bhwS Chapter 34, a misc. books fanfic

End of Time at the University

So the other day came the game day of the 1998 NCAA tournament final, the players were more rested and very confident for this game that would be very important for all of them.

In a final game like this, it didn't matter who was the favorite team or which team won the most games of the season, both teams would have the same chance of winning the game and the team that had the best players and that the players had the best performance would win.

The players' families would be in that game and if the Tar Heels team won they would make history not only for North Carolina University but also for the entire College basketball, after all, few teams won two NCAA tournaments in a row.

Only the Duke Blue Devils teams, Cincinnati Bearcats, UCLA Bruins, Oklahoma State Cowboys, San Francisco Dons and the Kentucky Wildcats team that would be their next opponent, this was a very important game for the players, for Coach Guthridge, for the university, and for the fans too.

The team that would be the opponent in this final was the Kentucky Wildcats team, the Kentucky Wildcats team had another great season and even if it wasn't the favorite to win, no one would be surprised if they won that game.

After all, this was the Kentucky Wildcats' third consecutive final in three years, which meant that the Kentucky Wildcats team was among the top two teams in the NCAA tournament for three seasons.

In 1996 they won the NCAA tournament and last season they lost that game to the Tar Heels team in the final, so this season they were, even more, wanting to win that game to win the NCAA tournament again and also to get the rematch against the team Tar Heels for last season.

Jake was really confident that the Tar Heels team would win that game because the Tar Heels team had more difficulty against teams that had the best saves and the Kentucky Wildcats team didn't have that good defense and so it would be an open game.

This would also be a very important game that could change history, after all before Jake went back in time the Kentucky Wildcats team had won 8 NCAA tournaments and the Tar Heels team had won 6 if the Tar Heels team won in that game the Tar Heels team would have won the fifth NCAA tournament and in the future would have won 8 NCAA tournaments and the Kentucky Wildcats team only 7.

The players of the Tar Heels team were very excited and confident that the Tar Heels team would win this game, Jake was looking into the stands to find his friends, he can find his mother easily because he knew where she was.

He found Matthew and Oliver who were sitting next to Eva too, then he found Tiffany and Clara and can also find Eric, the hardest thing was for him to find Kate because she was in disguise again.

What was a surprise to Jake was that he met David Falk and NBA Lakers general manager Jerry West, he didn't expect David to come because David hadn't said anything, but soon Jake understood that it wouldn't be weird if he came with Jerry West for an NCAA tournament final game.

Jake felt more confident seeing that there were so many people rooting for him in this game, he really wanted to give everything he could to win this game that was his last game on the Tar Heels team.

Coach Guthridge asked players on the Tar Heels team to be careful of many players on the opposing team, Jeff Sheppard who had not played last season and was one of the main players on this current team.

Nazr Mohammed, Scott Padgett, and Wayne Turner, because of Nazr Mohammed coach Guthridge decided to put N'Diaye in the game instead of Okulaja, he had to do that because he didn't want to take Williams out of that game in the final.

But if someone played badly in that game Okulaja would join the team again, everyone knew that the Kentucky Wildcats team was also a very offensive team and therefore Coach Guthridge had to bet on the attack of Team Tar Heels that was stronger than in defense.

"Welcome to everyone who came to watch this game from the final of the NCAA tournament, in this championship game the two teams meet again just as it was last season that the Tar Heels team ended up winning the NCAA tournament."

"The Tar Heels team is the favorite to win this game because it has the best players, Jake Smith who has been doing his second season and with these seasons his name will go down in history as one of the best players in the history of college basketball."

"Jake has an incredible average this season of 35 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, 9 steals, and 1.5 blocks, this is his game's average of 38 games so far."

"The Tar Heels team also has Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Shammond Williams, Ademola Okulaja, Makhtar N'Diaye and Ed Cota who form one of the best teams in the history of the Tar Heels team and this season achieved a record of 63 straight victories with last season."

"The other team in this NCAA tournament final is the Kentucky Wildcats team that is making the third consecutive final, three years in a row as one of the two best teams in college basketball."

"The Kentucky Wildcats team won in 1996 and lost last season to Team Tar Heels, and this season they try to win again with an incredible team with great players."

"The Kentucky Wildcats team has Jeff Sheppard who did not play in the last game of the final last season when the Tar Heels team won and he wants to win that game and win the NCAA tournament for the second time."

"The two teams have something else in common that the two teams are in the final even though they changed coaches this season, team Tar Heels had coach Dean Smith last season and this season coach Bill Guthridge and team Kentucky Wildcats had coach Rick Pitino last season and have Tubby Smith in that season."

"So we will see which of the two teams will win the NCAA tournament this season."

Just as commentators said these two teams had the best players and the best teams in the last two seasons of the NCAA tournament if Jake, Carter, and Jamison remained on the Tar Heels team they could play another season with a strong team.

In that game Coach, Guthridge asked the players of the Tar Heels team to try their best in defense and put a lot of pressure on the attack, even though the Tar Heels team did not need Jake to make the same strategy that in the last game Jake still had to try many outside shots in that game.

Coach Guthridge also hoped to count on Jamison and Carter's good performance within the three-point line and Williams as well, so the Tar Heels team could win more easily.

Right at the beginning of the game Jake received the ball and made a shot from outside and hit, making the first 3 points for the Tar Heels team, this showed that the Tar Heels team came to win this game, in the next plays the defense was stronger in Jake and Williams also tried a shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.

Jake and the other players hoped that Williams could have another great performance in that game and thus help the Tar Heels team to win more easily against this difficult opponent who was the Kentucky Wildcats team.

The Kentucky Wildcats team also put pressure on the attack just as Coach Guthridge thought, in another move, Sheppard put the ball forward and when the Tar Heels defender pressed it he passed the ball to Turner, Turner soon received pressure from the defense and passed the ball for Mohammed ahead.

When Mohammed received the ball N'Diaye soon pressed in defense, Mohammed still managed to spin and lay up to get 2 more points for the Kentucky Wildcats team, at the beginning of the game the defense of the team Tar Heels could not stop the attack of the team Kentucky Wildcats that didn't miss an attack.

So in the first few minutes of the game, it was an exciting game for those who were watching because both teams were very good at attacking, the Kentucky Wildcats team missed a few attacks and Jamison and Jake was ready to receive the rebounds.

When the Tar Heels team missed attacks Jamison and Jake were still able to catch the offensive rebound because the players on the Kentucky Wildcats team were not so good at catching rebounds, it started to give the Tar Heels team an advantage and more confidence for Jake and Williams make three-point shots.

After 10 minutes of the 1st half of the game, Jake had realized that Sheppard was playing well and making three-point shots, so Jake decided to start defending more against Sheppard, that's when the Tar Heels team started to defend better and increase the advantage in the scoreboard.

In an attack move by the Tar Heels team, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Williams on the right before passing through the middle of the court, Williams who was playing well in that game advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left before reaching the line of three points.

Carter held the ball a little and the Kentucky Wildcats team's defense came to press, Carter passed the ball to Jake who was behind when Jake received the ball the Kentucky Wildcats team's defense was soon to defend against him.

