bhwS

by Cr0w0019

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

39. Chapter 39

Basketball and Business

But Jake didn't want to wait that long to talk to his mom, so when Jake saw that Eva was still awake he went over to the couch where she was and just took off the suit he was wearing to get more comfortable with his dress shirt.

"Hi, mom, I didn't know you were going to stay up until this hour."

"I was waiting for you, I knew you wouldn't belong in coming back."

"I see, it's good that you're awake because I have some good news to tell you."

"Tell me then."

"As I said to you, I went to dinner with Kate today, and at that dinner, I finally took courage and asked Kate to date me, and luckily she accepted."

"This is very good, Jake, I'm happy for you."

Eva hoped it could be something like this when she saw that Jake was so happy after going on a date with Kate, in fact, Eva hoped that Jake had already started dating Kate long before and maybe he hadn't told her because of so much of times they went out together.

Just as she said to Jake, Eva was happy to know that he was finally dating the woman he loved, but she also couldn't help feeling sorry for Lola who had now lost all chances of ever dating Jake.

Of course, Eva knew that Jake was not to blame for this and he was having a lot of consideration because of Lola, Eva knew Jake and knew that he wanted to take Kate to her restaurant someday, but maybe he would never do that because he had respect for Lola.

Eva also couldn't help but like Kate who seemed a very independent and intelligent woman and also who really liked Jake, after all, she met Jake before he was an NBA basketball player and when he was not very famous.

"So, Mom, I was wondering if I could invite Kate over for dinner so you could meet, she always wanted to meet you, but here is the only place where you can meet."

"Of course, Jake, I would love for you to bring your girlfriend here, I also wanted to meet Kate."

"This is great, as soon as I sort out the details of the game, we arrange this dinner here at home, so you and I can prepare some special dishes and surprise Kate with better food than the restaurants we went to, Hahaha."

After that busy day, Jake can sleep peacefully and happily, the next day Jake woke up very early to go to his daily training, after a few weeks in that training Jake was no longer tired running the 45 km of the marathon or even in the 10 training sessions. thousand meters and 5,000 meters.

Coach David said this was a good thing because it showed that his resistance was improving and his muscles were gaining more strength with this new training after the Olympics Coach Davis was sure that they could improve this training even more.

Today Jake was not going to meet Kate because he wanted to give Kate a day to get used to the fact that they were dating, after all even though Jake was inexperienced Kate was even more so because Jake was her first boyfriend.

So Jake planned to rest for the rest of the day, it was good for him to rest his body and mind sometimes, from time to time Jake called to talk to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, they talked about technology and the future of the internet and they talked too about the Google company that the two had.

Jake had already become friends with them and they both knew that Jake was a millionaire NBA player and also a marathon runner who won the gold medal at an Olympics, so they knew he was able to invest in their company if he was interested.

They didn't know that Jake was a partner with Jeff Bezos on Amazon and also that he had money invested in the Cisco company, Jake wouldn't say that either, and he just wanted to remind both of them that he was interested in the company, so when he invested a few million they wouldn't be surprised very.

While Jake was resting he got a call from Davis Falk, Jake thought it was time for David to get him to rent the Miami Arena, so Jake could start talking to broadcasters before December.

"Jake, I have good news for you, I was able to rent the Miami Arena for December 17th, I was late because I negotiated a lot with them saying this was a charity game and I was able to rent for 40 thousand dollars for a day all."

Jake was very happy with this, he hoped it would cost a lot more than that, after all, it was for a whole day and he knew that before he went back to the past some rich people rented big arenas for 100 thousand dollars or more.

"Thank you very much, David, with this I can finally call to confirm with the players and already buy tickets and organize the hotel for all of them, now I just have to call the stations with the number you gave me."

"Good luck with that, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be able to help with your game anymore, but I know that you will be able to make a good game."

"Okay David, thanks for all the help you gave me, I hope the game you are going to organize will be a success too."

Now that Jake already had the Miami Arena confirmed he could call the players again, he called all 17 other players and said the missing details, he said where the game would be and the day and also said he would have Adidas and other companies as sponsors.

So the players who didn't expect that much from the game was much more excited and realized that Jake really wanted to make a great game as was the NBA games, Jake also said he would talk to the television stations to broadcast the games.

When the players confirmed again Jake asked Emily to send one of her assistants to contact the hotel and make reservations and buy tickets as well, Jake talked to the players and they agreed to come to Miami 3 days before the game to make a training between teams to play better.

And they were leaving the day after the game, so Jake had to book the rooms in a 5-star hotel for 5 days, and as he said that would be more expensive than renting the Miami Arena, to pay everyone's airfare and for 5 days of the 5-star hotel would be almost $ 40,000.

Still, Jake didn't care about that because he had raised $ 250,000 in sponsorship for the game, so the sponsorship money would still go to the charity even after paying all the costs.

Jake sought to hire some NBA referees for that game and succeeded easily, he also paid for a team that organized events to help the stadium team to take care of parking, game day sales and all the red tape.

With that, everything was fine for the game and Jake was just waiting for Kate's call saying whether or not she could sing on the day of the game after that Jake would call the broadcasters with much more confidence in getting a lot of money for a charity.

After a few hours Kate called saying she would sing on Jake's game day, she would sing the national anthem and two songs at break time, Jake thought it was great and thanked Kate because he knew that her manager would not easily agree thereby.

With everything he needed to be confirmed Jake started calling the broadcasters, Jake already had three broadcasters that he thought could buy the rights to that broadcast, Jake called CBS, ABC, and NBC first because he wanted millions of people could watch that game.

But the three broadcasters did not seem very interested in this game because they were new players and it was not like the All-Stars that naturally attracted the public, moreover, most players had not even debuted in the NBA.

But because they didn't have any games to transmit and also because the income was for a charity, they made a proposal, but it was a really bad proposal that Jake thought they shouldn't even have offered.

So Jake ended the contact with these stations and did not even say that Kate would sing during the game break and before the game the national anthem, so after thinking a bit Jake decided to call TNT.

He already had a good friendship with this broadcaster and knew that in the future they would be one of the big broadcasters that broadcast NBA games in the future, in addition, they had problems with the audience and had a lot of money too.

In addition, they already had contact with the NBA because they showed the NBA drafts every year when Jake told the representatives that David had passed the number they soon became interested in the game.

"It will be a charity game organized by me in Miami, it will be a game among NBA newbies, most of them are players who haven't even debuted in the NBA like me, and there are some players who came from last season's draft."

Then Jake said the names of all the players who were going to participate and also that the game would take place at the Miami Arena, unlike what happened at other stations, the TNT representative seemed really interested in the game.

Realizing this Jake also said that Kate would be on the day of the game singing the national anthem before the game and at halftime, Jake also told the sponsors of that game and that they could try to contact them to get their commercial to appear on the interval of that game.

After hearing everything Jake had organized, the TNT representative realized that Jake already had a lot of influence in the NBA and also among businessmen even before his debut in the NBA, as it was a benefit game, even if it did not attract a lot of audiences it would be good for the company's image.

"Jake, we are really interested in broadcasting this game, but before that I will have to have a brief meeting to find out if we have free time to broadcast this game on December 17th, if everything goes well I will call you in a few minutes."

"Okay, I'll be waiting."

Jake was very confident that this time he would get the sponsorship because the TNT representative seemed genuinely interested in buying the game broadcast, as this money was for charity Jake didn't mind receiving less than he expected, but he wouldn't accept either with the other three broadcasters offered.

After almost an hour waiting for the TNT representative to finally call again, Jake had already thought of a value that might be acceptable, in the future a common NBA game would be worth an average of 6 million dollars to be broadcast by a broadcaster, Jake wanted a lot less than that.

"Jake, I talked to the directors of the broadcaster and we have time to broadcast the game on December 17th, are we really interested in broadcasting this game, but just to make it clear, will we have the exclusivity to broadcast this game?"

"Of course, we just want fans to see this game and also help a charity, you can even say that the income you paid for the game also goes to the charity, the costs of the game are already paid by the sponsors."

"This is great, so we want to buy the broadcast of this game, as it is for a charity we are thinking of buying for 1 million dollars, what do you think of that?"

"I think it's a good value, the charity that receives this will thank you, so we have an agreement, I will send one of my assistants to send the signed contract to you."

"Okay, we hope it's a good game."

Jake was really happy with the amount he got for that game, it was even more than he expected to get and thinking about inflation it was a value very close to what would be paid in the future for a normal game.

Jake was very happy to have managed to set everything up for the game he decided to do on a whim, he wanted to set this game closer to the date they were on, but Jake knew that some players were not yet in perfect physical condition to play 48 minutes.

But even though it was almost 1 month before the day of the game Jake was already excited to know that he could play with his friends, Jake asked Emily to send her assistants to solve the last details of the game and he returned to his normal routine.

