3 points for the Sharks team.
Jake started another attack and reaching the three-point line pa.s.sed the ball to Mark who dunk to make 2 points for the Elite team to cheer the crowd, Steve started another attack for his team and pa.s.sed the ball to Lucas who managed to do the mid-range shot to make 2 points for your team as well.
After Jake made an attack for his team and advanced to the line of three points, arriving there he made a feint and then began to run, Steve did not expect and tried to follow Jake, Jake made a quick crossover and got rid of the defense of Steve and then made the dunk to make 2 more points for his team.
The crowd cheered with this attack and began to make more noise, Steve started a new attack and reached the line of three points, Jake was attentive in the defense waiting for Steve to make his move.
Steve made a shot from outside, Jake came up and almost made the block, Steve was scared by Jake"s quick reaction and ended up missing the shot from outside, Mark took the rebound and pa.s.sed to Jake to start another attack calmly.
With these new plays at the end of the second period the Elite team was winning by 10 points, Jake had done 5 steals and 7 a.s.sists in total and a lot more than 10 points already, so he was close to another Triple Double.