So Jake passed the ball further to Jamison on the left, Jamison received the ball and stepped forward to make the layup even with Mohammed in defense and made 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.

Jamison and Carter were also very well in this game and knew that this was a very important game and were trying their best to help the Tar Heels team in the attack, so Jake was more confident to get the victory.

In another attack by the Kentucky Wildcats team after a good move the ball was left for Turner, Turner held the ball and Williams soon came on the defense, so Turner passed the ball to Sheppard who was free in the middle.

When Sheppard received the ball Jake who was nearby was prepared, Sheppard saw that he was free and tried the shot from outside because he had already scored 6 points in three-point shots in that game, but this time Jake approached quickly and made the block rejecting the shot.

Sheppard and the other players on the Kentucky Wildcats team did not expect this, but Williams who took the remaining ball was waiting for it and soon started the counter-attack for the Tar Heels team.

Williams slowly advanced the ball so that his teammates could move forward, before reaching the three-point line Williams passed the ball to Jake who was in the middle, Jake took the ball and made a high pass.

Carter took the ball high and made a dunk to complete the alley-oop and make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team, the players of the Kentucky Wildcats team did not expect this and so the Tar Heels team further increased the lead on the scoreboard.

The game continued like this and the Tar Heels team ended the 1st half by winning the game with a good advantage, little by little the Tar Heels team was controlling the game and the players of the Kentucky Wildcats team were getting more anxious.

In this 1st half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 19 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks, Jake was playing very well and his teammates were playing too, so he had more freedom in attack and after the middle of the 1st half, he can better help the team defensively.

"And so the 1st half of the game ends, the Tar Heels team is winning the game in the final of the NCAA tournament that started very much between the teams, the players of the Tar Heels team and the Kentucky Wildcats team are playing very well and so the game it is very exciting and with many points."

"But after half of the 1st half of the game, Jake started to play better in defense and with the Tar Heels team dominating most of the game's rebounds they managed to increase the lead on the scoreboard."

"The Kentucky Wildcats team is still able to attack well with Mohammed because N'Diaye is not able to defend very well against him, but N'Diaye still helps in disrupting Mohammed's attacks in the game, that's one of the problems with the Tar Heels team not having one good Center on the team."

"But with Jake and Williams hitting so many three-point shots for the Tar Heels team that advantage will only increase, so the Kentucky Wildcats team will have to defend better to be able to hold off the Tar Heels attack."

"For the time being, the Tar Heels team is winning this game and is closer to winning the NCAA tournament this season for the second year in a row, let's see if the Kentucky Wildcats team gets a reaction."

Just as commentators said the Tar Heels team was winning the game, Coach Guthridge was very pleased with the players and praised Jake for his good defense and praised Jamison who had more rebounds in the game.

If the game continued as it was with the Tar Heels players having a good performance, they would win the NCAA tournament again, on the other side, the Kentucky Wildcats' coach Tubby Smith was worried about the game.

He had to ask the players to increase the pressure on the defense and try to press more against Jake and Williams and also within the three-point line, that was difficult for the Kentucky Wildcats team and the players would get more tired doing this, but he was the only one way to achieve victory.

Jake's family and friends were rooting for him in the stands and everyone could feel that the Tar Heels team would win this game, the crowd at the Alamodome was greater for the Tar Heels team because of the team's record of victories and the greater coverage of the media.

Eva and Kate were still nervous because they really wanted Jake's team to win this game and knew that Jake would be very sad if he lost that game, Jerry West who was watching this game with David Falk was very pleased with Jake's performance and had high hopes for him on the Lakers' team if all went well.

The Kentucky Wildcats team returned for the 2nd half of the game by pressing in attack and defense, the players were tired after the semifinal game and also because of the pressure.

The Tar Heels team had to defend better in the 2nd half, but the players were less tired because Jake knew how to control the team's pace of play so the players wouldn't get tired that much, but the pressure was the same for both teams.

The Kentucky Wildcats team went on the attack and Turner received the ball and soon received pressure from the Tar Heels team and Williams came to defend against him, so Turner had to pass the ball to Sheppard who was free in the middle.

Even though Sheppard was free he knew Jake was around and so he didn't risk the shot from the outside, Sheppard passed the ball to Padgett who was ahead, soon Jamison arrived to defend against him and so Padgett had to move away and Jamison did not go on defending.

So Padgett took advantage of the space to try the shot from outside and score 3 more points for the Kentucky Wildcats team, the Kentucky Wildcats team was better organizing the shots and trying not to try three-point shots or passes close to Jake.

One of the advantages of the Kentucky Wildcats team was that all the players on the team could attack well if necessary, and not everyone on the Tar Heels team defended well, but the players on the Tar Heels team expected this and thought it would be a challenge between attacks.

The Tar Heels team soon gave the answer and Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left, Carter was playing very well in that game as well as Jamison, in the decisive games he was one of the players who always performed well and was one of the most important players on the Tar Heels team because of that.

Carter advanced with the ball and passed to Jamison further to the left, Jamison tried to advance and the players of the Kentucky Wildcats soon pressed in defense, so Jamison had to pass the ball to Carter further.

Carter passed the ball to Jake in the middle and also advanced into the three-point line, the Kentucky Wildcats team's defense started to press Jake who made a signal and N'Diaye came to make the screen and so Jake was free to try the shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.

The game continued and the two teams kept pressing in the attack and the Kentucky Wildcats pressed in defense trying to prevent the Tar Heels team from further increasing the lead.

In another attacking play by the Kentucky Wildcats team, the ball went to Turner who advanced and soon saw the defense of Team Tar Heels pressing, so Turner had to pass the ball to Sheppard who was in the middle.

Sheppard was free as in many moves because Jake was defending against him and was making room for him, Sheppard did not risk the shot from outside and tried to pass the ball to Mohammed later on.

But Jake foresaw that move and managed to intercept the pass by making the steal, with the ball Jake advanced to the attack with speed, Sheppard was the player who was further behind and had missed the pass and ran to defend against Jake.

When Jake continued running using all his speed Sheppard was left behind and the crowd began to celebrate the points that the Tar Heels team would do, Jake continued running and entering within the three-point line decided to make a show for the crowd.

After crossing the free throw line, Jake jumped to do a 360-Reverse Dunk and make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team, normally Jake used to make the simplest dunks just to cheer up the crowd, but as was the final and the last game he thought he could do something special.

Just as Jake thought the crowd and the players who were on the Tar Heels team reserve began to shout excitedly by the move, even his teammates who were on the court approached Jake to greet him for the move.

With this move and the advantage that the Tar Heels team had on the scoreboard, the Kentucky Wildcats players were losing their desire to play because they knew that the Tar Heels team was getting closer and closer to winning this game.

Even so, this was the last game of the year so they kept attacking to try to win, in another move the Tar Heels team was attacking and the ball was with Carter on the left, Carter advanced and passed the ball to Jamison ahead.

Jamison tried to advance to make the layup and Turner got the steal and so the Kentucky Wildcats team had the counterattack, Turner advanced quickly with Sheppard and Mohammed, the Tar Heels team players who managed to react and came back to defend were Jake, Carter, and Williams who were further back when Turner steal.