Jake had already done the most difficult and with the teams, he hired to organize events the rest would be organized, Jake called Kate to tell her the good news first because his mother was still at the restaurant.

"Kate, luckily everything went well and I managed to organize everything for the game on December 17th, it will be broadcast on TNT."

"How great, Jake, I was hoping that everything would work out, you already know which charity you are going to donate that money to?"

"I am thinking of an institution that I have already donated before and went there with my mother, it is an institution that helps children with cancer, it helps mainly needy families who cannot afford treatment."

"That's great Jake, I'm sure a lot of people can be helped with that money."

"I also hope, that I wanted to ask if you need any help with the show that you are going to do on game day? If you have any equipment, dancers, clothes, or anything needed for the show, you can tell me. "

"I don't need many things, I have my dancers and my team that helps me with my shows, but I will need equipment and some things for the show, after all, it will have to be organized quickly at the break."

"Can you tell me a company that takes care of that and I'm going to hire them to organize it all."

Jake also told Kate that she would not be able to do a stage to sing and she and the dancers would have to perform on the court, Kate said she understood this and so they talked about more subjects of the show, Jake used the knowledge he had at other events like this to talk to Kate.

So the doubts she had about how she was going to do a show at the break were resolved and it would also help when she had to talk to the companies that would organize the equipment for the show.

After talking to Kate, Jake had to call the other players again to tell them about the good news, everyone was happy to know that the game would be broadcast on TNT, Jake even said that he offered it to other companies that didn't offer fair value and the players agreed with it.

Jake didn't know, but in doing so he gained more respect from all the players he invited to this game, after all, Jake was a novice player who was playing on the Los Angeles Lakers team and was not afraid to organize a game like this that could be misinterpreted by team owners.

The night when Eva came home Jake said excitedly to her that he had managed to organize everything for the game and that everything had worked out, Eva was very happy also because she knew how Jake was committed to it and was dedicating himself to organize this game.

Even more because Jake was still training every day with Coach Davis, even though Jake was tired less than he used to be, he still got tired a good part of the day when he did the marathon and 10,000 meters training.

After that the days passed quickly and Jake continued with his routine, he continued to go out with Kate as many times as he left before they started dating, but after they started dating they had dates in more private places where they could kiss.

By the end of November, the preparations for the game were complete and TNT started making commercials between programs announcing the game on December 17, it was also announced that Kate would sing in this game in which the NBA rookies would play.

At the same time, tickets began to be sold in the Miami area, tickets costing between $ 50 and $ 200, for a game that was a special event it was cheap and $ 200 was the cabins and best seats.

Jake did this because they had raised more than $ 2.1 million for charity with the money Jake would personally donate, so the value of the tickets would not increase that much.

Even so, if all the tickets were sold they would collect over 1.2 million dollars, Jake also thought that maybe Kate fans could buy the tickets to watch her sing two songs on match day.

That month the college basketball games had also started, and to Jake's happiness, the Tar Heels team had yet to miss a game this new season just as it did in Jake's past life.

If this continued so they could get closer to the UCLA team record, Jake had heard that Vince Carter was at university studying and helping the basketball team while training to be ready for when the NBA arrived.

If Jake didn't have so many things to do these months he could have done it too, luckily for Jake he was almost graduated and just needed to attend classes when the Los Angeles Lakers team was out of season to get his diploma.

The problem was that when other commitments arose for Jake at that time he would not have time to take classes to get his diploma, Jake thought that when the film The Matrix came out and was a success the continuation of the film would be approved and maybe the Wachowskis would want to make the recordings with Jake in those months that the Los Angeles Lakers team didn't have games.

With the end of the month has arrived, Jake decided it was time to make dinner at his house and invite Kate, so Kate could finally meet his mother, Jake was taking a while because they started dating very recently.

But Kate even talked about the times she wanted to meet Eva and Jake had already talked about it with his mom, so it was time for them to talk to his mom so they could prepare this special dinner for Kate.

"Mom, I think the time has come to prepare that dinner so Kate and you can finally meet and talk, she talks about you always and you also said that you wanted to meet my girlfriend."

"Okay, Jake, if you think this is the right time we can do this weekend, what do you think?"

"I think it's a good idea, let's prepare a great dinner for Kate, with you and me cooking she will be in for a surprise."

"Hahaha, you cook better than me Jake, if only you cook it will be even better, but since you want it I will also make some dishes that are praised in the restaurant."

Jake wasn't kidding when he said that he intended to surprise Kate with this dinner, he cooked better than some chefs, especially now that he had gained more system agility and thus he had more skill with his hands.

And Eva's restaurant was always packed and was praised by all the city's food critics, so it wasn't wrong to say that with Jake and Eva cooking they could make dishes better than some restaurants.

The other day Jake had another date with Kate where he took her to an amusement park, after that date he told her that they would have dinner at his house at the end of the week and just as Jake expected Kate was very happy to know about that.

"I am happy to know that I will finally be able to meet your mother, Jake, you talk about her so much that I was really curious to meet her."

"She is also curious to meet you, after all, I also talk a lot about you to my mother, you can expect to eat there at my house the best food you have ever eaten in Miami."

"I know, you told me that your mom has a restaurant that is very popular here in Miami, I wanted to go to her restaurant sometime."

"My mom really has a restaurant and she cooks very well, but I will also help to prepare this dinner and you will know about my culinary skills."

"I didn't know you knew how to cook, of course, it must have been your mother who taught you how to cook."

Kate was very excited knowing that she was going to dinner at Jake's house and could meet his mother, she didn't even realize that once again Jake deviated from the subject of her wanting to go to his mother's restaurant, Jake didn't want to talk about Lola to Kate because she could be jealous of her.

So Sunday arrived and Kate took a taxi to Jake's house this time, he wanted to pick Kate up at the hotel, but since dinner was at his house Kate didn't accept Jake to do that, Kate put on a nice dress, but no very festive because she had to look good because it was the first time that she would meet Jake's mother.

It was Jake who opened the door for Kate and he was also wearing a dress shirt that was Jake's normal style and he had met Kate so many times, Kate entered Jake's house surprised by the beauty of Jake's mansion.

Not even she who was successful with her music had a house like this, of course, she had the money to buy a house like this, but Kate didn't know where she wanted to live and so she only saved money for when she decided, and she had the house that was of her parents in Miami to stay if she wanted to.

Jake and Eva had already prepared dinner and changed clothes before the time they had scheduled with Kate, now they just needed to wait for some dishes to come out of the oven and dinner was ready.

Jake took Kate to the living room where his mother was, so for the first time Eva and Kate met in person, Eva already knew Kate through pictures in magazines and on television, yet she was surprised by Kate's beauty.

And Kate was even more surprised by the beauty of Eva, after all, it was the first time that she saw Jake's mother and she did not know that Eva had a Latin beauty, especially because she knew that Eva was 37 years old and yet she looked very young.

"Good evening, Mrs. Smith, it is a great pleasure to meet you, Jake always speaks very highly of you, but he never said how beautiful you are."

"It is a pleasure to meet you too Kate, you can call me Eva if you want, after all with you dating Jake you are family."

"I had seen pictures of you and also commercials you did on television, but personally you are as beautiful as Jake had said."

The two praised each other and showed that they wanted to become friends since they met, it was how Jake hoped it would happen after all his mother and Kate were very kind and wanted to be friends so that Jake would be happy and for the relationship between Jake and Kate worked.

Jake left the room to get an orange juice that he had prepared for the three of them to drink and left Eva and Kate talking, the two had a good first impression of each other and so they started asking questions to get to know each other better.

Jake knew this was an important moment so he decided to leave the two of them talking for a longer time and went to prepare cubes of cheese to put on sticks after the two met a little they started talking about the only common subject that the two had to it was Jake.

Because of Jake's personality, the two had only good things to talk about him and Eva was the one who had the most stories to tell about him, so when Jake came back with the appetizers and the orange juice the two were already laughing and had become friends.

When Jake realized this he was relieved and so the evening continued pleasant and fortunately, Kate did not speak about Eva's restaurant because she had realized that Jake did not like to talk about it and so everyone was very well.

For dinner Jake had prepared a lamb shank, Ratatouille, and a risotto for the main course, while Eva prepared the desserts and side dishes, it was a lot of food for just the three of them and so Jake had more difficulty having to make the portions of the food so that it wouldn't be leftover after dinner.

Jake did this because he realized in the various restaurants that he and Kate went that she liked lamb and Ratatouille, Eva prepared a Petit gateau, and Cheesecake for dessert and various side dishes like salads.

Kate was really surprised by the quality and quantity of different dishes that she had for this dinner, she knew that Jake was going to prepare dinner, but she thought he would make only one dish because of that, then Kate was even more surprised when she saw how everything the dinner menu was delicious.

