bhwS

by Cr0w0019

this is a fanfic of a bhwS book i read with a little bit of things edited to make it better

29. Chapter 29

The Last Major Marathon

But that was not what was really happening, it was Coach Guthridge who asked them to start the game cautiously against the Wake Forest team, it showed how the Tar Heels team respected the opponent and tried their best to achieve victory.

Jake advanced with the ball and after passing through the middle of the court he passed the ball to Williams from the left, in that game Coach Guthridge asked Williams not to try too many three-point shots and stay more within the three-point line.

This was not because the coach did not trust him, but so that Jake had more freedom to try the three-point shots and had more space to get rid of the opposing defense, Williams understood that Jake was better than him in the three-point shots and accepted that.

Williams advanced the ball to the three-point line and passed it to Carter who was on the left, Carter received the ball and held it a little before passing it back to Jake who was further behind.

Jake received the ball from Carter and he was the only player on the Tar Heels team outside the three-point line and only one player on the Wake Forest team was defending against him, Jake made a feint and managed to get rid of the opponent with ease by going to the right.

Jake tried the shot from outside and scored 3 more points for the Tar Heels team, that was the strategy of Coach Guthridge who trusted Jake who had the skill and speed to get rid of the defending opponents.

After 10 minutes had passed in the 1st half, the Tar Heels team had already achieved a small advantage on the scoreboard, but the Wake Forest team was also very well and was having a game played against the Tar Heels team.

In another attacking move by the Wake Forest O'Kelley attempted a three-point shot again, but this time Jake was close and got the block, it was already Jake's second block in the 1st half and the Wake Forest team understood how it was difficult to make three-point plays against the Tar Heels team.

In another attacking move by the Tar Heels team Jake received Carter's ball behind the three-point line, Jake had already hit 3 shots from three points and so two players from the Wake Forest team came to defend against him.

Jake was quick and made a pass to Okulaja later that had been free, when a defense player tried to defend against Okulaja he passed the ball to Williams who entered the middle, Williams received the ball and advanced until he made the layup to get more 2 points for the Tar Heels team.

Williams was not attempting many three-point shots, but he was doing well in layups and mid-range shots, as well as with the Wake Forest team making a little mistake, the Tar Heels team still finished the 1st half ahead of the score.

In that 1st half Jake played for 20 minutes and made 15 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 blocks, it was a good 1st half of game for Jake, but the Wake Forest defense was fine and even Jake was with difficulty making stitches.

"What a great 1st half we had in that game, the Wake Forest team as everyone expected comes strong and the players are very confident, their defense is doing a good job and the attack also doesn't have many mistakes."

"The Tar Heels team managed to finish this 1st half by winning with a small advantage on the scoreboard, but despite Jake's good defensive game, the Tar Heels team players seem timid in this game and are not going to attack at all."

"That's right, the pressure of being in so many games without losing is affecting the performance of the Tar Heels team players, but I think that the Tar Heels team will still win that game."

"Jake and Jamison see having great performances throughout the season and even when they don't play very well they still score a lot and help the team to win, and the whole team is also in a great phase, so I think they will win this one game."

"It's true, and Jake has been showing along with Williams how the defense of the Tar Heels team is good against teams that attempted three-point shots this season, Jake managed 2 blocks in that game and they and Williams hindered several players on the Wake Forest team."

In the 2nd half the Wake Forest team came back playing the same way as in the 1st half, even though they were losing the advantage of the Tar Heels team it wasn't that big and they thought that if the opponent missed more they could win.

Unfortunately for them, the Tar Heels team had come back differently, they started slowly because they were being careful with the opponent, but after 20 minutes of play, they no longer needed to be careful in this 2nd half of the game.

So the Wake Forest team would have to pay more attention to the defense if they didn't want to lose the game quickly, Jake also started to speed up the game, the players of the Tar Heels team were rested and had to win this game.

In another move, the Wake Forest team was attacking and Jake was quick and managed to intercept an opponent's pass and started the counterattack, there were only two players from the Wake Forest team in front of him preventing Jake from running directly to make the points.

Even so Jake decided to accelerate and try to gain speed to make those points in this play, O'Kelley who was one of the two players in the defense realized that Jake was faster and would pass him and tried to delay Jake in the play.

Jake reacted quickly and made a quick crossover when O'Kelley tried to defend against him which caused O'Kelley to fall to the ground, even so, Jake lost a little speed making this dribble and could not make the points without passing the last defender of the team Wake Forest.

The last one in defense was Tony Rutland who also tried to hinder Jake to prevent him from making the points, Jake saw that the rest of the defensive players on the Wake Forest team were coming back and he would have to set up the play quickly.

So he decided to use the dribbling movement that he himself had invented and used a few times, it was the Ghost move that was a move in which he moved the ball in a way that the opposing player in defense could not see the ball for a moment and Jake would pass him.

Jake did this and for a moment Rutland could not see the ball anymore and thought that Jake had missed the move, only after he saw that Jake passed him and made the dunk to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.

Rutland couldn't understand how Jake did it, but everyone in the crowd and his teammates had seen what Jake had done with the ball, the Ghost move was a dribble that Jake didn't use often even though he had invented it because opponents would expect this.

The defense of the Wake Forest team was very good, but the intensity of the pressure that the Tar Heels team was putting on the attack was very great and little by little the advantage increased on the scoreboard.

In another move, Wake Forest had hit a three-point shot and Tar Heels was attacking soon after, Jake stepped forward and passed the ball to Williams who was on the right before going through the middle of the court.

Williams wanted to redeem himself because it was he who failed to defend and gave Rutland the freedom to score three points from an outside shot, Williams came forward and passed the ball to Carter who was on the left.

Carter was not performing well in the attack in this game, but he still helped the team a lot, after holding on a little he passed the ball to Williams again, Williams received the ball and tried a mid-range shot.

Williams missed his shot and Jamison managed to catch the offensive rebound, Jamison didn't even catch the ball and just touched it to make the 2 points for the Tar Heels team, Jake asked Williams to have more patience and the team went back to the defense.

With the Tar Heels team pressing in the attack in the 2nd half the Wake Forest team was unable to recover and so the Tar Heels team won the game making 88 points against 69 points of the Wake Forest team.

In that 2nd half Jake played for 20 minutes and made 14 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 5 steals, and 1 block, as well as another double-double by Jake, the Tar Heels team won a difficult opponent and kept the sequence of games without lose.

"What a great game we are watching here today, an exciting game in which the Wake Forest team, as expected, played very well and made it difficult for the Tar Heels team to seek victory."

"At the end of the 1st half the difference in the score between the two teams was not very large, but the Tar Heels team put more pressure on the attack in the 2nd half and thus managed to win after an exciting and disputed game."

"The Wake Forest team did very well in that game, but the Tar Heels team is very strong this season and even managed to hinder many Wake Forest team three-point plays."

"Jake also played well in defense and had a good performance in this difficult game and even made 3 blocks in the game, Jamison had a good performance and Williams too, just Carter who was not doing so well and left Jake with fewer attack options."

"That's right, the Tar Heels team's next game will also be a challenge for the players, we hope that Jake and Jamison continue to play well and that the Tar Heels team can continue this incredible winning streak."

The players were relieved after that victory, even though they were good players, the pressure of having to win with this winning streak was hindering their performance in some games.

After this game in which the media expected the Tar Heels team to lose so that they would have a good story, Jake's interview with Eric finally came out in the newspaper, this caused the media's attention and the public to continue on the Tar Heels team and on Jake.

As Jake did not do many interviews after the games, this interview left everyone interested in what Jake had said about the current situation of the team, everyone was satisfied because Jake did an interview giving complete answers that answered several questions.

The truth was that Jake had already given some interviews with similar answers before, but they were at another time and Jake was not so famous and so many still wanted to know what Jake thought about these things.

Jake thought that this was perhaps the maximum moment of fame that he would have, after all, he would have another difficult game and then he would be out of the next game because he would run the marathon in Tokyo, for someone like Jake who was very important for the team and I always played every minute in games, resting for a game was not uncommon.