Jake was naturally the fastest and was the last defender of the Tar Heels defense when Turner arrived on the Tar Heels three-point line with the Carter ball behind and Sheppard was more to the right being defended by Williams.

Turner came with the ball and Mohammed was advancing quickly too, Jake had not yet reacted to the move and waited, Turner stopped to try the mid-range shot and Carter managed to recover and pressed Turner who passed the ball to Mohammed.

Mohammed received the ball and tried the layup, Jake was waiting for it and went up after Mohammed and in time made the block preventing Mohammed from making the points, after that play the victory of the Tar Heels team was almost guaranteed.

The game continued with the two teams attacking, and the Tar Heels team managed to maintain the advantage and won the game in the final of the NCAA tournament and thus became the champion team again for the second year in a row.

Team Tar Heels won the game with 105 points against Team Kentucky Wildcats' 81 points, all players on Team Tar Heels and even Coach Guthridge started to celebrate their victory and the NCAA title.

In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and had 22 points, 6 assists, 7 rebounds, 6 steals, and 4 blocks, with another triple-double he helped the Tar Heels team to win another NCAA tournament and thus could leave of the Tar Heels team happy with what he did.

"End of the game, the Tar Heels team again wins the Kentucky Wildcats team and wins the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row, now the Tar Heels team has 5 NCAA titles and comes close to the Kentucky Wildcats team that has 6."

"It was a good match between the teams with the Tar Heels team being ahead on the scoreboard the whole game until the end, the players of both teams had good performances and the attack of the two teams was very strong, but the Tar Heels team defended better and got more rebounds in that game and got the win."

"Okay, the Kentucky Wildcats team played very well in that game and it proves that they have a strong team is that this is the third year in a row that they reach the final of the NCAA tournament, they won and 1996, but they lost the last two finals to the Tar Heels team."

"But the Kentucky Wildcats team was really bad at rebounds against the Tar Heels team that has players who got a lot of rebounds all this season, Jamison made history in College basketball making 389 rebounds and joining the list of players who got the most rebounds in just one season."

"Jamison averaged more than 10 rebounds per game and Jake was also not far behind making 323 rebounds this season and achieving an average of 8.5 rebounds per game."

"In this game of the final Jake managed to catch 13 rebounds, make 9 steals and also managed to make 6 blocks, Jake Smith was instrumental in defending the Tar Heels team and was primarily responsible for the victories as in almost all games this season."

"That's why the Tar Heels team managed to win the NCAA tournament again and Jake Smith will again win all of the individual awards for that season including the MVP of the season, the NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player award and the Naismith College Player of the Year."

"We also have to remember the coach Guthridge who won the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament in his first year as coach of the Tar Heels team and along with coach Dean Smith the Tar Heels team managed to win 2 NCAA tournaments in a row and still maintain a record of 64 straight victories that will continue for the next season."

Jake looked into the stands to see the people he knew who had come to watch the game celebrating as well as the Tar Heels fans, he looked at Eva who was very happy and looked at Kate who was happy too.

As the Tar Heels team had won, he couldn't talk to all his friends, only Eva who was his mother Jake can talk a little and celebrate before going back to the university with the Tar Heels team.

The Tar Heels team celebrated a lot while the players received the prizes and the trophy, then on the way back to university the team celebrated again, somehow the players felt more emotional than last season when they won the NCAA tournament for the first time.

Jake was highly praised by his teammates and Jamison was also, the two were certainly the most important for the Tar Heels team to win the NCAA tournament this season and last season as well.

The players were not called again to do an interview because they had already done it when they broke the record and the reporters could not be angry about it, of course, if the players wanted to do an interview they could since the season was over.

But the players didn't want to do that for the time being, some players had already said they would go to the NBA draft this season, Jake also said that, but David managed to keep it a secret until after the NCAA tournament final game.

So it would soon be announced that Jake would be leaving college and going to the NBA draft that year, many said that Jake would break all individual records in the coming seasons and would soon know that it would not happen.

So Jake decided to do an interview only after it was announced, so he could speak openly to the media and do another full interview, other players were not like Jake and would do the interviews in the next few days.

The media also wanted to talk to Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Shammond Williams, the three were also stars of the Tar Heels team and the fans wanted to know about them, Jake would relax in the next few days before returning to training.

Jake still had to think about the university because his classes were not yet over, his classes ended in May and after that, he would have finished the most important classes at the university, Jake would still return to finish university in the next semesters, but it would be just a few weeks of classes.

Jake always thought about leaving the university before 4 years and so he chose a course that he always wanted to study and that he could finish sooner if he wanted, especially because Jake always got high marks in tests and was certainly the best student at university may be tied only with someone who also got top marks.

If in the future other players wanted to use Jake as an example to get sponsorship they would have to be professionals in other sports like Jake was and still have the best grades from the university.

One thing Jake had to do right after winning the NCAA tournament at the end of the season was to let his friends at the university know that they would no longer be roommates at the university because he would be leaving.

This was something surprising for his roommates, they couldn't imagine that Jake was thinking about joining the NBA this season as he had such a great team and was in the middle of a historic winning streak and had won 2 NCAA tournaments and could break all individual records.

They knew that Jake was different from other players and had sponsorship and still had his business while he was at university, so Jake had no problem with money even though he was 4 years at university.

They also knew that Jake liked to study and was one of the best students at the university, so they could not understand why Jake wanted to leave the university, Zack and Aaron were shocked, but they could accept that it was more difficult for William who went to class with Jake and spent more time with Jake at the university.

Jake wanted to talk to his friends, but Brett told him it was best that he waited a few weeks before talking to his friends, after all, it was normal for students to leave the university in the middle of the course, especially for basketball players.

Jake agreed with Brett that his friends were just surprised and would talk to them later, but one thing Jake couldn't leave until later was to talk to the sponsors that their contract would end in a few months.

They would have no problem with the contract because there was a clause that the contract could be canceled because of the university and the NBA, after all, if anything happened everything would have to be renegotiated.

First of all, he called Tiffany and Clara who were friends with him and also with whom he had more time on contract, surely with both of them it would be easier to talk because Jake received only 600 thousand dollars from the two companies a year.

The companies that John and Alan represented paid $ 1.5 million a year to Jake each, the two companies paid $ 3 million, so Jake knew that Tiffany and Clara would accept the end of the contract between them.

If Jake could he would continue with those contracts in his time in the NBA, but David would never agree with that because Jake's image would be related to the companies he endorsed, so it was better for great athletes to only have contracts with big companies with a good reputation.

To prevent Jake from changing his mind, David even made a verbal deal with two beverage companies and one of the razors to make sure Jake didn't ask to renew his contract with the smaller companies.

Naturally, John, Alan, Clara, and Tiffany knew this well and understood that the contract with Jake was temporary, moreover, for those who had smaller companies having Jake was a great help for them also in those years, especially for the companies of Tiffany and Clara that grew the profit in several times what it was before.

Luckily for Jake, they still hadn't returned to Miami and the city where their company was, so they could fly to where Jake was and talk to him before returning to where they lived.