Jake had been smart and done different things than his mother and so Kate didn't have to say who cooked better, but she was surprised when she learned that Jake had done the main dishes for dinner.

At that dinner, Jake didn't speak to Kate often and left only for his mom and Kate to talk and get to know each other better and maybe later they could be friends, after dinner Jake took Kate to her hotel and asked her what she thought about dinner.

"I loved everything, I really liked your mom and I think she liked me too, I honestly didn't expect her to be as cool as you said she was, but she is even better than you said."

"And the dinner was really delicious, I don't have the confidence to cook for you one day because I don't know how to make that many dishes."

"Hahaha, I'm glad you liked it, I'm sure my mom loved you too, so we can make dinner like that again soon."

"I would love to, thanks for that great dinner, Jake, good night."

"It was a pleasure to make this dinner, good night."

They said goodbye with a kiss and so Jake came home happy, coming home he asked his mother what she thought of Jake and just as he expected she said that she liked Kate very much and approved of this relationship between the two.

After that Jake can sleep well knowing that everything was going well, after that dinner Jake and Kate became even closer and the relationship between them improved a lot, the days passed and soon the month of December arrived.

The NBA lockout continued and the NBA had announced that the Christmas game would be canceled and David Falk announced the game between players that would be to benefit players and charity as well and that game would be as an NBA all-star.

The media began to speculate that David had this idea because of the game that Jake was going to play, others said that David had also organized Jake's game as a test to have the game among All-stars.

But Jake and the other rookie players didn't care about that because they realized their game was different because Jake did it from the start thinking about helping charity and played this game near his house which showed that he hadn't planned much before.

Jake would not give any more interviews to any channels until the NBA games returned, just as he had not given any interviews since he did the marathon, the players were free to speak, but Jake didn't care much about that lockout because he always knew it would happen, after all, he knew about the future so it was something natural for him.

Jake could understand why the owners were doing this lockout and he also understood that many players were suffering because they did not have salaries and wanted to play, but it was something that would not last long and several players would receive more than 200 thousand dollars a month and would forget about it. time without money.

Jake knew that many players received millions and also spent millions of dollars every year, these players Jake felt no pity, after all, he had more than 1 billion assets in his account because he knew how to save and invest in the last few years.

It was only now that Jake had a great source of annual income that he decided to start spending the money he earned, yet he still had his investments for a possible emergency.

So several weeks passed quickly and the day of the game that Jake organized was close, in that time Jake trained every day with trainer Davis and it was much easier for him to do the training, even though Jake knew that his resistance had not increased.

Coach Davis said that Jake had gotten used to running at this new pace and his body was naturally stronger than that of other athletes so he didn't feel tired or sore in the muscles even with such intense training.

Jake was also training more often on the basketball court that was at his house, in the last few months Jake had only trained on his three-point shots and his imagination training, even though Jake could improve his skills and increase his experience playing against skilled players, it was not real training.

So even though Jake was alone, he had to do some training so that his body would not be uncomfortable on the day of the game, Jake thought about calling his friends from high school to play, but Jake remembered that everyone was at the university and so he continued training alone.

That was the problem with Jake not having many friends who played basketball, he thought that would change when he started playing in the NBA, after all, he could play with his teammates, after all, Coach Guthridge had told him that sometimes training with players with little skill could be more of a hindrance than a help.

Jake started to train even more because since a few weeks before Kate started training with her dancers and her show team to sing on the day of the game, it had been a few months since Kate did the last show and even though she was still going to the gym to keep in shape she still needs to train.

Kate was a pop music singer and even though she had changed her style of music in the last few months, she still sang and danced at her shows, this was normal for a pop music star, but to achieve this a lot of training was necessary.

At the beginning of her training, Jake asked to go along to give some support while watching the training, so Jake could see the intensity of the training and how many times Kate and the other dancers had to repeat the choreography of the music, sometimes making small mistakes.

But as soon as Kate's manager learned about it, she forbade Jake to attend her training, after all, it could distract Kate from training and sometimes paparazzi and journalists would stay where she trained and so they would know that Jake was her boyfriend.

Jake and Kate didn't care that the paparazzi knew this, but Kate's manager thought it was not yet the right time for them to find out, after a while if the paparazzi revealed that Jake and Kate were dating and they said they were together in secret for many months fans would more easily accept.

Certainly, a lot of rumors have existed since Kate hugged Jake the second time they met at a party, the rumors were even bigger now that it was announced that Kate would sing on the day of the game that Jake was organizing.

Jake understood that Kate's manager was right and so he stayed at home training, Jake ever wanted to meet in person and talk to Kate's manager and thank her for taking such good care of his girlfriend.

So at that time, Jake had more time to train and realized that he had gotten better after training so many times in imagination training with players who had SS rank skills, so Jake had decided to join the NBA this season.

When the games come back, players would not be so excited about the games because of the reduced game season and a lower salary, so Jake thought he would have more opportunity to play more time in the games just like the other players in this year's draft had.

This was the last day that Jake had to train alone because that day the players that would come to the game would arrive in the city of Miami, Jake had organized all the details for the game that they would have and even the company that Kate suggested that he hire to organize the equipment Kate would need to sing on the day of the game, she had already come to the Miami Arena and knew the equipment needed for the show.

So the other day Jake had already agreed with all the players on his team that they would train at his home in Miami, which had a professional court and was a place that had no danger of having the media appear to ask questions of the players.

The players of the opposing team could train in a court that Jake had rented for the next 5 days, Jake had prepared everything to have a good game, even though Jake had arranged for the players to eat in his mother's restaurant, the hotel where they were also had a restaurant of course.

But for the first day, he called Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter to dinner with him, after all, they were the best friends he had on the Tar Heels team and until now they were the best friends he had in the NBA.

"Hi, Jake, what a great game you organized for us, Hahaha, I thought we would still be a few months away from playing again."

"It's true, I was already at North Carolina training with our team, I tried to help them with training and study for another semester, but I really wanted a game like that so I wouldn't be out of shape."

"I also really wanted to play basketball again, I could just ask you to play, but I thought I could enjoy and make a game that could make us better known to NBA fans and we could also help a charity."

Vince and Antawn thought that Jake had a great idea, in fact, others might have an idea like that, but they wouldn't be able to organize a game like Jake did so quickly and even call a singer and have the game broadcast and even get sponsors.

Of course, they didn't know that Jake intended to pay for everything himself if he couldn't get sponsors, plus Jake would donate $ 1 million which he would pay to pay for all the costs of the game and still help a charity.

"You said you were at North Carolina University with the Tar Heels team, so you can follow the team these past few months, it's amazing how the Tar Heels team continued to win several games and took this game streak without losing to 75 games before they lose."

"Yes, it was a shame that the team lost, but it was really hard to break that UCLA team record, we know well the pressure we felt on having to keep winning without losing any game to try to break that record."

"Even so, I think it's incredible what we helped to achieve, it will be very difficult for someone to break our record of winning streak, so we can enter the history of college basketball."

So the three laughed, they were in the NBA right now that they still didn't have the opportunity to play, but none of them regretted the time they spent at the university, the three talked more about the university and Antawn asked a question that left Jake without know how to respond.

"Hey Jake, Vince and I already talked about it, it was a coincidence that we have changed teams in this draft, now I'm in the Golden State Warriors and Vince is in the Toronto Raptors, do you think we will have a good performance in our teams and that are we going to play there for many years?"

Antawn was just kidding asking Jake this, but seeing as Jake was serious as if hesitating to say what he was thinking, Antawn knew what Jake was like, so now Jake should be thinking seriously about it.

"You can tell us what you think, Jake, we just want to know your opinion, it's not like what you say is really going to happen."

"Okay, Jake, you can tell us what you think."

"Okay, I don't think we will be in our teams for many years, 5 or 6 years at the most, after all in the first years we will not receive a big salary and then maybe the other teams will offer much better offers."

"I myself don't think I'm going to stay in the Los Angeles Lakers for many years, that could change if the team becomes a united team as we were in the Tar Heels team, so I might want to continue."

"As for our first year in the NBA, I think that between you two it is Vince who will be most successful because the Toronto Raptors team needs a player in his position and also because they like his style of play."

"Also, in the Toronto Raptors team there is also Tracy McGrady who is very talented, so I think Vince is going to have a better debut year."

Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison thought about what Jake said and understood what he was thinking, it was certainly true that Antawn would have to fight for a spot on his team and Vince would have a spot on his team.

But it was strange for Jake to talk about it because Tracy McGrady didn't even play long last season on the Toronto Raptors team, but it made sense, of course, they didn't ask how Jake thought his NBA debut year would be.

After all Jake was playing on the Los Angeles Lakers team that had Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, in addition, the Los Angeles Lakers team switched 3 players to have Jake on their team so it was natural to think that Jake would have a lot of time to play.