Even more when the Tar Heels team was the leader of the conference and had not lost any games in the season, the opponent was also weak and so it would not be so prominent that Coach Guthridge let Jake rest for a game with few games left for the ACC tournament and soon after for the NCAA tournament.

The biggest problem was that the Tar Heels team was trying to break a historic game record if they lost and Jake was the most important player on the team, and he would not lose this game to rest but to run a marathon.

This could make the team and the media criticize Jake and Coach Guthridge a lot, especially if the Tar Heels team lost that game because Jake wouldn't be playing after that Jake would only regain his popularity if he won the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament at the end of the season and get several individual prizes.

Jake, of course, had already talked to David Falk about it, so David wanted to take advantage of this opportunity when Jake's fame and prestige was at its maximum to be able to close some verbal contracts.

He was about to close the deal with Jerry West who thought it was worth the risk to bring Jake to the team and still be able to save on salaries and have the offensive players he wanted.

After David spoke to him, Jerry West started following Jake's games and old recordings too, so Jerry West saw that Jake was excellent in defense as well and in assists, he was the type of player that any team would want.

With more research, he even knew that Jake could play in all positions if it was necessary, of course putting him as Center could be an exaggeration because of his height, but the other 4 positions he could do very well.

Jerry West also analyzed the marketing power that Jake's name had, a player who was also a marathon athlete and an actor was something that was never seen before, with that and more Jake's natural charisma and his talent brought many fans and fans for Elite School and North Carolina University.

This for a 19-year-old who theoretically could still have the potential to improve a lot was very encouraging, Jerry West already considered Jake better than Kobe Bryant when he arrived on the Lakers' team.

David was also very close to closing with 7 companies that wanted to sponsor Jake, all agreed to pay 4 million in 4 years of the contract, two of these companies were shoe companies that were negotiating Jake's millionaire contract.

Jake said he wanted to sign with Nike and that was what David Falk also wanted, so David made the strategy that Jake said and talked to all shoe companies, David also told Nike about the amount Jake asked for.

Naturally, at first he was rejected, so David talked about Kobe Bryant and how he could try to make a deal with Adidas that he was interested in and that he was talking to Nike because he was very considerate of the company and Jake too.

But after that something unexpected happened, Adidas somehow heard about the value David offered to Nike and also agreed to pay that amount for a 5-year contract with Jake, Adidas just as David said he wanted to win Nike's place as number 1 footwear brand in the world.

They signed a great deal with Kobe Bryant and were very pleased with the repercussions this brought, so they were naturally interested in signing a contract with Jake Smith that could be the next Michael Jordan or the next Magic Johnson.

Even more because Jake was very popular with fans in Europe where Adidas dominated the sale of sports equipment, they were also interested in Jake, who was an Olympic champion and the best marathon athlete today.

So Adidas wanted Jake because he was very popular in Europe and naturally he was also very popular in the United States, in a short time Nike should also accept the offer that David made, because if they did not accept this offer then David would tell Jake to close a contract with Adidas.

Meanwhile, David called Jake to ask for his opinion to see if he would agree to sign a sponsorship deal with Adidas, Jake replied that if Nike did not accept what he asked for he would close a deal with Adidas.

Jake wanted to strike a deal with Nike because he knew they were the best-selling shoe company in the world and the players who earned the most from selling shoes had an agreement with Nike.

But just as Jake had told David he had confidence in his ability and didn't have to worry about money, so the only thing he wanted was for companies to pay what he knew he was worth.

So if only Adidas agreed to pay for this 5-year contract he would accept, Adidas also had a lot to gain from it because they would virtually dominate all fans if they had Jake and Kobe Bryant as athletes.

Having received confirmation from Jake, David now had more strength to negotiate with the companies knowing that if Nike did not accept the deal he would close a verbal deal with Adidas, so David would have to wait a while before deciding.

But the agreements with the other companies he could easily close, even if a verbal agreement did not guarantee anything and the companies could break a verbal contract if they wanted to, but with David Falk who had a lot of influence and was an agent for many important players, no one would want to break a verbal agreement with him.

He signed a verbal contract with 5 companies, 4 of which were guaranteed that they would close the formal contract with Jake when the time was right and another company that could break the verbal contract in the future.

The companies that were guaranteed were Gatorade, Chevrolet, Pepsi, and Gillette, three of which were impressed by the success of the Tiffany companies and the company that John and Alan currently represented were drinks and razors.

For these companies it was easy to get a contract using examples from the past, David got a contract with Chevrolet also because many of their customers liked basketball and athletics.

And it was a risk that the company wanted to take, these verbal contracts were practically guaranteed because David already had contracts with them through other players and they would not risk breaking that contract, the other company could break it because it was not afraid of David.

So David had already guaranteed that Jake would receive more than he currently receives from his sponsorship companies, and David had secured almost $ 2 million in his fee for getting those contracts over the 4 years.

But that would not be even half of what Jake would receive with the contract with the shoe company that was already guaranteed with Adidas at least, even with the salary that Jake would receive in the first ones it would not be higher than that.

Now David needed to hear Jerry West's final answer and also Nike's answer, there were other companies that were in having a contract with Jake too, but David was not very optimistic with these companies after Jake didn't appear in a game so these companies would end the talks.

David thought that if Jake managed to win the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament then it was possible that until he entered the NBA the companies would decide to sign a contract with Jake, but David did not count on that.

Meanwhile Jake was training hard with the basketball team for the next game that was very important and also training for the next marathon that was very close, Jake was confident of winning the marathon with his training.

He had to win this marathon because maybe it was the last chance he would have to win this marathon in Tokyo, which is why he was risking losing a game to run this marathon.

The Tar Heels team players were very anxious for the next game and were training excitedly, it would be one of the most difficult games of the season against the team that was considered the Tar Heels team's biggest rival.

Jake also wanted to do the best he could and was even doing extra training with Jamison and Carter, and was also doing extra training with Williams for the next game, he had to make sure they won that game, like that in the next game when he didn't play even if the team lost they would still have an incredible record of games without losing.

Fortunately, that game was only 5 days after the last game and so the players could train a lot and still be rested before the next game.

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 leadership 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 titles 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 title 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 title using his skill.

But Jake wanted to ensure that he wouldn't spend his entire career without winning an NBA title 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 title.

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 passed 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 anticipated 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 pushing 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 passing through the middle of the court Jake passed 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 passed 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 passed 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 passed 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.

With Jake in the Tar Heels team, the Duke Blue Devils team could not relax in defense and focus only on the attack, so in the first minutes, the Duke Blue Devils team could not have an advantage on the scoreboard even though the Tar Heels team was slower in the attack.

In another move, Jake managed to get ahead and intercepted a pass from the Duke Blue Devils team to get a steal, but this time he didn't advance quickly to the attack and waited for the teammates to advance to the attack and the Duke Blue Devils team managed to organize the defense.

Many had already understood that the Tar Heels team was starting slowly in this game and would start to put more pressure on the attack for the rest of the game, so the team coach Duke Blue Devils asked the team to put pressure on the attack to take advantage of this moment.

But with Jake hitting 4 shots from three points and making some assists, the Duke Blue Devils team did not get any advantage on the scoreboard, the Tar Heels defense was also very good.

Jake calmly advanced the ball and before passing the middle of the court passed the ball to Carter on the left, Jake had not made any assistance to Jamison yet and so only Williams and Carter had scored points in that game.

Carter advanced with the ball and before crossing the three-point line he passed the ball to Jamison who was further ahead on the left, Jamison tried to advance to make his first points in the game and failed and passed the ball to Williams further back through right.

Williams received the ball with the freedom to attempt the shot from outside, so the defense soon pressed him to try the block, but Williams did not attempt the three-point shot and passed the ball to Jake in the middle.

Jake was quick and after catching the ball he made a high pass to Carter who caught the ball in the air and made a dunk to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team and complete the alley-oop, this move cheered the crowd even team losing the game.