Jake thought it was better that way because he could speak to them in person, especially to John and Alan who had to tell their company about the end of the contract after that meeting.

As it was an important subject Jake decided to speak to each one in private, first he called Clara to talk because she was the first to meet him and sponsor him with her company, and also because Jake had shares in her company.

Jake arrived first at the restaurant he had booked and Clara arrived later in a beautiful blue dress, Jake felt that Clara was almost the same when he met her many years ago.

Clara would turn 34 years old in 1998, but Jake thought she still looked very young and after getting a divorce and not having to worry about losing the company anymore Jake thought she was much better in those years.

"Hi, Clara, you look beautiful today in that blue dress."

"Thanks, Jake, you look great in that dress shirt too."

"Thanks, sorry for calling you suddenly after you went to watch my game in the final of the NCAA tournament."

"No problem, congratulations on winning the NCAA tournament for the second time, I saw that you won almost all the individual awards this season, this was a really great season for you and your team."

"Thank you, I am really very happy with everything that has happened and I think I got everything I wanted from my team at the university."

"Clara, I called you here because I want you to be one of the first to know, this year I'm going to leave university and join the NBA draft, I think I got everything I wanted at university and most of my teammates team also left the team, so I think it's not worth staying another season at the university."

"Just as you may know, our sponsorship contract will have to end when I enter the NBA draft, I'm sorry I didn't warn you before, but no one could know before the NCAA tournament final."

Clara who hoped Jake wanted to talk about it with her when he asked her to talk, just as Jake said she knew Jake was making an exception for her and Tiffany by continuing the sponsorship contract with her even though she paid only a part of what the other sponsors paid.

Clara hoped that Jake wanted to win a few more NCAA tournaments and break his individual records, but it seemed that Jake knew what the best time to leave was, just as he said without the other players on the team it would be difficult to win the NCAA tournaments in the coming seasons.

Her company had grown a lot in the last few years and a lot of it was thanks to the help of Jake who became very famous in the last few years, Clara lost some years that could have made the company grow more, but because of the problems she had this cannot to happen.

Fortunately, in the last year and at the beginning of that year, she had managed to recover much of the loss she had and Clara had made all the investments for the company to continue growing in the coming years even without sponsoring Jake.

"I expected this, even without knowing so much about basketball, I can see that you could have been playing in the NBA with the pros for a long time, thanks for letting me know a few months in advance, so I can do some marketing campaigns before the end of our contract."

"I don't know if that will be possible this year yet, but after a few years you can use the fact that I have shares in your company as an advertisement showing that I still trust a lot in the growth of your company even if I am no longer sponsored."

"Probably after 2000 something big will happen and everyone will know about my investments, so if the public knows about it they will know that I still have contact with your company."

Clara thought Jake's idea was a very good one, certainly, if she showed that he invested in her company it would be an even better advertisement than saying in television commercials that Jake used her company's product.

"I liked that idea, I will continue to send our company's products to you for years to come as you are a shareholder so that you can use some of our company's products and if anyone sees it, it will be a small advertisement."

"Since we are talking about the company, I wanted to give you another good news, after last year's investments the company has grown a lot and has gained a lot of value in the market even with the lowest profit."

"At the end of 1997, our company was valued at 480 million dollars, it has increased a lot since the last few years, and this year it will increase even more."

Jake was happy for this news because it showed that Clara's company was no longer a small company in the market, it couldn't compare itself with the big companies, but now all Jake's fans knew the company and could use their product in the future even if Jake was no longer sponsored by Clara's company.

So with this meeting, Clara and Jake realized that nothing bad had happened because they would still continue to work together and Clara's company had valued a lot and would be even better in the future.

After finishing the conversation with Clara, Jake asked Tiffany to have dinner so that the two of them could return the next day to Miami and the next day he could talk to John and Alan, Jake thought that the conversation with Tiffany would also be quiet and so he wasn't nervous.

Tiffany showed up at night in a more modern outfit made for meetings and not a dress as Clara wore, but she was also beautiful and seemed happier with the good results of her company in the last year.

"Hi, Jake, congratulations on winning the NCAA tournament with your team and winning several individual awards, you deserve it for all the effort you have put in these past few years."

"Thank you, Tiffany, congratulations on the great results of your company last year, I am sure that with the new investments and the quality of your product in a few more years you will be a great competitor to the other beverage companies."

"Thank you, I am very happy with the good results because then the other shareholders will stop criticizing my decisions at the company if I did not have the majority of the shares I could have been fired from the company."

Tiffany said this because she knew that Jake understood the reason that she made the wrong decisions in recent years for the company's growth, even so, the analysis of sales staff the company recovered everything that could have grown that year.

Fortunately, they never had problems with out of stock even with their limited production and in recent years their stores have sold very well, with Jake's popularity his commercials have made more people want to consume her company's product.

So in the last year and also that year after building new factories for the company, they entered into agreements with large distribution networks that included large stores of natural products and a contract with Walmart.

With the great profits that her company made in the last year, she could continue to invest in new factories if her products continued to sell as they were, her company's suppliers were also growing along with her company and so the costs would remain low for many years.

"Tiffany, I called you here to tell you that this year I'm going to leave university and join the NBA draft, so our contract will, unfortunately, have to end, I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, Jake, I've been waiting for this since before you started university, I know you did me and Clara a favor by keeping this contract until this year, I think now my company is no longer at risk to close and can continue to sell well."

"I'm sure of that, I always drink the drinks from your company myself, my roommates and teammates also like your products, whoever bought it once and liked it will continue to buy and continue recommending to people they know even if I am no longer sponsored by your company."

I think the only concern that your company and Clara's company will have to have is to invest well in advertisements and commercials if you can continue to attract the attention of the public I am sure that you will be successful."

"Thanks, Jake, I hope that even with the end of our contract we will continue to be friends, you will always be very dear to me, after all, we have known each other for over 7 years."

"For sure, I consider you to be one of my best friends and who knows in the future we may be able to work again if your company is a great success."

Jake was happy that the conversation with Tiffany went well as well and he was happy that they would continue to be friends, Jake would be further away from Tiffany and Clara, but he would be away from all his friends having to play in the NBA and travel all year to making games all over the country.

Jake went back to college and his friends were still mad at him, especially since Jake hadn't told them he was going to go to the NBA this season, they felt Jake didn't trust them.

And Jake thought they were right, but he couldn't risk telling others about something that important, after all, if anyone told the Tar Heels team unintentionally, they could lose the NCAA tournament and he would lose a friendship.

Jake was one of the people who believed that a secret was only a secret if nobody knew about it, he told David because he trusted David to be professional and to his mother because he knew that Eva would never tell this to anyone, not even Anna.

The other day Jake went to lunch to talk to John this time, the conversation with John was a little tenser because it involved more than anything business and money, moreover, it was difficult for Jake to explain why the contract had to be broken with his company paying $ 1.5 million a year, which was more than the companies that Jake would contract this season.

Jake knew that this could happen and as he had already agreed with David, he said that all of this was David's decision and not his, Jake said that he had a sports agent who would decide these things in his career and had the final say about his contracts.