They even thought it possible that the Los Angeles Lakers team could win the NBA title with Jake on that team with great players, after all, they knew Jake well and knew how he could help the team win in many ways.

Jake could help by being put on defense because of the steals he made and the rebounds he picked up, he could be placed just to make assists and organize shots, or just to make points with three-point shots or speed shots. that he had.

They were sure that Jake would be a big NBA star in the future, they realized that Jake had a different style of play than most of the players they knew and still managed to make an average of 30 points, 10 assists and 7 steals per game.

So in the future when Jake started winning several NBA championships and becoming the MVP, his playing style would finally be praised, it was strange for them who played with the game and knew he was already a basketball genius and even so he kept improving during the season.

If they realized that Jake has improved even more in the past few months even without playing or training hard they would have to admit that even they could not imagine what Jake would become for basketball in the future.

They didn't talk about it so as not to put too much pressure on Jake, but if he managed to maintain the average points, assists and steals he had at university playing in the NBA, he would definitely be the best player of all time.

The other day very early he sent some drivers he had hired for the next few days to take some rental cars to pick up his team players at the hotel, Jake would not rent a bus or order several taxis for his teammates.

Jake had already called the players who were waiting in the hotel lobby, they were curious because they never saw anyone do this, but they soon accepted and got into the cars that followed one after the other until they reached the mansion where Jake lived.

All the players were surprised by the mansion that Jake owned, they thought he managed to buy this mansion after getting his sponsorship contracts with Adidas and other companies, but they soon realized that this was a house that had existed for many years.

"Welcome, I wanted to thank everyone for coming to Miami for this game, I hope everyone will have fun in the game and know that you will help thousands of people from a charity with this game."

"Let's go to the back of my house, which has the court and a locker room where you can change clothes."

So the players followed Jake and went to the locker room where they had prepared uniforms, they were not the uniforms they would wear in the game, but they were from Adidas too, they had blue and red shirts to differentiate the teams.

The players started talking while warming up and Jake went to talk to all the players a little bit, he spoke to Tracy McGrady to thank him for accepting the invitation, he spoke to Paul Pierce, and also to Tim Duncan to thank.

So the players thought Jake looked very humble and spoke to everyone politely, many skilled players like him became arrogant over time, so they soon went to the court at Jake's house.

They were impressed with the quality of the court, Jake had done something as professional as possible, but without bleachers and without all the beauty of an Arena, so it didn't cost millions of dollars as the Arenas did.

"I was thinking that we could do some team training to warm up a little bit and then we can do two teams of 4 players and have one player on reserve, whoever stays on reserve can play on both teams."

"So we can have a little training playing a game with 2 times of 10 minutes, what do you think?"

Everyone agreed with Jake and thought it was best to do it anyway, so all the players did exercises doing passing and dribbling training and then doing three-point shots and mid-range shots.

Almost all of the players on Jake's team were skilled at three-point shots, most notably Jake, Paul Pierce, and Vince Carter, all players had skills to catch rebounds, but Jake, Antawn Jamison, and Tim Duncan were superior to everyone.

So after training and with everyone warm-up, the hardest part was putting together two teams balanced with these players, Jake knew how to put together the best team possible, but that would make the training boring.

But Jake didn't want to lose, so he wouldn't send the best players to the other team, so after thinking a little, Jake decided to build a team to win, but that the game could be played too.

The teams would be Jake, Tim Duncan, Vince Carter, and Paul Pierce, the other team would be Michael Doleac, Tracy McGrady, Antawn Jamison, and Tim Thomas, Bryce Drew would play in reserve, Jake knew his team was much stronger, but at least he would be able to train like that.

The players thought that the two teams were balanced after all in Jake's team only Tim Duncan was a player that everyone knew he played well, the training game started and Tim Duncan won the contest at the top and passed the ball to Jake.

Jake calmly advanced the ball remembering the feeling of playing a game with real teammates and opponents, it was great to do his imagination training, but it could never be like a real game.

Jake advanced with the ball and soon passed to Vince Carter who was on the left, Carter advanced with the ball and soon Tracy McGrady arrived to defend, Carter tried to pass by McGrady and failed and had to pass to Paul Pierce on the right.

Pierce advanced with the ball and managed to get rid of Antawn Jamison's defense and ran to make the layup and get the first 2 points of the game, Jake could soon see that all the players were in good physical condition.

Jake also realized that this game they were playing was different from what it was at university, Paul Pierce seemed to have much more skill and agility to get rid of his opponent's defense than Carter and Jamison had.

Jake also realized that he could just pass the ball to Tim Duncan because Michael Doleac would not be able to defend against him, so the attacks would be much faster, soon after it was the turn of Antawn Jamison's team to attack.

As they were not playing with a PG, Tracy McGrady was setting the shots, so it would be him who Jake would have to defend against McGrady stepped forward and tried to get rid of Jake's defense, but Jake was faster and just kept his distance.

So McGrady had to pass the ball to Jamison on the right, Jamison took the ball and Pierce soon appeared to press on defense, Jamison tried to pass through the defense and failed and had to pass to McGrady further back.

McGrady observed the placement of his teammates and passed the ball to Tim Thomas, Carter was defending against Thomas, but Thomas could not try to get rid of the defense easily because Jake and Tim Duncan were watching him.

So Thomas passed the ball to Doleac who was ahead, Doleac received the ball and turn to make the layup, but Duncan used his strength to hinder Doleac in the play that missed the attack, Duncan soon caught the rebound and passed it to Jake.

Jake calmly advanced into the attack while his teammates advanced into the attack, reaching the three-point line, this time McGrady was defending against him and Tim Thomas was defending against Carter.

Seeing this, Jake realized that McGrady was too far away and so he took advantage and tried the three-point shot to hit and make 3 more points for his team who already had a 5 point advantage.

So Jamison's team realized that Jake's team was much stronger and they had no chance of winning, the training game ended with Jake's team winning by 16 points.

In this training it was easy to see the qualities and defects of almost all the players, Jake managed to defend very well against McGrady and for that reason McGrady had no opportunity to make any points.

Jake made 4 steals in that game and 2 blocks and left the rebounds to Duncan, with Duncan catching the rebounds of Jamison's team failed to catch any offensive rebounds, and Jake tried more to make assists than to make points to know how his teammates They were playing.

Tim Duncan, Tim Thomas, and Tracy McGrady who already had experience in the NBA realized that Jake already had the quality to be a very good player in the NBA even though he didn't debut, they knew that because the three wanted to have someone like Jake playing on their team.

For the training to be fairer in the coming days the teams were changed with Tim Duncan always playing on Jake's opposing team to make everything more balanced, but Jake's team won in all training sessions.

On those days, in addition to training the players of the two teams, they also made new friends, Jake became more friends with Tim Duncan and Paul Pierce as well, the two teams made two different groups of friends on those days.

The players invited by Jake agreed to go to dinner a few times at Eva's restaurant, but Jake didn't accompany them once because he still wanted to respect Lola and didn't want to cause unnecessary discomfort.

The sports media in the United States began to gather more in the city and were able to interview the rookie players several times during these days, so basketball fans started to become more interested in this game.

Tickets for the game had already sold out and so Jake managed to raise another $ 1.1 million for charity, players were excited to learn that 15,000 tickets had been sold to watch their game.

The ticket price was not expensive, but it was also not cheap and it was basketball fans who decided to pay for tickets, Jake also knew that more people were subscribing to TNT just to watch their game.

That was because TNT was doing good advertising and making it easier for more people to pay for the subscription, the fans liked it because it had a lot of good programming on the other subscription channels as well.

Fortunately, Jake had already warned all players more than a month ago and so everyone managed to be in the best physical condition for this game, so it would depend on the performance of the players to gain the recognition of the fans.

After several days of training, Jake's teammates were confident that they would win this game because with Tim Duncan, Jake, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Tracy McGrady they had the confidence to win that game.

Antawn Jamison would play as a PF in that game and thus the team would have more speed and with Jamison and Duncan they would get all the rebounds and many points inside the area, and in defense, they would have Jake and Tim Duncan to avoid the attacks of the opponents.

So with only one day to go before the special game Jake can finally meet Kate, she had called him because her manager wanted to talk to him, Kate's manager was called Lily, she was 31 and was already married to a lawyer.

Lily was a beautiful woman who took care of herself, but she was a little overweight because she didn't eat properly because she had to work a lot, Lily had black eyes and hair and her eyes were highlighted because of the glasses she wore.

Jake went to meet Kate and Lily at a more elegant restaurant that was more appropriate to talk business, this restaurant could also drive away from the paparazzi who were trying to find out if Jake and Kate were really together and wanted to take a picture of them together.