After almost 10 minutes of play, Jake already thought that they had sufficiently analyzed the Duke Blue Devils team and it was time to start putting pressure on the attack and thus try to finish the 1st half by winning with a good advantage on the scoreboard.

In another play, the Duke Blue Devils team was attacking and Langdon tried to make a three-point shot, Jake was close by and managed to make a block, the ball went to Williams who held the ball and passed it to Jake.

Jake moved quickly against what the Duke Blue Devils team's defense expected, the other players on the Tar Heels team had also received Jake's signal and knew it was time for the Tar Heels team to attack.

After passing through the middle of the court Jake passed the ball to Carter from the left, Carter quickly advanced past the three-point line and passed the ball to Jamison, Jamison tried a feint and when he saw that he could not move forward passed the ball to Okulaja.

Okulaja held the ball and passed it to Jake who came quickly through the middle, Jake surprised his opponents by entering the middle of the defense, receiving the ball he managed to advance on the right and when another defender of the Duke Blue Devils team came to pressure him, Jake passed to Jamison.

Jamison received the ball from Jake and made a quick move and managed to make the layup and make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team, it was Jamison's first points in the game and the defense was leaving him a little aside because of that.

So this was the opportunity for the Tar Heels team to take advantage and Jake started to pass the ball a lot to Jamison and when the Duke Blue Devils defense tried to predict the move Jake passed it to Williams and Carter.

In the last minutes of the 1st half, Jake scored only 5 points and only made several assists for his teammates, but by the end of the 1st half of the game Jamison already had 19 points, and other players like Carter and Williams had also scored almost 10 points each.

In the 1st half of that game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 17 points, 13 assists, 3 rebounds, 6 steals, and 2 blocks, Jake didn't score as many points because he took advantage of Jamison's excellent game and decided to make more assists, like this almost all the plays went through Jake's hands.

"What an incredible 1st half we had here in this game, an electrifying game worthy of the two best teams at the ACC conference and that together have 45 games this season and just one defeat, what an exciting game."

"At the beginning of the game, the Duke Blue Devils team seemed to be dominating the game and was almost always in front of the scoreboard, only Jake managed to make some moves that left the Tar Heels team alive in the game.

"But in the last 10 minutes of the game, Jake accelerated the pace of the game and led the Tar Heels team to a major turnaround in the game and managed to turn the game around and ended that game with an incredible 22 point advantage."

"This game is unexpected and can happen for the Duke Blue Devils team to return well in the 2nd half as it did at the beginning of the game and manage to reverse the score to win the game, but I find it difficult to see that happen.

"Jake, Carter, and Williams are playing very well, but Jamison is incredible and is having his best performance this season and has already scored 19 points and managed 7 rebounds before the 2nd half even started."

"That's right, it's amazing to see Jamison's performance and this is only the second game this season that I see someone on the Tar Heels team finishing the 1st half with more points than Jake."

"But Jake is certainly the main responsible for this result so far with a great defensive game, in the first minutes he was responsible for keeping the Tar Heels team in the game by making several shots from three points."

"And in this 1st half Jake made 13 assists, this is much more incredible than the games where Jake had more than 25 points at the end of the 1st half, maybe in this game Jake will break his record for more assists in a game that is of 21 assists last season."

Everyone was excited about Jamison's excellent game, who forgot that Jake was also having a great performance as a PG, but this time with assists and not many points, Jake finished the 1st half ensuring a double-double.

Coach Guthridge was also very pleased with the performance of the team and especially Jake who commanded the team's attack and increased the pace of the game at the right time which allowed them to have such a big advantage at the end of the 1st half.

The coach of the Duke Blue Devils team was very angry because he was seeing that the team was losing the game because the defense was not working very well in that game, in several minutes the players of the Duke Blue Devils team gave Jamison a lot of freedom to make the points.

Defending against Jake he knew it was difficult because he was a very skilled player, but against Jamison, it was possible if the team managed to prevent him from playing, of course, the coach did not know that the Duke Blue Devils players were already trying to do this and Jake used it to attack.

When the defenders of the Duke Blue Devils team focused on Jamison, Jake passed it to Carter and Williams or made the points himself, and when the defense didn't try to defend against Jamison, Jake used that moment to pass the ball to him.

At the beginning of the 2nd half, the Tar Heels attack continued to press and the players were being quick to attack, in another move after the Duke Blue Devils team managed to score 3 points, the Tar Heels team went on the attack.

Jake advanced the ball quickly and after passing through the middle of the court passed the ball to Williams on the right, Williams advanced quickly and before crossing the three-point line passed the ball to Okulaja further ahead.

Okulaja passed the ball to Carter who tried to play inside and missed the layup, Jamison went up and caught the rebound and passed the ball to Jake who was further behind, Jake received the ball and soon advanced too.

When the first player of the Duke Blue Devils team came to defend Jake he passed the ball with a perfect diagonal pass to Jamison who was coming from behind in the defense of the Duke Blue Devils team and after receiving the ball he made a dunk to liven up the crowd more.

The truth was that in this game the defense of the Duke Blue Devils team was still doing a great job, but with Jamison playing so well, Jake had everything he needed to organize the move and give the Tar Heels team several assists to score points.

The Tar Heels team made no mistakes in defense and neither in attack with Jake leading the team on the court, the players could miss several attacks and make fouls, but there was no mistake that could give the Duke Blue Devils any chance.

In addition, in this game, Jake was very well in defense and had managed to get some blocks and steals hindering the attacks of the Duke Blue Devils team, with that the Duke Blue Devils team was unable to react and the Tar Heels team won the game with a big advantage.

So the Tar Heels team won the game with 115 points against 66 points for the Duke Blue Devils team, it was an exciting game at the beginning, but the Tar Heels team ended up dominating in the end, Jamison certainly had his best game of the season and made 41 points and got 13 rebounds.

In that 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 15 points, 12 assists, 5 rebounds, 6 steals, and 3 blocks, with another triple-double Jake was the best player in the game and breaking his record for most assists in a game.

"Another game that ends and another victory for the Tar Heels team, now the Tar Heels team reaches an incredible 49 straight victories, more than a year without losing a game and now guarantees the 1 place in the ACC conference."

"This game ended with an unexpected result I would say, the victory of the Tar Heels team is not a surprise because it was naturally the favorite team, but winning with such a big difference in points nobody expected it."

"It's true, in the first 10 minutes of the game, the Duke Blue Devils team was still winning the game, the Tar Heels team's attack failed to score and only Jake's three-point shots that kept the Tar Heels team alive in the game."

"After that, the attitude of the Tar Heels team changed completely, the team increased the pace of play and was more willing to attack and Jamison who had not made any points in the first 10 minutes ended the 1st half with 19 points."

"Jamison showed in this game because together with Jake he is the best player in college basketball, he ended this game with a double-double and making 41 points, it is the first game of the season in which someone finishes a game with more points than Jake in the team Tar Heels."

"That's right, Jamison played very well, Carter and Williams also played well, but for me, Jake was still the best player in that game with a triple-double and breaking his record with 25 assists, a game to go down in history in many ways."

"It's really incredible, with 25 assists and 32 points, it shows that Jake was responsible for at least 82 points for the Tar Heels team out of the 115 points of the team, not to mention that several points were from Free Throw plays."

"We will wait for the next game and keep track of when the Tar Heels team continues without losing a game."

Just as commentators said Jake had played one of his best games of the season, Jamison also had a lot of prominences and Jake took advantage of Jamison's great performance to break his record for assists in just one game.

In fact, it was almost certain that Jake would break the record for assists made in one season, Jamison was very happy and all the other players on the Tar Heels team too, the other day Coach Guthridge would say that Jake would not participate in the next game.

Jake would also train the other day and talk to the players to support the team in playing the next game that Jake knew would be difficult for the Tar Heels team to win because on the 6th he would have to travel to Tokyo to run the marathon.

If the trip wasn't so long and tiring, Jake would try to get back in time to play the next game, but no doctor would advise Jake to run a marathon and play a game of basketball on the same day.