Of course, this was not really a lie, Jake sought to hire David Falk because he realized that he would not have the time or prestige to negotiate contracts with companies and basketball teams.

Even if Jake was a great player he would just be a rookie when he entered the NBA, he would have to enter the draft on any team that chose him and could not negotiate a contract as good as David managed with Adidas.

So Jake learned that it would be better for him in the future if he just delegated tasks to the qualified people, so he had Emily who would forever be his right hand in business, he also wanted to hire Haruto to help him and Emily, and also to help look after his businesses in the future.

Jake also counted on Frank Davis to take care of his training for marathons or any type of athletics, and if Jake really decided to become an actor he would count on a professional to help take care of his career.

Because of that he trusted David Falk to get the sponsorship contracts for him in the future, Jake no longer needed that money and just wanted to be recognized for his work and it helped David a lot to choose the best contracts for him.

John's company paid very well and could pay even more for a contract with Jake in the NBA, but Jake knew it was a problem that he had an endorsement contract with a company not very big on the market.

If the company committed a crime or did something wrong, the image of Jake and the other sponsors would also be greatly affected and this could even alienate other companies that attempted a contract with Jake who was just an NBA rookie.

David was happy when he realized that Jake already knew this and so he said that Jake could blame him for any decision related to his endorsement contracts when John realized that he also calmed down.

The contract that John's company made with Jake might seem unfair and that his company was paying too much for a contract with a college player, but Jake was also a marathon athlete who won every race he participated in and had the world record o that helped a lot the company that John represented.

The company that John represented greatly increased sales and achieved record sales after making a contract with Jake and John had managed to get some promotions in his work and even increases by getting that contract with Jake for the company.

So John could not accept when Jake just said he would join the NBA draft, after all, John, like the others, could never think that Jake would leave his team this season.

After all, the Tar Heels team had won the NCAA tournament for the second time and was in the midst of a winning streak record, in yet another season Jake could break all individual records as a player and go down in history and enter the future with more prestige in the NBA.

But Jake knew what he was doing, John still tried to ask Jake to negotiate, but Jake was smarter and asked John to set up a meeting with David to talk about a new endorsement contract.

John understood that Jake would no longer talk about contracts in person and went to try to arrange a meeting with David without knowing that he had no chance of getting a contract because David had already found replacements for his company.

At dinner, Jake had to talk to Alan and as their relationship was not so close he soon said that he had a sports agent and that it would be David who would decide if their contract could be renewed.

Alan was also surprised by this situation, but he realized that Jake would no longer negotiate contracts and went to set up a meeting with David too, it was a stressful day, but necessary for Jake who just had to prepare for when the announcement that he would leave the university left.

Shammond Williams, Vince Carter, and Antawn Jamison already said they would leave the Tar Heels team this season, Carter and Jamison took longer to make that decision because of the great phase the Tar Heels team was having.

But they didn't have many records that could break with another season on the Tar Heels team, nor did they have sponsorship contracts like Jake had to study smoothly, they had achieved everything they wanted on the Tar Heels team and needed to get into the NBA to start winning money.

So fans of the Tar Heels team were disappointed with this because that way Shammond Williams and Makhtar N'Diaye would leave the team because they had ended their 4 years at university, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison would leave the team because they wanted to enter the NBA.

The fans started to worry about how the team could continue winning next season without almost the entire team, they were happy that they could count on Jake, of course, they could never hope that Jake would also leave.

Jake had already spoken to Coach Bill Guthridge and had thanked him for the support and confidence that Coach Guthridge had in him in those two seasons, Coach Guthridge had already hoped for this and just wished Jake luck because in these many years at Tar Heels University he had already as many players come in and out of the team.

Jake decided that he would speak to his teammates only after it was announced that he was going to the NBA draft, luckily for Jake the university was taking too long to announce that Jake was leaving the university and that was better for him.

While Jake waited for the right time to talk to his teammates and the media about his leaving the university, he could finally get back to his training for the marathons and also with Yuen Woo-ping for the film The Matrix.

Jake's top priority now was recording the movie The Matrix, after a few months, he would go to Australia to join the film crew and make the film recordings and would only go out for a few weeks to go on the NBA draft.

Even while he was taking classes he would still continue training with Yuen Woo-ping to perform better in the film, almost a month had passed since they started training and Yuen Woo-ping could see that Jake improved a lot in his training.

For Yuen Woo-ping, Jake had learned almost everything he needed to learn before the film and his biggest problem would be learning how to make the same moves he learned while hanging on the cables.

Thinking about it Yuen Woo-ping decided to call some acquaintances of him who were also from the cinema to help Jake train other types of techniques and martial arts that could help him perform better in this film and in other action films in the future.

Yuen Woo-ping only decided this because he realized that Jake was very talented and learned very fast and so he realized that he could give more training to Jake before he returned to Australia.

Jake was unaware of Yuen Woo-ping's plans and returned in the morning before classes to do race training together with trainer Davis and Zack, Zack was no longer angry with Jake because he knew that Jake would leave the university in some time.

But he had agreed with his other roommates that he would not speak to Jake for the time being, but Zack had forgotten that Jake should return to training for the marathons after the end of the basketball season.

Coach Davis was already used to how Jake's body worked differently and told him to do the same training he did before he stopped training for over a month.

Just as Coach Davis hoped Jake was able to finish training even more easily, this was because Jake had the system, but the other reason was that Jake had received a reward after winning the NCAA tournament again.

This time he received 1 point in agility, 1 point in strength, and 1 point in resistance, so he received 3 points in statistics that were distributed by the reward and were not free points that Jake could decide how to invest.

As this was unexpected, Jake was very happy with it, he had a hope that he could receive a reward because he received it after winning the NCAA tournament last season and he didn't know how the system worked.

Fate also did not seem to want to explain to Jake exactly how the system worked, perhaps to prevent Jake from exploiting the system and gaining many statistical points that would make him much better than the others.

Even so, Jake was happy to earn those statistic points and that would help him even more in the NBA and also for the next Olympics in which he had to compete in more athletics.

Zack was surprised to see how Jake looked like he could run more easily right now after more than a month without training, now that he trained 30 km and sometimes a complete marathon he can know that Jake's daily training was to do a marathon in a great time that was in less than 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Realizing this Zack can see why Jake could easily win all the marathons he ran, his training was certainly more intense than almost all athletes in the world, it made Zack admire Jake even more and wanted to be able to do like Jake someday.

After this training Jake took a shower and went to university and saw that William was still avoiding him in class, Jake didn't care much about it and after classes, he went to the place where Yuen Woo-ping normally did his training.

Yuen Woo-ping did not tell Jake that he had called other people to help with his training for the next few days, knowing him Yuen Woo-ping knew that Jake would just accept it calmly.

In the next few days, Jake created another routine for him, did the running training in the morning, went to classes, did training with Yuen Woo-ping and also did three-point training sessions every day as usual.

Also, as Jake always did his imagination training every day and so he didn't need to train with the basketball team every day to keep improving, Jake was just irritated because he had reached the maximum in all of his skills at basketball and had not yet reached NBA level.

