Chapter 444 1998 NBA Draft 2
"I prefer to try the three-point shot in which I am more confident than trying to steal or dunk because I can get more points for my team by shooting from outside, and in defense, I do my best to help the team."
"So it will depend on the coach of my team if I play in a team that has Michael Jordan or Shaquille O"Neal I would prefer to do a.s.sists rather than attack alone."
"One more question, you had two great seasons on the Tar Heels team winning the NCAA tournament twice and being chosen as the College Player of the Year twice, many say you should stay at the university for two more seasons, what do you think about this?"
"I"ve said it before, I loved playing for the Tar Heels team and I had great teammates, I had coach Dean Smith and coach Bill Guthridge who taught me a lot, I accomplished a lot of things that several players wanted to achieve and I think my time in university is over."
"So I want to enter the NBA this season to have new challenges and improve, even more, I want to win the NBA t.i.tle and become the MVP of a season, I want to break several records in the NBA and for that, I have to risk entering the NBA as soon as possible."
"Thanks, Jake, good luck to you in the NBA."
After the interview Jake came back to celebrate with his mother and rarely did he feel as happy as he was now, Jake knew that the next day the Lakers "team would complete the deal with the Clippers" team and he could sign the contract with the Los Angeles Lakers team before the NBA lockout.
The NBA draft continued and Jake wanted to see if he had changed anything else in this draft besides helping the Clippers "team that didn"t choose Michael Olowokandi as they would, Jake didn"t know if another team would choose him or if the Clippers" team would still choose Michael Olowokandi in the twenty-second pick.
"The next team to choose in this draft is the Vancouver Grizzlies team, before the start of the draft it was clear their intention to choose Jake Smith in this draft because they need a PG and they also thought that the Los Angeles Clippers team would choose Michael Olowokandi."
"But with the Los Angeles Clippers team choosing Jake Smith, they should choose Mike Bibby who was another name that was spoken by the Vancouver Grizzlies team in recent days."
"That"s right, Ernie, the Vancouver Grizzlies team can also choose Vince Carter and Paul Pierce to suit their needs, but Mike Bibby is most likely to be chosen by the Vancouver Grizzlies team."
With the change in the Los Angeles Clippers" team selection, everyone"s draft list changed, but commentators already had an idea of what the other teams would choose, so it was time for David Stern to announce the second pick.
"With the second pick of the 1998 NBA draft, the Vancouver Grizzlies select Mike Bibby."
Jake saw that Bibby was still selected in second and the scene he saw at General Motors Place in Vancouver the same as he remembered seeing on television with Bibby and his mother celebrating.
"Mike Bibby is the second pick to be selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies team as expected, Mike Bibby is a talented PG who can shoot from three points and get smart a.s.sists as well as being able to fight opponents to get the layup if necessary."
After Mike Bibby"s choice, commentators were unsure whether the Denver Nuggets team would even choose Raef LaFrentz as they were supposed to do before or choose Michael Olowokandi who could still be chosen.
"I think the Denver Nuggets team should choose Raef LaFrentz as they thought to do before, even though Michael Olowokandi can become a good player he may not be ideal for the Denver Nuggets team as LaFrentz is."
Just as commentators said, the Denver Nuggets team chose Raef LaFrentz for the third pick, after that the Toronto Raptors team and the Golden State Warriors team chose fourth pick Antawn Jamison and fifth pick Vince Carter and then switched players.
To everyone"s surprise, Michael Olowokandi still took a long time to be chosen and besides Jake, the other picks in this 1998 NBA draft were the same as it was in Jake"s past life, only in the twelfth pick that the Orlando Magic team chose Michael Olowokandi.
So in the twenty-second pick, Michael Doleac that would have been chosen by the team of the Orlando Magic was chosen by the team of the Los Angeles Clippers that was disappointed for not being able to hire Michael Olowokandi.