Even Jake, who had excellent resistance, did not know if he would be fully recovered before the game even if he ate a stamina bar, after all, besides the marathon, he still had a long plane trip and the game would still be as a visitor.

Of course, probably not even Coach Guthridge would allow Jake to participate in the next game after running a marathon, but until the next game, Jake and the Tar Heels team's fame was greater than ever.

Other companies were approaching David to talk about endorsement contracts, but David was not counting on that because in a few days everyone would know that Jake would not participate in the next game and those contracts could not be closed until that day.

But the good news continued, after this game by Jake showing more of his ability as PG Jerry West got approval to negotiate with the Los Angeles Clippers team to be able to switch to their first draft choice.

And Jerry West had already told the Lakers executives that Jake wanted a contract to missing some games to run in marathons, so even if Jake lost the next game, the Lakers team would not change their minds and continue the negotiation.

The company Nike and Adidas had also received another proposal from David and were studying to see if it would be worth accepting, even if they would not accept if the previous offer was already guaranteed would be very good.

So Jake and David had done everything they could and now Jake had to run this marathon and after that marathon, he would have one more game and Jake would have a week off to go home, so he wouldn't recover the fans so soon and media attention.

It was now less than 2 months before the end of the season and Jake wanted to finish winning the NCAA title, the other day the Tar Heels team players were still excited when in training Coach Guthridge said that Jake would not participate in the next game.

The other players were slow to understand why Jake would lose this game just to run a marathon, only Jake knew how important that marathon was for him to win two points of statistics.

Even so, they did not show that they were disappointed with Jake, the team needed to continue winning and without Jake, it would be much more difficult, during training Jake told Jamison, Williams and Ed Cota that he trusted them to achieve this victory for the team.

Jake knew that Williams and Jamison would mainly play very well in that game and Ed Cota would have to make assists just like Jake did, only if that happened, the Tar Heels team could achieve victory.

After training with his teammates Jake returned to his dorm, the same day he traveled to Tokyo to participate in the marathon, it was over 16 hours of travel and Jake understood why it was impossible for him to play after running the marathon and returned by plane the same day.

Even though he slept on the plane he still arrived very tired and would only have a few hours to rest before the marathon, if it weren't for him it would be impossible to achieve this, luckily John had already organized everything and the hotel was prepared for him.

John had also come to Tokyo a few days earlier to follow Jake's marathon, Jake felt sorry to think that this was perhaps the last marathon that John would organize for him because the contract with John's company would end after that season.

Jake could finally use the Japanese he had studied so much to learn, he naturally talked a lot to master this language that he used so little, people were impressed to hear Jake speaking Japanese.

Much more impressed than when Jake used German in Berlin, the sports media would naturally never expect Jake to participate in this Tokyo marathon that was the same day as the Tar Heels team game that was at such an important time.

Jake can still walk around the city the day before the marathon and then went to sleep at the hotel to get ready for the marathon, the next day Jake woke up very early and soon went to the place where the marathon would take place.

When Jake arrived at the place where the marathon would soon take place many people already recognized him, after all, who was an elite athlete or was very fond of marathon knew Jake who was the best marathon runner in the world.

As everyone recognized him, the athletes had no doubt that Jake had actually come to run this marathon in Tokyo, but they wondered what Jake was doing running that marathon in the middle of the basketball season.

The Tokyo marathon at that time was not yet one of the most famous marathons in the world, it was certainly one of the best known in the world for being one of the most important marathons in Asia, but that was no reason for Jake to come to Japan to run this marathon.

Naturally, nobody could know Jake's motives and they didn't care much either, the most important thing was that Jake would run that year's marathon and that marathon would become better known as an important marathon after that.

It was normal after all if Jake who was the most important athlete in the world of marathons decided to lose a game in the middle of the season to run the Tokyo marathon was because he had something special.

After a while, the athletes did the stretching exercises and prepared themselves and the 1998 Tokyo Marathon officially started, Jake was one of the ones who were most concentrated because he had risked a lot to run in that marathon and was determined to win the marathon.

"Hello to everyone who came to accompany us with this Tokyo marathon in 1998, this is the first major marathon on the world circuit this year."

"Great athletes participate in this marathon every year, and this year a big surprise happened and Jake Smith the best athlete in the marathons today came to participate in the Tokyo marathon that year."

"Jake Smith has won 10 marathons in his short career of fewer than 4 years and between those marathons, one was at the Olympics where he won a gold medal and another was at the athletics world where he also won a gold medal."

"A few months ago he won the Chicago marathon for the third time with a time just slightly above his current world record, it's a surprise we have Jake here because he's in the middle of college basketball season and I think he's going to have a play today too."

"But for us who are lovers of marathons, it is a very good time Jake running in that marathon and we hope that he will perform well."

This was a marathon that Jake had never run before and the climate in Japan was quite different too, even so, Jake would still run at the same pace he trained for the first km, even his current training was easy so running those over 42 km would be easy for Jake.

The other athletes knew that Jake was the best marathoner in the world and so they decided to do what the other athletes did in the Chicago marathon and would run in a group with Jake for the first km.

Jake naturally didn't care, he looked around and didn't see any of the athletes who were first placed in this marathon in the past and it became more peaceful if good athletes ran in the same group as him and could keep pace Jake would have to break his record in order to win.

Jake felt that he was not in his best physical condition to run this marathon, even though he had almost a full day after the plane trip to rest he still hadn't fully recovered.

This was something that had never happened to Jake, luckily he decided to come two days before the marathon, so he can rest a little longer before the marathon, so if several athletes ran with him it would be good for Jake to save energy.

Even so, the first 10 km were easy for him and for the other athletes running with him, even though his pace was fast, it was not so fast that the other athletes could not follow the first km of the marathon.

Everyone could see that Jake was the most comfortable with this race pace and that he came to win more of this marathon for his career, unfortunately, part of the crowd did not know him and only supported his group because he was in the first place.

"A good start to the marathon for Jake, he managed to find a group that is running with him and even though he has no experience in that marathon, Jake is doing very well."

"So he will be able to save energy for the final part of this marathon, and in the final part of the marathon that Jake normally slows down his running pace a lot, this is an interesting strategy that seems to have worked for him."

"It is usually in the final part of the marathon that athletes who have more stamina decide to accelerate the pace to try to finish the marathon in a better position or just with a better time."

"But it is in the final part of the marathon where the athletes are most tired so it is not a logical strategy, for Jake who knows his resistance well, he runs at a strong and steady pace in more than 30 km and in the final part of the race, it decreases his running pace."

"As Jake is currently number one in the world in the marathons, who knows in the future we will see more athletes running like that."

Many asked Jake why he ran like that and he just said it was his style of running because he couldn't say that the pace he ran in the first 30 km is his normal pace and in the end, he slows down the race to not break the world record in the entire marathon.

He didn't even know if his strategy was the right one and didn't expect other athletes to run like him, Jake ran like that because he had a lot of physical statistics that helped him run better and not have the risk of getting hurt, but the other Jake didn't know.

Even though Jake was not in his best physical condition, running a marathon at the pace he ran every day in training was not difficult for him, it was precisely what Jake trained so hard every day, for his body to get used to.

After going through the 20 km marathon some athletes who were running in Jake's group were starting to get tired and were thinking and leaving the group to be able to finish the marathon.

Few in Jake's group still did not feel tired after 20 km as well as Jake, this was expected because if they could keep up with Jake up to 30 km they could get a place in the top 20 even if they slow down the race pace a lot.

The good thing about running with elite athletes was that they could keep up with Jake until after 30 km and the downside was that sometimes some athletes could keep up with Jake until he slowed down like in the last marathon.

Jake knew that maybe in the other marathons that would not happen anymore because when he changed his daily training Jake would also start to change the pace he ran in the marathons, he wanted to prepare himself for one day to be ready to run a marathon in less than 2 hours.