If Jake could advance to the NBA level he could know exactly what his skills would be like in the NBA and he could still train with more difficulty in training his imagination because his opponents could have the maximum NBA skill level.

When that happened, Jake knew he could get better at basketball as he felt he hadn't improved much this season, Jake was close to achieving all his dreams in the past before going back in time.

In basketball Jake wanted to win an NBA title and also become an NBA season MVP, but now that he was close to achieving it Jake decided to have new dreams for the future, those dreams would be more difficult to achieve and Jake would not be disappointed even if I couldn't.

But these new dreams would allow him to continue striving in his training and career in basketball even after achieving what he wanted in the past because as Jake no longer needed to play basketball to earn money he had to look for another motivation to continue playing beside his love for basketball.

Jake wanted to ask Coach Davis to change his training for the races, but soon he would have to go to Australia and Coach Davis could not go with him, even so, Jake intended to train his races in Australia when he had time.

When Jake returned from Australia he would have to go to the city where the team that chose him in the NBA draft was, Jake was almost certain that he would go to the Lakers, but he was prepared for it to go wrong and he had to be in another team.

After that, Jake was going to participate in the marathon in Chicago with Zack and after that, he had to concentrate fully on training him with the basketball team, with NBA games Jake wasn't sure if he could do his training for the races.

So Jake was wondering if he could use the stamina bars that he was keeping, Jake had thousands of stamina bars in store for a few years and he could use that to train more.

What worried Jake was how the games would be in the NBA season, he knew that sometimes he would have 3 games a week and if he wanted to play every 48 minutes he would have to use all his resistance in basketball and not get tired doing the training his racing.

Even more because Jake didn't need to train to maintain his physical condition to get the best records, Jake's goal was to win a marathon a year and participate in the Olympics whenever he could as an athlete in the United States.

If possible he wanted to try to run in a variety of disciplines at an Olympics, but all of that would depend on the NBA's game schedule, Jake would lose a few games to qualify for the Olympics if that was necessary.

The Lakers' team knew this and knew about the possibility of Jake losing a few games because of the marathons and had accepted that it was rare for a player to play every game of the NBA season, and if with the resistance they knew Jake had it was possible to let him play most games.

In the next few days Jake continued with his racing training and with Yuen Woo-ping, Jake felt it was more rewarding to train with Yuen Woo-ping because he felt that he learned and improved more each day.

Yuen Woo-ping was more impressed because he was already teaching Jake more advanced techniques that he would not need to use for this film after Jake learned everything he would use for the film.

Fortunately the friends he called arrived and so Jake would have more to learn even before they went to Australia, in fact, the training that Yuen Woo-ping was giving Jake was more to be a great dub than to be an actor.

But the principle was the same and so Jake could do his own scenes more safely because since Jake was 2.01 m, it would be more difficult to find someone with the same height as him to become the double for him.

So Yuen Woo-ping's friends were teaching Jake to fight Taekwondo, Aikido, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, in addition, Jake was learning fights with Sword, dagger, rapier, quarterstaff and knives and even Firearms.

Jake was also learning gymnastics and acrobatics, and learning skills to safely fall from heights, Jake at some point thought he was learning to become a secret agent.

And just as Yuen Woo-ping the others thought Jake would be great to be double and be in an action and fight movie, Jake learned fast and also had a lot of agility and good reaction and thought fast and so he could guarantee better safety him and not hurt the other actors.

Yuen Woo-ping felt it was a pity that he didn't have the equipment to do the cable training for Jake if he did that Jake would be ready for the film even before he went to Australia.

The truth was that even though Yuen Woo-ping knew that Jake was a talented athlete and was very good at learning everything they were teaching, he didn't think Jake really was a good actor.

Because of this, as Yuen Woo-ping knew that Jake would have little time in Australia to learn about the script that hadn't been delivered to him yet, he thought it was better for Jake to learn just how to fight suspended on the cables and be able to concentrate on the texts that he had to decorate to act.

What Yuen Woo-ping didn't know was that Jake had a photographic memory and also knew how to act well, that meant that Jake would be ready after studying the script for a few days, especially since he had seen the movie The Matrix before and did not thought that his character would change the story of the film.

So Jake's biggest concern was actually learning the fighting moves in the movie because he had never learned martial arts before and knew how hard it would be to learn to fight suspended on cables, and Yuen Woo-ping never praised Jake directly for being good at learn and Jake was still tense about it.

In these training Jake was really lucky to have greatly increased his reaction speed because in this way he avoided being attacked by the instructors and thus had no injuries, Jake also knew the right time to stop the attacks before hurting the other stuntmen.

Jake really learned to pretend he was run over and the right technique to not get hurt in this situation and in falls too, Jake just didn't want to try to get burned, even with all the protective devices Jake didn't want to risk that much and didn't even think about doing it something like that in a movie.

A few weeks went by with Jake doing his intense training, with that time and the end of classes coming up Jake's roommates finally decided to stop getting into a fight with him.

After so long they were no longer angry with him, they were angry with Jake because they expected to spend another 2 years at the university with him and also because they were fans of the Tar Heels team and knew that with Jake's departure it would be very difficult for the team will continue to win the NCAA tournament for years to come.

But now it was only a few weeks before the end of classes and after that, they knew that Jake would go to Australia, so Jake had lunch with all his friends at the university, even Brett and Haruto were invited.

Jake wanted to talk because he decided to leave the university and also that they would continue to be friends even after he left the university, Jake knew that this was possible because with the internet talking to people at a distance would be much easier.

"I still can't understand why you would want to leave university after winning the NCAA tournament a second time, Jake, you are so close to breaking your records and putting your name in university history."

"It's true, many players who are NBA stars stayed 4 years or at least 3 years at the university, you could stay at least one more season at the university and break your records and then leave the university."

"I understand that you can't understand what I'm thinking, I really enjoyed spending my 2 years at university and I was lucky to win 2 NCAA tournament and break some individual records too."

"But I think there is no reason for me to stay another season or two at the university, I have no ambitions to break all individual records as a player at the university, what was more important I managed to win the NCAA tournament 2 times and win the Naismith College Player of the Year award twice."

"Also, as you know almost all of the players on the Tar Heels team this season will be leaving, including my friends Vince and Antawn, so next season it will be difficult to win the NCAA tournament again."

"My dream is to play in the NBA and win the NBA title several times and become the MVP of a season in the NBA at least once, if possible I wanted to break some individual records in the NBA too because winning achievements as a professional for me it will be much more important than winning at college basketball."

Jake's friends were surprised to hear his ambitions to play in the NBA in the future, they didn't remember seeing Jake being ambitious and talking so confidently about his dreams in the future.

In fact, they thought Jake was even too humble for someone as talented as he was, it was normal for talented people to be arrogant and say what they really wanted at times, but at university Jake always talked more about the team than his skill.

But hearing Jake say that they realized that he always knew the talent he had and in fact always thought about becoming an NBA star, they thought that Jake should stay at the university to break individual records at the university because Jake was close to achieving that.

But they agreed that it was much better to dream of breaking individual NBA records over several seasons with great teams and great players than at university if Jake managed to break just one NBA record he would go down in history as one of the best players in basketball history.