This time Jake can't take Kate by car and went to meet them at the restaurant, they were both dressed elegantly, Kate was wearing a simpler blue dress and Lily was wearing a green dress.

"Good night to you, it's nice to meet you in person, Lily."

"It's a pleasure to be able to talk to you too, Jake, I've seen you a few times, but we haven't had a chance to talk."

"I wanted to thank you for taking such good care of Kate for all these years, she always speaks very highly of you and I know you have always supported her and helped her career to succeed."

"Thanks, even though I always liked Kate a lot it was my job to take care of her career and other singers too, it was Kate's talent and effort that brought her success."

"I certainly know that Kate is very talented and hardworking, and she deserves all the success she is having, but I also know that without a good businesswoman, her career would not have been so successful."

"I know that a businesswoman for a singer is like a coach for an athlete like me or a good manager for a manager, I only succeeded in basketball and marathons because I had good coaches and I only succeeded in my investments because I have Emily who helps me with everything."

Lily felt Jake's sincerity in those words and was grateful to him for the compliments, Kate was also very happy that Lily and Jake were getting along, Lily was the most important person in Kate's life after Jake now that she had no family.

Lily was like an older sister that Kate always wanted to have and Kate knew that Lily spent a lot more time helping her than the other artists in her company, and just like Jake said, Kate thought that without Lily she would never have the success that had.

Lily liked Jake very much and really thought he was the ideal boyfriend for Kate since she always needed to travel and could never be like ordinary women, Jake also always needed to travel and it would be easy for Kate to take a vacation when Jake was on vacation and they would have a few months together.

But Lily knew how many men there were who just seemed to be the perfect man, but actually wanted to deceive women and just enjoy it, even though Lily thought Jake wasn't like that because of the way he treated his mother, she had to know for the good Kate.

So the three talked happily without talking about any more serious matter, when Kate had to go to the bathroom Lily didn't go with her and stayed to talk to Jake more when Kate left Lily decided to ask Jake more serious questions.

"Jake, I'm going, to be honest with you, I had a great first impression of you and I think you are a really great person by the way you treat your mom, but I'm still worried about Kate."

"She met you the day her parents died and said that she had liked you very much since the first time you met, but my fear is that the shock caused by her parents' death and the fact that Kate stayed talking to you saved her life may be misleading her feelings."

"Do you really think that could be possible?"

"I don't know, I don't think it's possible because you guys saw each other again when Kate had already recovered from the trauma of her parents' death, what may have happened is that the feelings she already had only intensified because you saved her her life."

"So I have to tell you, I have been working in the world of artists for many years and I have learned to recognize when someone is lying, so I am going to ask some questions while Kate is not here."

"Do you really love Kate?"

"Yes, I can't explain if it's really love, but I can say that I never felt what I feel for Kate for anyone before, it's a very strong feeling that I have felt since the first time I met her and it just increased. last months."

Lily liked Jake's response and felt that he really was honest saying that he thought he loved Kate, with that she can now be much more relaxed because it meant that Jake was not manipulating Kate's feelings by taking advantage of her fragility.

"I'll ask you one more question, do you think about marrying Kate? Even knowing that because of her career she will never be able to live normally in the same house as you as other women normally do?"

"I think, after the last few months I got to know Kate a lot better and I respect her a lot and I love Kate, that's why I've been doing everything slowly in our relationship, this care is because I'm afraid of losing Kate, if I could I would ask her in marriage today."

Lily was really surprised this time, she didn't expect Jake to really think about marriage so seriously and from what she can see Jake could really ask Kate if he didn't know it was too early yet.

So Lily was no longer afraid that Jake would hurt Kate's feelings, only if Kate wanted to part with Jake that they would part, what Lily didn't know was that Jake already had a mentality of almost 50 years old.

So he naturally wanted to marry Kate as soon as he was sure he loved her, even though she couldn't live normally with him as an ordinary couple, Jake was prepared for that when he decided to enter the NBA.

After a while, Kate came back to the table at dinner and saw Jake and Lily talking quietly and did not know the serious conversation they had involving her just a few moments ago, so dinner went on smoothly and after a while they said goodbye.

Lily wasn't going to tell Kate about anything she had talked to Jake about and she was going to let their relationship progress naturally, and Jake was just happy that Lily had liked him and it wouldn't be against his relationship with Kate.

At dinner, they naturally talked about Kate's show and she was very confident that everything was going to be all right and she and her dancers were prepared to get ready in between games.

The other day finally came the big game day that Jake had organized, the sports media and basketball fans who were interested in that game were looking forward to the game that would start at 7 pm, so fans at home and at the Arena could watch the game and go home quietly afterward.

In the morning Jake was very excited when he woke up early to prepare his breakfast, Eva had gone to the restaurant and would stay there until 5 pm, then she would go with Anna to the Arena to watch Jake's game.

Jake invited several of his friends to watch the game, but the people who were in Miami were very busy with work and didn't even like basketball very much, they just watched Jake's important games to support them.

His friends from the university decided to travel to their house to see their family, after all besides Zack who lived close to home his other friends did not see the family for more than 3 years.

So only Kate, Anna, and his mother would watch this game, but Jake understood the situation of his friends and was not discouraged by it, the important thing was to play a good game and have fun knowing that he could help a charity with that.

After a few hours, Jake went to the hotel in his car, the other players would go in the cars he had rented, Jake had heard reports that the opposing team had also trained a lot these past few days on the basketball court that Jake prepared.

Jake spoke several times with the players of the opposing team to find out if they were well on their trip to Miami, so he knew they were well and prepared for the game, Jake wanted a game played even though he knew his team was stronger.

Jake arrived a little earlier in his team's locker room, he knew that Kate was also already at the Miami Arena with the dancers and the team that would prepare her show at the break, the Arena speakers and other speakers were arranged so that Kate to sing the national anthem before the game.

Jake was the first to arrive at the Arena and can see the uniforms prepared for his team by Adidas and some drinks from Gatorade were placed in an icebox, this made Jake very happy, his bandana and his arm protector were also prepared to the game.

Jake was very proud of the preparation he was able to do for this big game, this was the first big event he organized and everything was going very well, Jake started doing the warm-up exercises for the game.

This game would be in 4 quarters of 12 minutes each as it was in the NBA, the break would have 20 minutes for players to rest and for Kate's team to quickly prepare the court for her to sing two songs.

Since it was Jake who was going to prepare the game and the referees were warned it would be no problem to have another 5-minute break, Jake also asked the company he hired to organize a place for reporters to stay and the sports media as well.

Of course, for TNT reporters Jake ordered that the same access be given as it was on match days, as the teams would not have official coaches only the captains of the teams could ask for time and replace the players, and the captains would be Jake and Mike Bibby.

After some time the players' cars arrived and they were entering the Arena to go to the dressing rooms that were prepared, the fans were already entering the Arena and going to their seats in the stands to watch the game.

When the players of Jake's team arrived they saw that Jake was already wearing the uniform and had the bandanna and the yellow arm protector that was the color of their uniform, Jake's team would play in yellow uniforms and the opponents they would have blue uniforms.

The players greeted each other and put on their uniforms and then started the warm-up exercises, then they would have to make some moves on the court to be more relaxed for the game, so Jake decided to say a few words to the players.

"Once again I would like to thank everyone who came to this game that I organized, this will be important for children who receive help after we send all that money to charity."

"As I said before, this game will also be important for NBA fans to get to know you more and how you play, of course, some do not need this game for this, but that way we will help others with this game too."

"Everyone knows who will be the starting team for this game that was decided in yesterday's training, everyone will have the opportunity to play, I want you to have fun and relax and play as you always do that we will win this game."

After Jake's speech, they and the players went to the court to finish the warm-up there, the opposing team had also arrived on the court and were in the left half of the court.

The players looked at the stands and saw that they were full of fans who came to watch them play, of course, everyone was used to it playing at their universities, but they knew this was considered a game by NBA players, so it was special.

In the crowd, the fans shouted more the name of Tim Duncan and some fans called the names of the other players who had already debuted in the NBA, of the players who had not yet played in the NBA the name most shouted by the fans was Jake.

After all Jake was very famous in Miami for appearing several times in the newspaper and for playing in high school in Miami too, besides, Jake was known for his marathons and commercials too.

"Welcome to everyone who came to watch the broadcast of this special basketball game among NBA rookies who haven't made their NBA debut yet, and also some who made a good debut season last year."

"This is a special game in which all the money raised goes to a charity, this game was organized by the number 1 draft pick of this season Jake Smith, and it is also for basketball fans who were longing for basketball games between NBA players."

"That's right, we only have new players today and many of them could become big NBA stars in the future, Tim Duncan, Ron Mercer, Tracy McGrady, Jake Smith, Vince Carter, Mike Bibby, Antawn Jamison, and many other players could be the stars the NBA."