Jake also knew that in the next few years in many marathons running under 2 hours and 6 minutes would become normal for the winners, at that time Jake's world record had to be 2 hours and 2 minutes for him to be at ease.

Even more because Jake didn't know when he could earn more points of resistance and agility stats, so if he wasn't able to run in less than 2 hours after winning this marathon and training hard he didn't know if he could ever do it.

When Jake reached 30 km of the marathon he was already running alone, the other elite athletes who were with him decided to leave a few km behind even though they were not so tired and could still continue.

Jake didn't know it was because of him that he sometimes ran at this pace until 35 km and the athletes didn't know how far Jake would continue to run like that, Jake was not tired, but he was starting to feel some difference after running 30 km.

"It has already been 30 km from the Tokyo marathon we are following, Jake remains in the lead, but now he is running alone because the group that was with him did not support Jake's intense running pace."

"Jake is still looking good and not being tired even after running for more than half the marathon, we'll see how far Jake can continue at this fast pace of running and whether we'll see Jake winning another marathon his first in 1998."

Jake still kept running at this pace for another 3 km and decided to slow down the running pace when he started feeling tired, his physical condition was even worse than he thought and if he didn't start to control the running pace it was possible that he couldn't finish this marathon in a long time.

Jake remembered that Alberto Juzdado who won this marathon in the past managed a time of just over 2 hours and 8 minutes, so Jake had to do a lot less time if he wanted to win that last major marathon that he needed to win the 6.

Even though it was harder to run in the marathon, Jake was still able to keep up thanks to the things he learned from training with coach Frank Davis, Jake was happy to have decided to hire a professional coach to help him.

Jake knew that Coach Davis didn't think he had helped him so much because when he started working with him, it was when Jake had won several marathons and managed to be recognized as the best in marathons.

But in fact, Coach Davis taught Jake everything he needed to know to be even better and not just depend on his physical stats, and Coach Davis's main job was still to help Jake win several gold medals in the next Olympics.

Jake was different from other athletes and did not always have time to train and many trainings could not be done because of his basketball games or because of other commitments, so Jake was grateful only because Coach Davis agreed to coach him.

After Jake slowed down his running pace he stopped feeling the fatigue he was feeling and managed to run more comfortably in the marathon, with the pace he was running he calculated that he would win easily with more than 1-minute advantage for the second place.

After going through 40 km of the marathon Jake was still running comfortably with his pace and it was only a few kilometers before the marathon was over, Jake was happy because he saw that he could win this marathon which was the last of the 6 major marathons he had to win.

It was one of the most difficult marathons for him to run in recent years because his physical condition was still very bad, the atmosphere in the marathon was different and it was a new route, so Zhang Yi felt even better for winning this marathon.

"Jake is in the final part of the marathon, this is the eleventh marathon he has won in his four-year career, we don't know why Jake decided to run in that marathon even though he had a game with his basketball team, but we hope that this victory will leave he satisfied."

"After this surprise that Jake came to run in the Tokyo marathon, who knows, we can expect to see Jake participate in several marathons during this year, we all know that Jake loves to run and we also like to see him win."

"And now Jake finishes the 1998 Tokyo marathon first, he finished with a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes and 11 seconds, this is the new record for this Tokyo marathon, an excellent time for Jake who is running the first his marathon this year."

"The runner-up is still not even close to getting there, we will continue to follow this year to see if Jake will continue to win the marathons."

Jake finished the comfortable marathon because he was used to running more than 50 km in training at a faster pace than that, but Jake felt tired and really wasn't feeling as well as he normally did after the marathons.

Jake did not hesitate and ate a stamina bar as the marathon was over and started to feel much better, he had not decided if he would return that day to the university or if he would return the next day, but after that marathon, Jake realized that he had no choice, but travel only in the other day.

So he would have to follow his team's game in Tokyo and hope his team won, Jake received the prize for first place and also received for the record he broke.

Jake talked to the representative of the marathon who gave the award in Japanese and dismissed the translator, this impressed everyone and left an impression on Jake's best Japanese audience.

After that, Jake talked to the marathon representatives for a while and went to thank John who had organized this whole marathon for him, then Jake had to say goodbye and go back to the hotel.

Even though he was more tired than after the other marathons he was not really in the mood for sleep and he recovered very quickly from his fatigue and had recovered a lot by eating the stamina bar.

So Jake still decided to walk around Tokyo for a few more hours and eat in some restaurants with local foods and buy some souvenir gifts for his friends at the university and for his mother and Anna too.

Jake got to know some places he always wanted to go to, like Tsukiji Market where he ate sushi, Jake also went to Ueno Park, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Jake ate ramen too and it was to Tokyo Skytree, there were a lot more things that Jake wanted to do that he wasn't possible because of the time.

He would still have to sleep to be awake when the Tar Heels team game started, he had to look in some hotels until he found one that would broadcast the game and for that, he had to change hotels.

But as he couldn't be playing he wanted to at least hope for his team to win that game, Jake had a lot of confidence in his teammates and knew that they had the ability to win.

After winning this Tokyo marathon, Jake had won all 6 major marathons and saw that he had gained one more agility point and one Resistance point, he didn't know how he would get more statistical stats points after that, but he was happy to be able to complete his goals before joining the NBA.

Maybe if he managed to win other important marathons in the world even though he wasn't Major marathons he could get more stats points, but Jake would wait until he had time to do that without having to lose games.

And Jake didn't think that he still needed more statistics to run in marathons or other athletics, he knew that his statistics were already higher than that of several athletes who won several gold medals in the Olympics.

What Jake thought was missing was just the training he was starting to do so that he could make the most of his statistics, Jake didn't know if he would have time to train to run in short distance too, but if he could win even the 800-meter race he could win 5 gold medals per Olympics.

He had to sleep to be able to watch his teammates' game, but before he was really curious to see how his stats window was that he hadn't seen in a long time.

"Fate, show me my statistics window for my third job."

[Here it is.]

Statistics Jake

[Name: Jake Smith]

[Age: 19 years]

[Job: Runner]

[Height: 2.01 m]

[Weight: 103 Kg]

[Force 42]

[Agility 41]

[Resistance 44]

[Intelligence 63]

[Luck 99]

Techniques

[Acceleration D]

[Sprint C]

[Full Speed A]

[Flexibility S]

[Speed Endurance S]

[Poise S]

[Second Lung S]

[Iron Body S]

Jake was thrilled to see how his stats had changed in a short time, his height had been set at 2.01 m, it was very good for a basketball player, Jake had the ability to get the most out of his height.

The two skills he had reached the S rank after winning all major marathons and many hidden statistics he had appeared after he started to further train his skills with Coach Davis.

Now 6 new techniques have appeared and 4 of them were in rank A or rank S, Jake understood why Coach Davis said they had skills that he had to learn to run better than he was lucky enough to be able to use the base he learned in basketball.

The more specific for short distance races the skill was lower was her rank because Jake had just started to learn this from Coach Davis not long ago and hadn't even learned much because Coach David said Jake wouldn't need it now.

But he was happy to see that because before Jake thought he had few skills in his third job, now he really could feel like a professional athlete, he didn't even want to see his skills in the statistics window of his first job because he couldn't move on to the skill level of the NBA.

Jake deduced that he would only achieve this when he actually arrived in the NBA, it was a shame because he wanted to do his imagination training against NBlevel opponents, so he could be more prepared for when he entered the NBA.

After a few hours, it was time for the game to begin and Jake was already watching on television, after the last game in which the Tar Heels team won and took first place in the ACC conference by easily winning a game that everyone expected would be very difficult, everyone was confident that the Tar Heels team would win.

The opponent of that game was the Georgia Tech team that was not doing very well this season and was at the bottom of the ACC conference, yet Jake often warned his teammates not to underestimate the opponent.

Even more, because the Tar Heels team would play as a visitor and the Georgia Tech team had dangerous players that the Tar Heels team needed to watch out for, especially in the three-point play because Jake would not be in that game and that would be a weakness of the Tar Heels team.