Apart from Brian Skinner who ended up not being chosen by any team the rest of the draft was normal but probably Brian Skinner would enter the NBA in the future and everything would be as it was before, the Los Angeles Clippers team got rid of getting one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history for having made one of the biggest drafting mistakes by exchanging Jake Smith with the Lakers team.
At least for one season, they would have better players on their team that could be exchanged for other players or at least give some money to the Los Angeles Clippers team.
Jerry West knew he would be criticized for switching three players to Jake, but he thought that in the future he would be praised as he was for getting Kobe Bryant to the Los Angeles Lakers team.
After the end of the draft Jake and Eva went to dinner with Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison and their family, Jake invited them because the next time they met they would be on different teams and would-be opponents.
They all talked happily even though their families didn"t know each other. They knew that Jake, Vince, and Antawn were friends after dinner Jake asked Eva to stay with him until he went to Australia, but Eva said she would stay only one day because to come back to help Anna run the restaurant.
Jake arrived in his hotel room and was finally able to relax when he lay in bed, it had been a lively day and many things had happened that year, he won almost all individual awards and managed to win the NCAA tournament with the Tar Heels team.
Jake also started filming for the film The Matrix which was sure to be a big hit and he would be closer to his dream of becoming a successful actor, now he had been chosen by the Los Angeles Clippers team and would play on the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA.
All his dreams were gradually coming true, his mother was already very happy and he was already rich as he wanted, there was little to fulfill his dreams in basketball and as an actor and his relations.h.i.+p with Kate was progressing and this year they would start dating if everything went well, thinking about it Jake decided to talk to the system.
"Fate, thank you very much for this second chance, everything that I wanted and always dreamed of is coming true and I am achieving much more than I expected, I really appreciate it because I know that if it weren"t for you none of this would be happening."
[You deserve everything that is happening Jake, I helped you because you deserved it and you are using the skills you have well and intend to even help others and do not forget your grat.i.tude and what you went through.]
[You will continue to have the things you want because you have the capacity and can still improve, just be careful not to forget what is most important to you.]
"I"m not going, Fate, can you show me my stats for my first job?"
[Yes, here it is.]
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[Name: Jake Smith]
[Age: 19 years]
[Job: Basketball Player]
[t.i.tle: NBA Pro Player]
[Position: PG, SG]
[Height: 2.01 m]
[Weight: 103 Kg]
[Force 43]
[Agility 42]
[Resistance 45]
[Intelligence 63]
[Luck 99]
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Skills Basketball
[Ball Handling A]
[Body Control B]
[Man to Man B]
[Dribble A]
[Layup S]
[Set Shot SS]
[Block B]
[Pa.s.s S]
[Rebound A]
[2 Points SS]
[3 Points SS]
[Free Throw SS]
[Steal SS]
[Dunk S]
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Jake for a moment thought that nothing had changed after the draft, but soon realized that his job t.i.tle had changed to NBA Pro Player, his skills had also changed even though his skill levels had not dropped as he expected before.
It made Jake very happy because he didn"t have to spend a lot of time trying to improve his skills for the SS rank, and it also gave Jake more confidence because he trusted the system and knew that it meant he was able to perform well in the NBA also.
[Your skills are like I told you if you got the S rank in all your basketball skills you would be a good player in the NBA, and how you got SS in various skills means that you kept improving even while playing at university.]
[Some of your skills have dropped to rank B because you haven"t trained so much on those skills and the skill standard in the NBA is higher, but many of your skills are already worthy of the S rank.]
[Another thing I have to tell you is that you have reached the maximum skill level that a basketball player can have, this means that your skills that have an SS rank are already the best and can be called the skills of an All-star the NBA and may make you an MVP in the future.]
Hearing this Jake managed to understand a few things, the system was saying that his mid-range shooting skills and also outside shooting skills were those of an NBA All-Star player, which meant he had a skill close to Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, and Stephen Curry.
This might seem logical seeing that Jake managed to hit 549 three-point shots in two seasons at College basketball, he had an average of 73.8 percent hits on his 3-point shots, but Jake couldn"t think he was that good like Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, and Stephen Curry because he always admired them.