"The players have already warmed up and now everyone will stop respecting because the national anthem will be sung, the singer Kate Annesley who had a song in the first place on Billboard that year will sing the national anthem."

Kate was very applauded by the basketball fans and the players were already waiting for the national anthem, Jake knew that Kate was very talented and the only advice he gave was for Kate to sing the national anthem normally using her talent and not try to be different.

After all, Jake had already seen big names in the music being embarrassed for trying to sing the national anthem in many different ways, Jake thought that the national anthem had to be sung with respect and a lot of talent could be shown singing correctly.

Kate listened to Jake's advice and sang the national anthem normally with only a few differences in that she sang a few longer lines to show her talent, and the audience loved what Kate did and applauded a lot.

"It was a beautiful presentation of our national anthem sung by Kate Annesley, she will still be back in the game to sing two songs, we can wait for that."

"The players are already prepared for the start of this game between the yellow team of Jake Smith and Tim Duncan and the blue team of Mike Bibby and Ron Mercer."

"The yellow team starts playing with Jake Smith, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Tracy McGrady, and Tim Duncan, and the blue team starts playing with Mike Bibby, Larry Hughes, Ron Mercer, Raef LaFrentz, and Robert Traylor."

"They are two very strong teams of young players, but I think the yellow team is more likely to win this game with Tim Duncan, Jake Smith, and Vince Carter on the team, but we will follow the game to know the result."

The game started and Tim Duncan soon won the ball for the yellow team to start the move, Jake received the ball and advanced slowly towards the attack, Mike Bibby was defending against him, but knowing how Jake played Bibby was a little distant to prevent Jake move quickly with the ball.

Jake advanced with the ball and soon passed to Vince Carter on the left, Carter was being defended by Larry Hughes, Carter held the ball and soon passed ahead to Antawn Jamison who was playing as a PF in that game.

Jamison was being defended by Raef LaFrentz and would have difficulty to attack calmly in that game, Jamison passed the ball to Tim Duncan who was on the right, Duncan received the ball and advanced to make the layup and the first 2 points for the yellow team.

Robert Traylor who was defending against Duncan cannot do anything to stop him, Bibby took the ball and went forward to try to make the first points for the blue team, the defense of the yellow team was not so good with the defense of the blue team, but they still had Duncan and Jake to defend.

Bibby knew that and was prepared not to score too much in that game, he went forward and passed the ball to Hughes on the left, Hughes advanced with the ball and quickly passed it to LaFrentz later on.

LaFrentz received the ball and turn to lay up and get the first 2 points for the blue team, Jamison was unable to stop LaFrentz who made the points easily, both teams had players in the attack who could easily make the points.

In the first minutes the two teams were seeing how they were doing and making safe plays, so the two teams were still tied in the game, the fans were excited to see a game played and the players attacked with skill.

"Almost 5 minutes of play and the two teams are tied, it seems that the players are still trying to analyze the opponents and making the plays safer, neither team is taking risks in the attack nor putting pressure on the defense."

"Duncan has already scored 4 points in the game and Jake has yet to attempt a three-point shot, so when players start to take more chances the game will be more exciting."

Jake really wanted to give his teammates the opportunity to score and show their skills, in the attack the most guaranteed plays were with Duncan and Tracy McGrady, Jamison had difficulty winning the plays against LaFrentz and Carter had difficulty winning many plays against Hughes.

And on the side of the blue team, the attacking players who had the easiest were LaFrentz, Hughes, and Ron Mercer, so the two teams were pretty much the same after Carter scored 2 points for the yellow team the blue team was attacking with Bibby.

He advanced with the ball and passed it to Hughes, Hughes did not try to do the feint and passed the ball to Mercer on the right, Mercer tried to do the feint against McGrady, but failed and passed the ball farther back to Bibby, Jake was further behind analyzing the move and Bibby tried the shot from outside to make 3 more points for the blue team.

Jake was surprised by this because he thought Bibby would assist, but he didn't care and went on the attack after receiving Duncan's ball, Jake passed the ball to McGrady on the left who advanced to the three-point line and went on to the ball for Carter.

Carter received the ball and held the ball a little before passing it to Jake who was further behind, Jake received the ball and even far from the three-point line he tried the shot from outside and hit with 3 more points for the yellow team.

Jake wanted to make more assists in that game, but he thought that Bibby had challenged him by making the three-point play and he had to respond, the crowd that had been excited about Bibby's play was also excited by Jake's play.

So the first quarter ended with the yellow team winning by 3 points difference and Jake had made 6 points in that game, Jake decided to let Bibby make the shots from three points so that he could also show his skills in that game.

After all, if the two tried 10 shots from three points Jake would hit 7 and Bibby would hit 5 at the most, so it would not hinder the yellow team from getting the win after all this was a friendly game and Jake didn't need to show all his skills to the team yellow achieve victory.

"The yellow team ended up winning this first quarter, it is being a balanced game in which the two teams are very offensive and the defenses are unable to stop the opponent's attack."

"That's right, Jake and Bibby started trying the shots from outside as well and the game started to get more excited, the fans are enjoying this game and we are seeing the skill of the new players."

In that first quarter, Jake had played the 12 minutes, made 6 points, and 2 assists, as was agreed in the second quarter the players who were in the reserve would enter and only one player from each team would remain on the court.

So the yellow team would play Bryce Drew, Tracy McGrady now playing as SG, Paul Pierce, Tim Thomas, and Michael Doleac, the blue team would play Jason Williams, Michael Dickerson, Matt Harpring, Pat Garrity, and Raef LaFrentz playing as Center.

In this second quarter, the teams were more balanced and the yellow team had a small advantage in attack and the blue team was stronger in defense, unlike the first quarter also in the second quarter the players were playing more seriously wanting to play the best they could.

In an attack by the yellow team, Bryce Drew was advancing with the ball, and reaching the three-point line he passed to Tracy McGrady on the left, McGrady managed to get rid of Michael Dickerson's defense and tried a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the yellow team.

The blue team also attacked and after a good attacking move Jason Williams passed the ball to Michael Dickerson who tried the shot from outside and scored 3 more points to the blue team, that game was much more played in the second quarter.

The yellow team attacked again and after a good attack play Doleac passed the ball farther back to Paul Pierce, Pierce stepped back and tried the shot from outside and scored 3 more points for the yellow team.

With this game played the blue team got the advantage with LaFrentz's plays and the whole team attacked well, Michael McGrady tried to make many attacks alone and the defense of the blue team pressed the defense against him and thus he lost many attacks.

Pierce still made some good plays and made 6 points in that second quarter, Jake had promised that he would leave the team as it was for everyone to have the opportunity to play, but in the third and fourth quarter, they could regain the advantage and win the game.

"The two teams changed almost all the players and we could see all the players of the two teams playing in those first two quarters, the blue team goes to the break with the advantage, but when the initial yellow team comes back the result of the game will be uncertain."

"It's true, Tracy McGrady who was left to play for the yellow team in the second quarter wanted to receive the ball and score points in several plays and so the defense of the blue team defended well against him and managed good plays with Raef LaFrentz."

"Now that we are on break we are going to follow Kate Annesley's show that will sing two songs, one of them is the song that was in Billboard's first place for two weeks this year and the other song was in the Billboard's top 100 this year too."

The team recommended by Kate was very good and in a few minutes prepared a stage and everything for Kate's show at the game break, some people who came to this game just wanted to watch Kate's show.

Jake also didn't go to the locker room to rest and stayed in a hidden place to watch Kate's show, Eva and Anna who came to watch Jake's game would also have the opportunity to see Jake's girlfriend sing.

The first song that Kate sang talked about love and it was a romantic and lively song as well and it had been very successful that year to be able to enter the first place on Billboard, even those who didn't know her who came to see the game liked this song and Jake was happy about it.

Kate's second song was a song that talked about how women were independent, but it didn't offend men either, with a lively rhythm that song pleased women a lot more and men also liked it.

Kate and her team of dancers had great choreography for the two songs and Kate danced well while singing what pleased the fans too, when the two songs ended at the Miami Arena they applauded her, and Jake went back to the locker room to wait for the go back to the court.

With this show, Kate was very happy and Eva and Anna also liked Kate's songs very much, TNT was also happy because there were millions of people watching this game broadcast by them and most people were watching Kate's show during the game break too.

It was their audience record for this game, so the directors of the network who were already thinking about starting to broadcast basketball and football games realized how good it could be for their network.

Jake was happy with Kate's success and had decided that he would return after the break to win that game, the two teams returned with the same players from the first quarter to the third quarter, Jake let Tracy McGrady remain on his team, but in the last quarter, he would make a change in the team.

Early in the third quarter Jake moved forward with a faster pace, Jake passed the ball to McGrady on the right, and Mercer pressed the defense against him, so McGrady had to pass the ball to Carter from the left, Carter passed the ball to Jake in the back.