"Welcome to everyone who came to follow today's game with us, we will follow the game between the ACC conference's number one team and also the season's Tar Heels team, against the Georgia Tech team that seeks this victory to increase their placement at the conference."

"Even before the game starts, we already have a big surprise, which is the absence of Jake Smith, who has been the main player of the Tar Heels team, this took everyone by surprise and we recently learned that Jake won the Tokyo marathon in Japan today."

"We all know that Jake is also a marathoner in addition to being a basketball player, and it is also incredible that he won the Tokyo marathon, but because of that he will not play in today's game."

"The Tar Heels team is in an excellent sequence of games without losing that is close to making history this season and today they as a visitor and without the main player of the team who was not even out for a minute is much more pressure."

"It's true, I'm really a big fan of Jake and I think he's one of the best college players of recent times, I also think it's incredible that he can be the best marathon runner in the world even though he is a basketball player, today he was the eleventh marathon he won."

"But I don't think it's right that he misses an important game like this for the Tar Heels team and for all the fans, we have several marathons during the year and he ran the last 3 years without ever losing a game, so I don't know what he's thinking."

"Let's see how the Tar Heels team can play without Jake leading the team as in all games of the season, it seems that Ed Cota will play in his place, a lot of pressure for Ed Cota who is very talented and also very good in assists, but he will have to lead the team to victory today."

Not only commentators but all Tar Heels fans and basketball fans found it strange that Jake chose to run a marathon rather than participate in this important game, the media that didn't know about it was also taken by surprise.

But the players and coach Bill Guthridge clearly knew about it, it left fans very disappointed and if the Tar Heels team lost that game it would be Jake's fault that he hadn't even participated in that game.

What was most impressive was that the fact that Jake did not play in that game mainly took the Georgia Tech team by surprise because they trained the last few days thinking about various ways to defend against Jake and Jamison.

Everyone knew that Ed Cota was an excellent player who assisted as well as Jake, so their training to defend against Jamison would not be wasted, but Ed Cota was nowhere near as skilled as Jake to score.

Ed Cota's normal was a quarter of a point that Jake averaged per game, so any defense that was made at Ed Cota would be a waste, and that was what the Georgia Tech team had trained more after the last game.

Of course, coach Guthridge had already thought that something like this could happen and so he put Ed Cota and not Makhtar N'Diaye and play in a different style, even if Ed Cota was good in assists like Jake, their playing style was different and that would take the Georgia Tech team by surprise.

From the start of the game, the Georgia Tech team started pressing in the attack because they knew that the Tar Heels team would lose a lot of quality in defense without Jake, especially in the three-point line.

The Tar Heels team players were prepared for this and tried to defend, but the team managed to make some three-point games with Matt Harpring and Michael Maddox who were doing very well in that game.

In the attack the team Tar Heels was also good because Ed Cota attacked in a different way which left the Georgia Tech team without being able to defend well, Ed Cota took the opportunity to make plays with Jamison and Carter and so the two teams were very equal in this game.

In training before Jake went to Japan he talked a lot with Ed Cota and Shammond Williams, he was friends with Jamison and Carter and just spoke normally with them because he was confident that the two would play normally even without him on the team.

Jake spoke to Ed Cota because he wanted him to play as he always did and not worry about trying to play as Jake did, in the past Ed Cota was one of the main players with his assists and even though he didn't score much.

So Jake wanted to give confidence that Ed Cota would just play as he normally did and that would make the team more likely to win, and he told Williams to try several three-point plays like he hadn't done in the last few games.

With Jake on the team, Williams was no longer making as many three-point shots and in some games, he had to stay within the three-point line to get Jake more freedom to make the three-point shots.

That's because Jake had a 70 percent higher average on three-point hits and Williams had 40 percent, 40 percent still made him one of the best on the three-point line, but compared to Jake he was actually much lower.

But Jake knew that in that game Williams would be very good at three-point shots and only if he gave Williams the confidence to try that the Tar Heels team could win, for coach Guthridge, Jake just said to make the team train more to not have too many turnovers in that game.

At the end of the 1st half of the game, the Tar Heels team ended the game in a draw, it was the first time that the Tar Heels team did not finish the 1st half by winning, Ed Cota was doing very well with the assists, Jamison and Carter were also fine.

But it was different than when Jake was on the team, Ed Cota had not made any points and had done some turnovers which Jake never did in the games, only that showed the biggest difference between them, not to mention that Ed Cota could not get the steals that Jake could do it.

Williams didn't get much confidence and even though he scored 14 points in the 1st half he was still very shy about what Jake was seeing, even though with the unexpected change between Jake and Ed Cota the Georgia Tech team was having a hard time defending and so Jamison and Carter were getting freedom to make the stitches.

"This 1st half ended in a draw, the Tar Heels team played well, but much less than playing normally when Jake is on the team, we know well that Ed Cota has a different style of play than Jake, but that's why Jake is the main player of the team and takes them to several victories."

"The Tar Heels team is playing very well and Shammond Williams is doing very well in the three-point shots, but Harpring and Maddox from the Georgia Tech team are also doing very well in the three-point shots and so the game ended in a draw."

"Certainly if Jake was in that game the result of the end of that 1st half would have been completely different, we hope that the Tar Heels team will play better in the 2nd half and the Georgia Tech team will not be able to hit the defense, because if they succeed it will be the first defeat of the Tar Heels team in over a year."

Coach Guthridge told Williams just as Jake had told him to try more three-point shots in the 2nd half, and also for players to try to defend better on the three-point line because the Georgia Tech team was managing to score a lot of points in three-point shots.

The Georgia Tech players were confident they would win and the Tar Heels players felt more pressured to win after that 1st half.

At the beginning of the 2nd half, the Tar Heels team started to attack more, trying to press more on the defense outside the three-point line, this gave more opportunities for the Georgia Tech team to make plays within the three-point line.

Fortunately, in that game Carter and Okulaja were well on the defensive within the three-point line, Ed Cota continued making several plays with Jamison and Carter in the attack and Williams followed what Coach Guthridge said and more confidently made more three-point shots.

Even so, the Georgia Tech team was very well in that game, especially in the three-point line with Harpring and Maddox who were doing well in this game as well as Williams and even with the pressure on defense they were able to attack.

This was really an exciting game and Jake was in the hotel very focused on the game cheering for the Tar Heels team, when he saw the failures of his teammates he was even more nervous and if he could he wanted to be on the court.

But even though he had not traveled by plane and had already rested for a few hours Jake was still very tired and was not in his best physical condition, in a few hours he would take the plane back to the United States and it would be more than 16 hours of travel.

Jake hoped he was recovered by the next game that would be 3 days later because he saw how long it took him to regain his ideal physical condition after a long plane ride like this.

Jake wanted the 99 statistic points of luck he had to help the Tar Heels team to win this difficult game, he didn't want the team to lose this game in which he had to lose by something very important which was to win the last of the marathons major and earn the statistic points that would help his career.

With less than 2 minutes left to the end of this game and the Tar Heels team was losing by 5 points, even with the good game of the Tar Heels team and with Williams had 24 points the Georgia Tech team were also playing very well and Harpring and Maddox from Georgia Tech team also had more than 20 points each.

The Tar Heels team started the attack and Ed Cota had the ball to organize the play, he was playing very well in that game, but just as Jake feared he had a lot of turnovers and also scored 2 points only in the whole game which hurt a lot the team.

Ed Cota passed the ball to Carter who left the three-point line while Williams had entered the three-point line, they made this move to get rid of the defense, Carter passed to Okulaja who returned to Ed Cota.

Ed Cota found an opportunity and passed it on to Jamison who was coming from behind the Georgia Tech team defense, Jamison received the ball and made a spin to make a layup and narrow the score difference to just 3 points.

It was just over 1 minute and the Georgia Tech team decided to spend the ball possession time to guarantee the victory, the Tar Heels team players put pressure on the defense and tried to hinder and steal the ball.