Listening to Jake talking about the Tar Heels team, they had to agree that if all the players on the current team left, it would be very difficult to win the NCAA tournament next season even if the reserve players were very good.

That's because the team needed time to learn to play together and play as well as the current Tar Heels team, even though Jake was very good without a good team they knew he couldn't win the NCAA tournament alone.

Of course, Jake who knew the future knew that this was not really true if he wanted he could play as SG next season and let Ed Cota play as PG, with Ademola Okulaja and Brendan Haywood on the team they would have a strong team that could fight for the NCAA tournament.

The team would depend much more on him to win but would have a better defense with Brendan Haywood, it was very risky, but it was possible, but nobody knew that Jake knew about the future and so he could still use it as a justification that this season all players of his team would leave the team.

Jake couldn't say that he wanted to leave university to play for the Lakers because he was sure the Lakers' team would win 3 NBA titles in the coming seasons and Jake wanted to be on that team.

If any player were asked whether he wanted to break all individual records for College basketball or win 3 NBA titles, it was certain that players would prefer to win the NBA title.

"Okay Jake, it's your career and your life and we as friends have to support you in whatever you decide, we hope you will be successful in your NBA career even if you play on a weaker team."

"We will root for you and hope that we can really continue to be friends in the future even though we will all live in different cities."

"Thanks for understanding, I'm sure we can keep in touch, who knows in the future our work will allow us to make it easier for us to meet if Aaron becomes a professional American football player, William will be able to work with stocks on the stock exchange of values and Zack may become a professional marathoner in the future."

"Even if that doesn't happen, I feel that with the internet and cell phones we can talk in the same way that we're talking now, not to mention that when I'm playing in the NBA I will travel all over the cities to play and I can send you a ticket always and we will meet at the games."

With Jake talking like that everyone had more hope that this friendship between them could continue even after the end of the university if they knew that Jake would be very rich in the future they would not doubt it because Jake could send a helicopter in the future to pick up his friends.

Things always happened together for some reason, when Jake settled with his friends it was finally revealed that he would be in the NBA draft that year, it naturally meant that he would leave the Tar Heels team this season and leave the university as well.

This news took his teammates and almost all Tar Heels fans and basketball fans by surprise, even the media couldn't wait for Jake to leave college this season to try to get into the NBA.

The first thing Jake did was to talk to his teammates who would remain at the university next season, he met Ed Cota, Brendan Haywood, Ademola Okulaja and the others to tell them why he made that decision.

Of course, Jake talked different things to his teammates and said nothing that he thought the team had no chance of winning the games without the players who left, he said to their teammates that he trusted them to increase the as long as they could the Tar Heels team record of victories.

Jake also said that he trusted that they would still make it to the final four of the NCAA tournament in the coming years and could win even without the players who left, Jake said that Okulaja would be the new leader of the team and that he trusted Ed Cota to do as well as him as the team's PG.

Jake also said that he trusted Brendan Haywood to be one of the stars of the Tar Heels team for the next few seasons, Jake didn't know if they believed him, but what he said was the truth.

After Jake made an appointment to chat with his friends Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter, he wanted to talk to them who would also leave the team this season because he wanted to remain friends with them even in the NBA.

"I really didn't expect you to consider joining the NBA this season too, Jake, if I knew that my decision to go to NBA draft this season would be much easier."

"It's true, I could never hope that the three of us would join the NBA in the same year, now we will have to try to be as successful as possible, win the NBA title and the MVP award should be our goal."

"For sure, in fact, I decided to go to the NBA draft because I hoped you would also leave the team, if you decided to remain on the Tar Heels team I would also stay for another season, I always enjoyed playing with you."

Jake was telling the truth to Vince and Antawn, even though he thought of going to the NBA to play for the Lakers and winning 3 NBA title, he was going one season before the NBA, he could wait another season if the two of them still stayed on the Tar Heels team.

Vince and Antawn were surprised by this because they had not thought that their departure from the team was one of the reasons Jake left the Tar Heels team that no one expected, but they were happy that Jake had this regard for them.

"I also hope that the three of us will be successful in the NBA, we have to meet for several years in the NBA all-star game, Hahaha, I really hope we all managed to win an NBA title and an MVP award of the season."

"You will definitely win the MVP at least once, Jake, but to win the NBA title we will have to be lucky to play on a good team too, but we cannot play on that team's reserve, we have to have a lot of playing time."

"You two are really talented, I'm sure your skills will be recognized by the teams and I hope you will be recognized by the fans too, we won the NCAA tournament twice, our name is already in history."

The three were talking and Jake couldn't help remembering what he knew, he played personally with Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, he knew he could always count on games with Jamison for attacking and rebounding because Jamison is a very talented player.

With Vince Carter, he also knew he could count, especially for the more complicated plays like making an alley-oop, but between the two he counted more in games with Antawn Jamison.

But Jake knew that in the past only Carter was recognized as a talented player and was chosen 8 times for the all-star game, this showed that Vince was recognized as a very talented and beloved player by the fans.

But Antawn did not have that recognition from the fans, Jake thought that this was a great injustice, certainly, he thought that Carter deserved everything he got as a professional, but Jamison also deserved more recognition from fans and basketball fans.

He was like Carter, a player who scored more than 20,000 points and still managed 8,000 rebounds in his career, that made Jake sad thinking about the future of his friend, in fact, the future of the two made him sad because Jake thought they deserved to win an NBA title.

Jake didn't know if with his knowledge and talent he could do something about it, but seeing his friends so talented that they didn't get the recognition they deserved, Jake decided that he would try to do something about it in the future.

"I think a lot of things matter a lot to a professional NBA basketball player, getting good stats like scoring a lot, catching a lot of rebounds, making a lot of assists."

"Earning a good salary is also important for a basketball player, winning the MVP award for the best player can also be important, being recognized by fans as well, but the most important thing for me is winning an NBA title, what do you think about that?"

"Hahaha, I don't know if it's the most important, I still wanted to have a good salary and get good statistics than to be a reserve to win an NBA title, but I think it's one of the most important things and what I want most for me."

"Antawn is right, I think we have to have a good salary, recognition from fans, good statistics too, but I also think that winning an NBA title is really important."

"I'm not saying that we have to abandon a good salary or get good statistics if you could have a good salary, but not the highest possible salary, play in a good team, but without you being the main star of that team."

"Would you be on the starting team and also have the recognition of the fans, almost like it happened with the Tar Heels team, but with a good salary too, would you accept playing on such a team to win one or more NBA titles?"

Jake thought that maybe in the future if he became an NBA star and one of the best NBA players he could have enough influence to organize a team just as LeBron James can do to win his first NBA title.

But for him to think about doing something like that he had to know if Antawn and Vince would accept playing on the same team as him in this situation, if they said that earning higher salaries or being the best players on the team was more important Jake would have to give up making one team like that.

"For sure, if I were to win my first NBA title I would accept to receive a lower salary and not be the main player on the team since I had many minutes of play in the games of the season."