Bibby was defending against him and Jake saw that Carter was free from the left after passing the ball to him, so Jake passed the ball back to Carter who tried the shot from outside and scored 3 more points for the yellow team.

Carter seemed to be training more three-point shots from what Jake had seen, on the Tar Heels team he and Shammond Williams were very good at three-point shots, so Vince Carter didn't try much, but Jake remembered that Carter would be an of the best players in the NBA three-point shots.

In another play Bibby advanced the ball to organize the attack of the blue team, Bibby saw that Jake was away from him and tried to pass the ball to Mercer, but Jake was too fast and intercepted the ball making the steal, Jake advanced using his speed and Bibby who was further behind was unable to keep up.

So Jake can easily do the dunk and 2 more points for the yellow team, Jake had returned to the third quarter thinking about winning the game so he would start playing seriously in defense.

The players of both teams realized that Jake was playing seriously and started to work hard too, Bibby advanced with the ball and passed to Mercer on the right, Mercer passed the ball to LaFrentz who soon managed to get away from Jamison and went to make the layup, but Duncan understood the move well and went on to make the block.

Jake picked up the ball after Duncan's block and held the ball and didn't try to move fast when Jake advanced to the three-point line Bibby started to press in defense, so Jake signaled and Duncan came and made the screen and Jake could pass freely on the right.

But Jake didn't try the shot and Robert Traylor who came when Duncan made the screen and Bibby tried to pressure Jake, he was smarter and made a high pass to Duncan who took the ball high and made the dunk to complete the alley-oop.

Jake's yellow team managed to tie the game and started to open the lead before the blue team managed to recover in the game, the blue team managed to press and attack too, but the yellow team already had the advantage.

"What a great game we've been having so far, Jake and the yellow team's starting players came back with a desire to win in that third quarter."

"The blue team was unable to defend the great moves of Jake, Duncan, and Carter, and Jake started making more steals, and Duncan also started making more blocks and so the yellow team has a big advantage on the scoreboard."

"We still have the last quarter and the blue team still has a chance to win, but if Jake and the other players on the yellow team continue to play well so the yellow team is closer to victory."

In the last quarter of the game, Jake decided to put Paul Pierce on the yellow team in place of Tracy McGrady, McGrady cannot be upset because only he had played 36 minutes in the first three quarters of the game.

The blue team did not replace anyone and still left Raef LaFrentz to play the entire game, LaFrentz had already been replaced for a few minutes in that game to rest and could play most of the 12 minutes in the last quarter.

In the last quarter the yellow team continued to press in attack and defense, Jake talked to Carter and Pierce and they decided to make more three-point moves and so the blue team's defense had to leave the inside area to defend.

Even though they went out to defend Traylor, he was always defending against Duncan, but so Antawn Jamison had a lot of freedom to attack, Jamison had made few points in that game because Raef LaFrentz was playing very well in defense.

But with Jake, Carter, and Pierce making several three-point shots, the blue team could no longer defend against Jamison and leave the other players free, with this change the blue team's defense failed to adjust and the yellow team won the game.

The yellow team won having 123 points against 102 points of the blue team, in that game, Jake had 27 points, 13 assists, 2 rebounds, and 6 steals, Jake only played for 36 minutes and in the first quarter he had only 6 points, but he was satisfied with his performance in that game.

"And so the game ends with the victory of the yellow team, Jake Smith played very well in that game showing all his skills, Vince Carter also played very well and Antawn Jamison had his highlight in the last quarter."

"Paul Pierce entered the team very well and performed well and Tracy McGrady managed to score 24 points, and the highlight of the yellow team in attack and defense was Tim Duncan."

"In the blue team all the players also performed well, but the yellow team was better and so the fans were able to meet the new players and see a little bit of how they can do in the next NBA season."

The game ended and all the players enjoyed this game very much, even the players of the blue team who lost, the fans who paid for tickets were also happy with the high-level game they were able to see.

TNT was also happy with the game and with the audience record, Kate's show also made the station's directors happy, Kate was very happy because everyone liked her presentation, and Jake and Anna's mother was also happy that Jake's team won the game.

In a game where the money would be raised for charity, it was normal for everyone to enjoy the game and be happy with what happened, the players even did interviews with TNT reporters talking about their expectations for the next NBA season.

Jake did not give interviews and after saying goodbye to the players left for the house after meeting Eva and Anna inside the Arena, Jake wanted to meet Kate, but he knew the paparazzi were waiting for this to start the rumors.

The players would still stay another day in Miami and Jake had agreed to have lunch with all 17 players he invited, everyone was happy with the result of that game, and the next day Jake would announce in a newspaper all the amounts that were collected for that game.

It would be reported the costs of the game, and the travel and lodging of the players and the money received by the sponsors and TNT, the money from the ticket sales and the additional 1 million dollars that Jake would donate, in total 3 million and 325 thousand were collected dollars that would be donated to the institution that cared for children with cancer that Jake had visited.

The other day Jake woke up happy with the result of the game he organized, many fans of the sport and the sports media were surprised with the income that this game raised for charity and also with the additional donation of 1 million dollars from Jake.

This took away any suspicion that Jake was thinking of making this game thinking about making money or having another type of win, Jake had published all the values involved in this game and even made an audit to anyone suspicious of him.

So the other players had even more respect for Jake and many basketball fans became fans of Jake who was being a generous person at that time when the NBA was involved in a lockout that was a fight between the players and the team owners for seeing who could make the most money.

Jake had lunch with the players and everyone became more friends after that, Jake was sad to have to say goodbye to his friends Vince, Antawn and Tim Duncan, because he knew they would meet again as rivals in the NBA.

Jake said goodbye to the players and went to meet Kate, he can't speak to her on the day of the game and I really wanted to congratulate her for the excellent show and her success that was praised after singing the national anthem.

"Hi, Kate, congratulations on the success of your performance yesterday, you sang the national anthem very well and you were also great singing your songs at break time, I was watching in secret."

"Thanks, Jake, I saw you watching when I sang the first song, I was really happy that everyone liked it, thanks for inviting me."

"I am the one who thanks you, you suggested that you could participate and I could never imagine that there would be a great singer like you singing in the game, it helped a lot to increase the audience and made this game more memorable."

"Congratulations on the success of the game too, I watched almost the entire game and I was happy to see your team win, I also saw in the newspaper your donation to the charity, you deserved to be successful for your generosity."

"I had already made a donation to this institution and had promised to donate again, fortunately with this game, the opportunity arose for me to fulfill my promise, I hope this donation helps the children."

Kate was even more impressed by Jake's generosity for making this donation, she knew several basketball players and very few players thought so much about helping charity, even the highest-paid ones didn't think about doing it.

Jake and Kate talked for a while longer and then Jake returned home, a few days after Jake's game, he had another game with much better-known players in the NBA, but because the game would be broadcast by subscription and the players said they wanted to be part of the game. income before the game, this game was not as successful as the newbie game that Jake organized.

The end of the year passed quickly and Kate spent the Christmas parties at Jake's house and they felt more like family, so in January Jake had a simple celebration of his 20th birthday.

Only Kate, Anna and some of Jake's friends were invited, and as the party was in Miami everyone was able to go, Clara, Tiffany, Joseph, Oliver, Matthew, and a few others went, Eva was very happy that Jake could spend the birthday in the home that year.

After his birthday, Kate told Jake that she would have to end her vacation, which was too long, it was almost 4 months of vacation and if it weren't for her participation in Jake's game, her label would have called to complain.

Jake was sad to know that Kate would have to leave, but he understood and knew that soon he would be called to Los Angeles because the lockout was close to ending, besides, Jake knew that dating Kate he would have to get used to staying long periods of time away from it.

Kate had previously thought about making another musical album, but after the show at Jake's game she got a lot of invitations and was going to organize a tour of the world, her musical album had been made in 1998 and it was still recent, so it was better than she does the shows to get more fame and money.

After Kate left Jake decided to settle the deals he was late to do after his birthday, 1998 had ended and Matthew's company and Clara's company had finished the balance sheet and could pay shareholders for the profits they had.

But before Jake thought about going to Matthew's house to talk to him, Emily showed up at his home in Miami very excited to give reports on the earnings of Cisco's stock in 1998.

Jake knew why Emily was so excited because he remembered how the stock price had increased in 1998, in 1999 it would increase even more, and in 2000 when he sold the shares they would become billionaires.

"Hi, Emily, calm down a little and sit down first."

Emily was embarrassed to be more excited than Jake about this and sat on the sofa in Jake's living room, he poured Emily a glass of water that managed to compose herself to speak with Jake more calmly.

"I'm sorry, Jake, I was really excited, I was worried that the stock price might drop in the last year and that's why I was surprised."