But they failed, in the last seconds Matt Harpring passed the ball to Dion Glover who tried to shoot a mid-range shot to make the 2 points and guarantee the victory, but he ended up missing and Jamison caught the rebound.

So the Tar Heels team had more than 40 seconds to make the move and could try a three-point shot to tie the game, and that's exactly what they did, Ed Cota passed the ball to Shammond Williams who even with a close opponent defending still tried the shot from outside and scored 3 points to tie the game.

The Georgia Tech team still had a few seconds to try to win and ended up failing to score and the game went to the extra team, Jake who was at the hotel can breathe easy when he saw that the Tar Heels team got the tie in the end as well as all the fans.

He would have felt very guilty if the Tar Heels team had lost that game just because he was not participating, he knew that the Tar Heels team had the ability to win even without him on the team, but maybe he has played on the team changed that.

"The 2nd half of the game ends with a three-point shot by Shammond Williams who was the best player on the Tar Heels team in that game and they got a draw in the last seconds of the game."

"The Georgia Tech team really played very well in that game and especially on the three-point line, so I think they deserved to win and can still do it after the extra team."

"But the Tar Heels team really has excellent players and with the great game from Jamison and Williams so far, the Tar Heels team still managed to draw and still have a chance of winning and maintaining this sequence of games without losing."

"Now we are going to follow these 5 minutes of overtime to see which team will win this game or if we will have another overtime."

The Georgia Tech players felt sorry for having missed this opportunity to win the game, they knew that the Tar Heels team was a dangerous opponent even without Jake on the team, but they were careless and allowed the tie.

The good thing was that they had gotten used to defending themselves against players from the Tar Heels team, with the two teams tired they could manage to defend better and try to win this overtime.

The Tar Heels team players were under even more pressure after almost losing the game, they had to get that win to prove that they were good players and that the team was good even without Jake on the team.

Williams was tired, but he was also much more confident after that game, coach Guthridge said he trusted him to make more three-point shots and try to bring victory to the Tar Heels team in that overtime.

Ed Cota was also trying to show that he was also an excellent player even though he was much inferior to Jake, for that he had to help the Tar Heels team to achieve victory in that game.

In the first minutes of the overtime, the two teams were being very aggressive in attack, they were doing some turnovers because of that and the Georgia Tech players were still very good in the three-point shots and the Georgia Tech team managed to open an advantage on the scoreboard by because of that.

On the side of the Tar Heels team, their attack was with Cota making assists for Jamison and Carter, the Georgia Tech team's defense was defending well against Williams and so Cota preferred to make the most correct plays to get the points.

Because of this, the Georgia Tech team opened an advantage on the scoreboard, but they also lost a lot of attacks because they tried only three-point shots and missed too, so in the last minutes the two teams were almost tied and Coach Guthridge asked for time to talk to the players.

He wanted to win this game and even though he thought that Ed Cota's strategy was not wrong trying to score points in all attacks and not just try 3-point shots, to achieve the victory he thought the team depended on three-point shots Shammond Williams points.

"You are playing a great game today, we are under a lot of pressure because of this winning streak and in this game, we have no Jake and we are playing as a visitor and I know that you are now tired after playing for more than 40 minutes."

"But I need one last effort from you so that our team can achieve this victory, everyone is waiting to see our team losing this game, so they will say that without Jake our team cannot win.

"But I know that this is not true and that we have a whole good team and we don't depend on just one player to win, it's because of the whole team that we came to this incredible winning streak and not just because of Jake."

"So we're going to win to prove it, I want to see you press on the defense so that the players on the opposing team get it wrong, and Ed, pass the ball to Williams that I trust he will bring victory to our team."

After hearing the words of motivation from Coach Guthridge, the players came back more motivated to guarantee victory in those last minutes, the Georgia Tech team was just one point ahead of the scoreboard and the Tar Heels team had everything to win.

The ball was with the Tar Heels team and so after a play, Williams was free to receive the ball and try a three-point shot and thus turn the score and put the Tar Heels team ahead with 2 points advantage.

The Georgia Tech team tried to retaliate soon after, but the Tar Heels defense was very good, putting pressure on her, so Maddox tried a three-point shot and missed, Jamison, caught the rebound and passed it to Ed Cota.

Ed Cota did not bother to spend time in possession and soon went on the attack, Shammond Williams again got freedom and tried another shot to hit and make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team and increase the advantage to 5 points.

It was less than a minute before the game was over and now the pressure was on the Georgia Tech team, they again attacked and tried a three-point shot and missed and so they became more anxious and the Tar Heels team attacked again.

Ed Cota held the ball to spend possession and at the end of the play Williams had the defense over him and so Cota passed to Jamison who tried to score and missed close range.

The Georgia Tech team attacked quickly and managed to hit a three-point shot and thus the advantage decreased to 2 points, but the playing time was over and the Tar Heels team won that game even without Jake on the team after overtime.

Jake celebrated a lot at the hotel and only after seeing his team winning that he can be really happy after winning the marathon, in the next game he would be playing and would not let the Tar Heels team lose again until he won the NCAA title.

"What an incredible game we are watching today, the Tar Heels team managed to win another game after arriving until the overtime in an exciting game against the Georgia Tech team, the star of Shammond Williams shone and with 34 points he was the best player of that game."

"Yes, it was really a very close game in which the Georgia Tech team also deserved to win the game with the excellent performance of Matt Harpring who scored 27 points in that game and Michael Maddox who scored 35 points in that game."

"But the Tar Heels team showed that they have an excellent team and even without Jake on the team they had the excellent game of Williams and Jamison who scored 26 points in that game, great game, and a deserved victory."

"For sure, in the next game, we hope that Jake Smith will be back on the team after winning a Tokyo marathon which is incredible and that the Tar Heels team will continue to win."

The Tar Heels team players were also happy with the victory and were not even upset that Jake lost that game, now they had confidence as well as Jake that they would not lose any game until they won the NCAA tournament

After a few hours of the game it was already a day in Tokyo and Jake took the plane to go back to the university, he would only know what would happen after he lost that game to run the Tokyo marathon when he returned to the university after 16 travel hours.

While Jake was on the plane it dawned in the United States after the victory of the Tar Heels team against the Georgia Tech team, just as Jake hoped the media just talked about it with criticism of Jake Smith and praise for the Tar Heels team.

The fans were very angry with Jake who lost a game to run a marathon which they thought was insignificant close to the game, luckily the Tar Heels team won and so their anger was less than Jake expected.

But the repercussions this had on companies negotiating an endors.e.m. contract with David Falk were not small, Nike and Adidas seemed to be rethinking the whole deal and didn't even want to talk to David again.

All companies that were thinking about talking about a deal with David gave up on the deal and said that in the future they would talk about it again if they were interested, and of the 5 companies that had made a verbal deal with David 1 of them officially gave up on the contract.

The other 4 would not give up because they had already made several deals with David and knew that it was not a good idea to break a verbal contract with him, besides, they were happy to know that Jake had won the Tokyo marathon because they were not interested only in Jake because of basketball.

All of these companies were interested in Jake's fans at the marathons and looked forward to the next Olympics that Jake would participate in which they would get more advertising for having an endors.e.m. contract with Jake that would likely win a gold medal.

So David was having a headache because of this, but he was already waiting for these problems when Jake said what they thought to do for him, David knew that Jake didn't need that money and he didn't need that much to despair because of it of this.

David Falk was confident that in the future he would get a lot more contracts with Jake and those contracts would pay him a few million dollars, now the ideal way to find the right companies to make endors.e.m. contracts because in the future these companies would be Jake's partners.

Fortunately, the Tar Heels team had not lost that game so if the Tar Heels team won the ACC title and the NCAA title the popularity would return again before the NBA draft, not to mention that Jake was in no hurry, even after the beginning of the basketball season they could get a much better sponsorship contract.

After a long trip Jake arrived at the university even more tired than before, this time it was better because he was already used to traveling for so many hours by plane, but he still had to rest well and just the next day he might be able to train.