"I would also accept it, my dream in the NBA first is to win a championship and then to become an MVP, but being an MVP is easier playing on one of the best teams in the NBA, my dream at the end of my career is to enter the hall fame, and winning an NBA title is important to achieve that."

Jake was overjoyed to hear Vince and Antawn accepting his idea, the two were just talking without thinking because something like that would be hard to imagine in the future of the NBA, but Jake would remember said and could use this conversation to call them to play on his team in the NBA if it were possible in the future.

If Jake really managed to win 3 NBA titles with the Lakers' team as he thought, he certainly wouldn't be as criticized as LeBron James was for making a team that could win the NBA title.

The biggest challenge Jake would have that LeBron James didn't have would be that for the next 12 years it would be difficult to find a team that could pay the salaries of players like him, Jamison, Carter and other players that would be needed to win the NBA title, even if Jake accepted to receive a salary much lower than he deserved.

"So who knows in the future in the three of us we could play together in an NBA team and win at least one NBA title with our team, surely with all three of us we could have a strong team to win the NBA title."

Carter and Jamison just laughed as if they didn't believe it would be possible, the NBA currently had 29 teams and they knew it was the teams that chose the players and also had the restriction on the players' salaries.

So they just thought about playing on the best teams and if they could become NBA stars they would try to play on a better team that could win the NBA title, but they didn't think they could play together again unless it was all-star game.

They kept talking for a while and Jake said he would go to Australia after school ended and so they would only see each other again on the night of the NBA draft, Jake also said he thought the three could be among the first 5 draft choices and they laughed again.

After Jake was able to chat with all of his friends and his mother as well, Jake finally set up an interview with ESPN who asked to speak to him about the NCAA tournament win and the individual prizes he had won.

Jake accepted the ESPN interview because he liked the channel more and he also liked sports Illustrated, but as he received no contact from the magazine he decided to accept the ESPN invitation.

A reporter would speak to Jake at a hotel he chose because Jake thought it would not be appropriate to do this interview at the university and it was not so important for Jake to go to ESPN headquarters to be interviewed.

Jake naturally warned that he would not answer any questions that could adversely affect his career and ESPN did not want to do something like that and damage their relationship with Jake who could be an NBA star in the future.

"Good afternoon, Jake Smith, thanks for the interview, I'm going to ask you some questions and if you don't want to answer any questions, that question will be cut in the edit, you can rest easy and think about it."

"OK Alright."

"Jake, this season the Tar Heels team that you were playing had one of the best seasons in history after the Tar Heels team won the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament last season."

"The Tar Heels team managed to win the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament again this season and without losing any games and thus achieving a record for a sequence of 64 victories, what do you think about that?"

"I am certainly very happy and satisfied with this, our team has always trained a lot and we have also worked hard to get the win, fortunately, we managed to win 64 straight games and as a result, we won the NCAA tournament twice in a row."

"It's hard to explain, we know that our team achieved something historic that few teams in the history of the NCAA tournament have achieved, and we won the Kentucky Wildcats team twice that reached the final in three straight years and won in 1996."

"It shows that our team played well and we faced some of the best college basketball teams in the past few years to be able to win this NCAA tournament twice."

"I see, and you have managed to win almost all of the individual awards in those two seasons that you have played on the Tar Heels team, including the Naismith College Player of the Year award, you are the third player in history to achieve this, what do you think about it?"

"I can only say that this is a great honor, in those years there were many players who could have won this award besides me, last season Tim Duncan deserved to win that award and this season my teammate Antawn Jamison deserved to win that award."

"Thinking about it makes me feel even more honored to win this prize knowing that so many players could win this prize too, I can say that it was thanks to my teammates and my coaches that I achieved this."

"In two years as a player at College, you have managed to break many records, some per season and other records that other players have made playing for 3 or 4 years."

"You broke the record for most points made in a season this season by making 1345 points, you are the forty-seventh with the most points in your playing career with 2515 points."

"You are fourth in the average of points per game in a season with 35.4 points and the second in the average of points per game in the career with 33.9 points, the first with more assists in a season with 407 assists, and the fourteenth most assisting career with 780 assists."

"You are the fourth average of assists per game in a season with 10.7 assists, you are the second average of assists per game in your career with 10.5 assists, you are the first in steals per season with 346 steals that is more than double the runner-up has."

"You are the first with the most steals in the career with 563 steals, you are the player with the highest average steals per game in a season with 9.1 steals, and you are also the first with the highest average steals per game in the career with 7.6 steals."

"These are just some of your statistics people who broke records in your two seasons at College, what do you think about those records and what do you think knowing that if you play for another season at College you could be the first in all of those statistics?"

"I honestly didn't know about all those records, thanks for telling me a few things that I was able to achieve in my two seasons on the Tar Heels team."

"I can only say that I am very proud to see these records that I achieved in two seasons, to be first in some of them and to be at least in the top 100 in several of them is something that any college player would want."

"Seeing that I see that I can leave the Tar Heels team that gave me the opportunity to achieve these things with my teammates with pride in what I did in my time at the university."

"Just like you said if I stayed a season or two on the Tar Heels team I could break all those records, but in fact, my goal was never to break those records, I always played the best I could to help the Tar Heels team to win and that's how we managed to win 2 NCAA tournament."

"So I would never stay at the university just thinking about breaking more individual records, if I stayed it would be to try to help the Tar Heels team win another NCAA tournament and if I managed to break the records it would be a bonus."

Jake had thought of all the answers he could give in this interview in questions that could harm him if he answered wrong, none of that was really a lie and he just couldn't tell the real reason he was going to leave university that would be to win 3 NBA title in the coming seasons.

"Can you tell the Tar Heels team fans why you decided to leave university this year to enter the NBA draft?"

"I think I had two great seasons playing on the Tar Heels team with my teammates, I had two great coaches in that time and I was able to win two ACC tournaments and two NCAA tournaments in addition to getting my team a 64 win streak."

"I also achieved a lot of individual records and awards and I was fortunate to achieve more than many players who played 4 years at College basketball."

"For all that I have achieved, I will always love the Tar Heels team and my university, but I think that after achieving so many things, it is time to leave . "

"I plan to finish my university course later while playing in the NBA, and this season almost all of my teammates left the team, Okulaja, Cota and many others are still going on, but I think this is the right time for me to leave . "

"I want to play on the best NBA teams against the best players in the world to learn a lot from them in the years to come and have more challenges as a player so that I can continue to improve . "

"The university players are great, but I want to play against the best players and be one of the best players in the future who knows, only the future will say if I can become an NBA star or I will regret not staying 4 years on the Tar Heels team . "

Jake was very honest in saying what he thought, he couldn't say the real reason for going to the NBA, but he said what he really thought to decide to go to the NBA, Jake knew he could wait for a season if he was unsure, but with the system and the experience he had in basketball he thought he was ready to play with the best players in the world .

The reporter who was interviewing Jake was excited too, he knew Jake was smart, but it seemed like Jake knew how to answer questions better than many professional NBA players .

And even with him asking some questions that could harm Jake, he was answering all the questions without leaving any unanswered as he had agreed before the interview .

"Jake, could you say what you expect from the NBA draft and your first NBA season?"