"Okay, well, I understand your turmoil, I was also surprised at how much these stocks appreciated so much, I expected the stock price to increase, but not that much."

"That's why I told you to trust me, Emily, I know that many analysts are saying that it is dangerous and risky to invest in the current market situation and that we have billions of dollars invested, but for me, this is a calculated risk and the greater the risk the greater the gain."

"I trust you, but it is my job to check all the possibilities, now I will tell you first how your actions have appreciated."

"You have that year after investing in the last few years just over 659 million dollars, if next year the shares will appreciate like that again you can have more than 1 billion dollars."

Even though Jake already knew everything, he was still excited to know how much he had in shares, if the value of his shares in Matthew and Amazon's company were counted, Jake would have already invested 1 billion dollars.

That was why he decided to buy him a house and a car last year because he already had enough money to live on for a lifetime if he wanted to, plus he would make a lot more money in the next few years in the NBA.

Emily was a little disappointed to see how Jake was not as excited as she expected, Emily knew that Jake always knew he would earn a lot of money by investing in Cisco, but even she was excited knowing that she would earn 1 percent of that money that was currently 6 million dollars.

Emily didn't talk about the shares with her father anymore after he decided to sell his shares if her father continued to invest his shares they would be worth more than 3 times when he sold, but surely her father would know that in the future and would repent for a lifetime for giving up that opportunity.

"Matthew's shares also appreciated a lot and are now worth $ 2.5 billion, as our company has 10 percent of his shares as a commission we would receive $ 250 million if we sold those shares."

Jake was happy that Matthew's shares appreciated so much, Jake wanted Matthew to earn more from his shares than his company, but luckily Matthew's company was selling so much that Matthew earned more than $ 2.5 billion per year in profit sharing.

"Thanks for the report, Emily, you're doing a great job taking care of the company's investments, as soon as I receive my profit share in Matthew's company I'll invest more money in Cisco's shares, I think in the next few years we'll win much more money."

"If I didn't know you, I would think you are very greedy, but I saw how you donated $ 1 million to a charity."

"I think I should invest my money well and earn as much as I can from it, after getting a lot of money I can donate several million to charities without a second thought."

"The only thing I will not do is to exploit others to make more money, but investing like everyone else is not a problem for me."

After talking a little more Jake went to Matthew's house, he was excited to know how much the company had made that year, normally they would have sold just over 1 million cameras because in the last year they sold more than 9 million cameras.

But since this year they would start selling more in Asia, which was the world's largest market for digital cameras, Jake had more hope that they could sell 2 million or more digital cameras.

Arriving at Matthew's house, Jake can see Oliver and Joseph in his office, after Matthew's company started making a lot of money Oliver spent almost all day at Matthew's house helping him solve the company's problems.

Joseph's classes had not yet started so he was with his father and grandfather, they both saw Jake coming and had been waiting for him since Jake's birthday was over.

"Hi Jake, we were waiting for you, I'm going to call my dad here and we can talk more about the company."

"No need Oliver, we can go to where Matthew is."

"Today my father is off duty and is not resolving company matters, so talking here in the room is more comfortable."

After saying this Oliver went to where Matthew was and left only Jake and Joseph in the room, the two had not talked much in the last few months and after spending so many months studying at different universities they were not as close as before.

"Congratulations on the success of the game you organized, Jake, I couldn't go in person, but I watched the game at the university."

"Thank you, I was very happy that everything went well in this game, and how is your course at the university?"

"Okay, I'm not one of the best students in my classes, but I get above average grades, I think the important thing is that I'm learning a lot of new things when I come home now and see my father and my grandfather talking about the company I understand everything they say."

"Now I realize how amazing it was that in middle school you can talk to my grandfather about business and even give advice on his business and investments, so you don't have to finish university to be a good manager."

Jake can see that Joseph had changed so much in the last few months that they didn't speak to each other, that was normal because Jake met Joseph when they were still children and Joseph went through adolescence and was now understanding what life really was like.

"I'm happy to know that you can talk to your grandfather about the company now, after all, who are you going to be the president of the company after your grandfather retires, and how is Liza doing?"

"She's fine, Liza completely changed her personality, you wouldn't believe it if you talked to her now, luckily she didn't change what I liked most about her, let's do 5 years of dating this year."

"I am happy to know that you are well together, can you see her often?"

"Yes, I bought a car, and several times when we don't have classes I take my car and go to her university so that we can be together."

"After the last semesters of the university, she doesn't care that I come home as my grandfather always commands, in fact, she even advises me to come home and so she goes to her house."

"Here in Miami, I can see her if we want to meet."

Jake was happy that the relationship between Joseph and Liza seemed to be very well, Jake knew that Joseph liked Liza very much and if her personality was really better they could even be friends again.

Now Jake and Joseph were more mature and had other friends so it was easier for them to talk quietly and they could be mutual friends again, the important thing was that after several things had happened they were still friends.

Jake and Joseph continued to talk about various subjects because they had so much to say after many months of not talking when Matthew and Oliver arrived they were happy to see the two talking.

"Jake, I was waiting for you, I knew you would be coming soon to hear the company's sales report."

"If I knew you were resting today, I wouldn't have come, I didn't want to disturb you."

"Hahaha, you never bother, I already said that you are part of my family, now let's talk about the company first."

"As you know, I received an order from several large stores in Asia for our company to sell more digital cameras, we were concerned with the dam of the large camera companies in Japan, but with the order of the large stores we produced more cameras and took them to Asia."

"Our sales in America and the rest of the world were not as good as we expected because of the large number of cameras we sold in the last year, but in a few months sales in Asia surprised us and we made a great profit this year too."

"We sold approximately 4 million digital cameras this year, as it was not as much as last year I will reinvest 50 percent of the profit, so we will receive 2 billion and 640 million dollars in profit."

Jake was impressed again, he hoped they would sell just over 1 million cameras, but they sold 4 times as many cameras, he could never hope that the Asian market was as strong as half the rest of the world.

And as Matthew had said they only sold for a few months and Matthew did not produce as many cameras for fear of not selling all cameras in Asia, so until the next camera launch, they could still sell many more cameras in Asia.

So Jake did a quick calculation and realized that he would receive $ 66 million more in his profit share, it was much less than in the last year, but it was because in the last year Matthew had paid 75 percent of the share to shareholders, and in that year was only 50 percent.

After all, it was important to reinvest the money in the company because they were close to creating the camera and the whole system that could be used on cell phones, at Jake's request, Matthew ordered the developers to make several models in different qualities.

"And how are you planning to start selling the new camera?"

"It's like I told you it would be, the camera was already ready at the end of last year and we would start selling only in September of that year even though we had almost no profit that year, and we will continue with that period."

"The camera will cost the same as the current camera and will have an improvement in the zoom system and in the resolution of the photo, we are using the technology that you developed from the touchscreen that makes the camera much easier to use."

Jake allowed Matthew to use the new touchscreen technology he was close to getting the patent on, which was a strategy for them to get patent approval more quickly by showing that it really worked.

Jake thought that this would help Steve Jobs think about creating the iPhone that was important to the whole world of technology, nobody could develop the touchscreen so quickly in time to produce it before Jake's patent was approved.

"And how is the development of cameras for cell phones?"

"It's going well, we have already managed to create a digital camera that could be used on a cell phone, but it will cost a lot to create just one and the resolution of the photos will be very low."

"But just like you said, after we managed to create this first prototype, we started experimenting with what other cheaper components we could use, by the end of this year we will have the first product that can be sold and at an acceptable cost."

Jake was very happy with this because they had been trying to develop this technology for many years and create the components that could be used, probably the way they found it was different than in Jake's time.

Of course, the camera for the cell phone would be much worse than the digital camera from Matthew's company, and that was a request from Jake because as soon as sales of the digital cameras would stop, they had to find a cell phone company and get a profitable deal. and that would last for many years.

Their biggest challenge was to create good sensors for these cell phone cameras, and that was important because in the future it would be the Sony company that would be the largest manufacturer of camera sensors for several smartphone companies.

Jack was thinking about making Matthew's company so much better than the others that whoever had a contract with his company would have the leadership in smartphones based on camera quality for many years.

"Matthew, I have to tell you the report of your shares invested in the company Cisco, you now have just over 2.5 billion dollars, and I think these shares will still appreciate a lot in the coming years."

Matthew, Oliver, and Joseph were very surprised to hear that, Matthew was so busy with his company's business and the development of new products that he had even forgotten to keep up with his stock appreciation.

Of course, Matthew didn't need to be so attentive because he had full confidence in Jake and his company, after all, it was because of Jake's encouragement that he had invested, but he heard the comments of analysts saying that they expected the stock value soon. fall too much.

He could never expect his stock to appreciate more than 120 percent, that was certainly a good surprise and for the first time, his stock was worth more than the annual profit Matthew received from his company.