When Jake arrived at the university the training of the basketball team was over, coach Guthridge was concerned when he saw that Shammond Williams who had been playing very well in the last games and was the main responsible for the victory in the last game was very tired and his physical condition his was not the best for the next game.

Coach Guthridge didn't care about Jake because he already realized that his body worked differently from normal people and recovered faster, but Williams not, Coach Guthridge was already thinking about leaving him out of the next game.

After sleeping very well Jake was already much better the other day, he was still far from his ideal physical condition, but he still had another day before the next game which was also as a visitor, even if he was not in his ideal physical condition it was enough to play at least 30 minutes in his best condition.

Coach Guthridge also realized that Jake was not in the best physical condition during training, even though he knew that Jake would be better the other day it was impossible for him to be fully recovered.

This made him very stressed because he could no longer count on William who was playing very well if he did not have Jake in his best physical shape it would be difficult for the Tar Heels team to win this next game.

Jake's teammates were also concerned to see that Jake was not doing as well as he normally was, but they knew they would have to rely on Jake in the next game where Williams would not play.

The media was also interested in knowing what the environment for the Tar Heels team was after Jake lost an important game as it was the last one, they expected Jake's teammates to be nervous and stressed about him.

In addition, some sports experts said that Jake would not be in the best physical condition to play the next game, they knew well that having 32 hours by plane and running a marathon was not easy for anyone.

Even if someone did that, they would rest for more than a week before going back to exercise, so they thought that if Jake didn't play in the next game the team's environment would be even worse.

But contrary to what everyone expected, the team's environment hadn't changed because of Jake, he didn't play in the last game and the team still winning made the media realize that Jake wasn't the only one responsible for this winning streak and they were also instrumental in this achievement.

Jake was a friend of everyone on the team and if Coach Guthridge allowed Jake to lose the game to run that marathon, no one would question about it, besides, everyone knew how hard Jake was and had played 40 minutes in every game and that was what he struggled more in training.

They knew well that without Jake on the team they probably wouldn't have this winning streak, Jake was also friends with all the players on the team and didn't act differently from other players even though he was considered by the media the best College basketball player in his first season and also in the current season.

After a day of light training for Jake and the team, the day for the next game came, Jake was not in his best physical condition, but was in a position to play most of the game at a high level until he got tired.

Even so, his teammates were a little anxious about this game, in addition to the pressure of victory that they were already used to, there was Jake who was clearly not in his best condition and Williams who would not play in today's game because Coach Guthridge saw that he could get hurt if he played.

In the last game, Shammond Williams had been the best player and for many games, he was always important for the team to win, so being out of that game made players uncomfortable.

This game was also as a visitor and they knew it would be a difficult game, luckily they were more confident because even if he was not in the best physical condition Jake was back in the team.

The opposing team in that game would be the V.i.r.g. Cavaliers team, the first game against that team this season had an easy win, in addition, the V.i.r.g. Cavaliers team was not having a good season and would feel a lot of pressure in that game too.

"Welcome to everyone who came to follow this game more from the ACC conference, the Tar Heels team comes from a victory in a difficult and very tiring game for the players in which Jake was not playing."

"Maybe that's why Shammond Williams who was the best player in the last game is not on the team today, after an incredible game like that he can be very tired."

"Jake is back on the Tar Heels team for today's game, but from what we've heard from some experts it's impossible for him to be in perfect physical condition after his trips to Tokyo and also from the marathon."

"So Jake may not be able to play well in this game and his teammates are sure to be tired after the last game, it could be the chance for the V.i.r.g. Cavaliers team to win today's game against the team that is first in the conference."

Just as commentators said, Jake realized that his teammates were tired after the last game, so he knew he had to take responsibility for that game and lead the team to victory.

Even though he wasn't in his best physical condition as it was with the marathon, it didn't mean he couldn't perform at the game, it just meant he wasn't doing as well as he normally did.

Jake knew he had to defend against Curtis Staples who was the best player in the V.i.r.g. Cavaliers team's three-point shots, he could score multiple points with the three-point shots and he could count on Jamison and Carter for the team to score more points.

The Tar Heels team started pressing in the attack from the beginning of the game, even though they decided to press in the attack Jake did not increase the pace of the game so that the players would not get tired.

In the first 10 minutes of the 1st half Jake managed to make some three-point shots and got a good advantage for the Tar Heels team at the beginning of the game, Makhtar N'Diaye was playing in place of Shammond Williams who was resting, and even though he didn't could help a lot in attack he was important in defense.

Jake defended against Staples outside the three-point line and also defended well within the three-point line by helping with steals, in another move Jake managed to intercept a V.i.r.g. Cavaliers pass and advanced to the attack with speed.

He was faster than his opponents, especially now that he had gained 1 more point of agility after winning the Tokyo marathon, so he managed to get to the painted area and made 2 more points for the Tar Heels team with a dunk.

In another move, Jake landed a block in an attempt by Staples to make a three-point shot and held the ball instead of running for the attack again, after a move in which almost all the players on the Tar Heels team participated. Carter who made a dunk and 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.

With Jake running all over the court in the 1st half and playing very well as always, the Tar Heels team players were also excited and they managed to end up winning the 1st half with a good advantage against the V.i.r.g. Cavaliers team.

In this 1st half Jake played for 20 minutes and made 18 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 blocks, Jake had a great performance and even though he was in poor physical condition he still did the best he could in this 1st half.

"What a great 1st half for Jake so far, he didn't seem to be in a bad physical condition as they said and is having a great performance in that game and is leading the Tar Heels team to victory."

"This is not an easy game because the V.i.r.g. Cavaliers team is also trying to win by taking advantage of the failures of the Tar Heels team, without Williams being important to the team in the last games, the Tar Heels team has to play more cautiously."

"Even more after a game in which the team had to go through overtime to get the win, so getting a good advantage in the 1st half is very good for the Tar Heels team."

"If Jake continues to perform well in the 2nd half, victory is almost guaranteed for the Tar Heels team."

The truth was that Jake had played very well even though he was in poor physical condition because he played without caring how he would play in the 2nd half of the game, even though everyone praised Jake for his performance so far many could see how breathless he was and very tired.

For Jake, who usually managed to play an entire game without looking tired, it was not normal and his teammates noticed, but no one said anything about it because it was clear that Jake was trying his best for the team.

At the beginning of the 2nd half of the game, the V.i.r.g. Cavaliers tried to press on the attack and increase the pace of the game to pressure Jake and the Tar Heels players to get more tired, this really made it difficult for the Tar Heels team to defend.

Fortunately Jake was an experienced PG and when the ball was with the Tar Heels team he attacked at a slower pace again which hindered the players of the V.i.r.g. Cavaliers who were not used to playing like that.

Jake continued to defend against Staples who was unable to hit many three-point shots because of this, after 6 minutes in the 2nd half the Tar Heels team was winning with a big advantage on the scoreboard.

Jake began to feel tired and saw that he could no longer perform at his best in the game, yet he did his best to hide his tiredness and asked Coach Guthridge to replace him for a few minutes.

Coach Guthridge was actually preparing Ed Cota to play in Jake's place if he realized he was very tired, but he didn't expect Jake to even ask to be replaced.

But he replaced Jake quickly and saw how Jake didn't look too tired he should rest for a few minutes and then go back to the court, as soon as he sat down Jake took a bottle of water to drink and then ate a bar of stamina.

He didn't do that in the marathons because it was a resistance sport and he felt like he was stealing, but he had no problem using it in basketball because that's what he won over the system.

And basketball had a lot of things besides the resistance and he didn't think he was stealing if he ate a stamina bar, after eating the stamina bar he felt the energy coming back to him and his tiredness lessened.

His muscles had no problem because his problem was different because of the long plane trips, yet all his muscles relaxed, he still rested for a while.

As Jake knew how to pretend well, nobody noticed that he had recovered all his energy after sitting for a few seconds, Jake stayed 2 minutes on the bench and in that short time the V.i.r.g. Cavaliers team managed to reduce the lead and the Tar Heels team lost two attacks.