Published at 27th of July 2022 9:04 pm

Chapter 418 1998 ACC Tournament 6

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The companies that sponsored Jake like Tiffany's company and also Clara's company had excellent sales in the last few days, many fans who liked the Tar Heels team, who liked Jake or who simply liked basketball started buying products that they knew had an endorsement contract with Jake.

These companies even renewed some agreements with television companies to show the commercials that Jake had recorded again, this made the companies that had a verbal agreement with David happy to have continued and the other companies that were negotiating wanted a contract again.

Just as Jake had said before, if these companies really wanted a new deal with Jake they would have to pay twice what the deal was a few weeks ago, they had to pay $ 2 million a year for a maximum of 4 years.

Naturally, these companies questioned why the contract hadn't even started and some companies that agreed earlier would only pay half of what they did, but David didn't care.

After the Tar Heels team won the ACC tournament David had a new respect for Jake and thought he could get things done faster than he thought, maybe in another month the Tar Heels team would break that record and win the NCAA tournament again.

When that happened, Jake's NBA contract as a rookie would have to be even better, when these companies saw that David was decided they decided to wait a little longer, if Jake won the NCAA tournament maybe that new contract would really be worth it.

The company that most regretted was the one that broke the verbal contract with David on impulse, they could wait until they were close to the NBA draft to break that verbal contract, they didn't have to be so quick, because of that the situation was more complicated now.

What disappointed David was that Nike had not yet responded to the deal he had asked Jake for, it was the $ 52 million deal for a 5-year contract and another 4 percent of the profit for Jake-related shoes that were sold.

It was really a very demanding contract for a novice player, but it was a bet that they would have to make if they wanted to get a contract with Jake, even though they knew that Adidas was interested and could steal another player as they did with Kobe Bryant it seemed like the Nike had no interest in paying that much.

The good news was that Adidas had sent an official agreement that they had accepted Jake's requests, so David knew that he couldn't go any further and had to close a verbal agreement with Adidas.

David would get 10 percent anyway so he had no reason to care that Nike had lost an excellent contract again, David knew that Jake was resting before the next game, but that was an important decision and Jake had to decide.

"Hi, Jake, so I received a final proposal from Adidas to make a verbal agreement, they accepted your requests, Nike has not yet answered whether it would accept or not."

Jake was also disappointed with Nike just like David, he knew that in the future Nike would be the biggest sports shoe company, but Jake didn't really need the sponsorship money to earn his income.

So he just wanted a contract that paid what he knew it was worth, that contract might seem like a lot of money to a newbie, but Jake had a deal to play in the Lakers and in the next few years he could win 3 NBA title.

If that happened, Nike would have a new player who was NBA champion 3 times, for Adidas, it was even better because they also sponsored Kobe Bryant and so the main Lakers players would not be sponsored by Nike.

"You can accept the deal, David, we showed goodwill and Nike was not interested, we are going to have a good deal with Adidas that has always shown interest and respect."

With Jake having decided David soon sent a message to Adidas that Jake accepted the deal, there was little time left for the end of the season and the Tar Heels team could even win the NCAA tournament and thus it was difficult for that contract to be canceled.

The companies that had made a deal for Jake paying $ 1 million a year for 4 years would be very happy if Jake won an NBA title with the Lakers, and even if those companies agreed to pay $ 2 million they would be happy.

The media continued to talk about the Tar Heels team and about Jake and about the record they could break in the next games, this was to get the attention of basketball fans who did not follow college basketball games.

But with the attention that the media paid and seeing that it was Michael Jordan's team and with Jake's incredible performance this season, basketball fans started to become interested in watching the Tar Heels team's games.

Meanwhile, the Tar Heels team was having training after two days of rest before the next game that would be the next day, Coach Guthridge can relax seeing that the players seemed to be rested after that rest.

He knew how intense and tiring the game against the Duke team had been in the final, especially after a 3-game streak in 3 straight days, so the Tar Heels team did light training to regain the game and the next day he had to hope that the players would perform well.

So soon the game day arrived and the Tar Heels team went to travel to where the next games would play, the next game would be against the Navy Midshipmen team, the Navy Midshipmen team was good and was having a good season.

But the Patriot conference teams were not very good and so Coach Guthridge expected an easier game if he could he wanted to let the starting players rest for the next games.

After all, they were already at the end of the season and the Tar Heels team had a lot of games that season, he said this to Jake who soon understood what Coach Guthridge meant and would play at a slower pace.

The first two games of the Tar Heels team, if they won, would be at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut, the players of the Tar Heels team hoped to win that game and were, therefore, more confident after winning the ACC tournament.

"Welcome to everyone who came to watch this first game of the NCAA tournament, the Tar Heels team is the favorite to win this game after winning the ACC tournament in an excellent game against the Duke team."

"But the pressure to get a good result can get in the way of the Tar Heels team players in that game, the opponent of that game the Navy Midshipmen team also wants the victory to advance further in the NCAA tournament."

"That's right, I believe that the Tar Heels team will win this game, they are favorites to win the NCAA tournament again this season and with Jake and Jamison playing so well I find it hard to imagine this team losing."

"So I think that if the Tar Heels team players perform well in that game, victory is practically guaranteed."

Just as commentators said everyone thought this victory was almost certain for the Tar Heels team, so early on in the game the Tar Heels team started to press forward with Jake trying to attack at a slower pace of play.

The defense of Team Tar Heels was also firm to prevent the Navy Midshipmen team from attacking so that Coach Guthridge could let the players rest for a while.

So whenever the defense of the Navy Midshipmen team didn't defend against him Jake would soon try a three-point shot, so in the middle of the 1st half of the game Jake had already scored 12 points in the game, the opponents thought that the Tar Heels team would start slowly at Jake's slow pace, but soon they had a big lead on the scoreboard.

So for the remainder of the 1st half, the defense players of the Navy Midshipmen team had to defend more against Jake which gave him space to pass the ball to his teammates.

Coach Guthridge was very pleased with Jake's performance because he had more freedom to replace the players in the 1st half, it seemed that Ed Cota and Makhtar N'Diaye were also playing well which made things easier for Coach Guthridge.

At the end of the 1st half of the game, the Tar Heels team was winning with a good advantage in the game even though the coach Guthridge was putting the substitute players to play too, so the players of the Navy Midshipmen team started to get discouraged.

In that 1st half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and had 19 points, 5 assists, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals, with Jamison leaving the game for a few minutes Jake could pick up more rebounds and also scored a lot of points in that 1st half of the game.

"Thus ends the 1st half of the game and the Tar Heels team has dominated this game and has been winning easily with the great performance of Jake and also of the entire Tar Heels team, Jamison scored 10 points and played only 11 minutes in that 1st half of game."

"Clearly the Tar Heels team is easily winning that game and coach Guthridge seemed to be thinking of saving players for the next game since the middle of the 1st half, with Jake's good performance he played the 20 minutes in the 1st half of the game."

"Coach Guthridge seems to have confidence in his players and knows that Jake has the strength to play all 40 minutes of the game, after all, Jake played the 40 minutes in all 3 ACC tournament games that were three days in a row."

"It's true, I find it difficult for the Navy Midshipmen team to still win the game, but we will have to follow the 2nd half to see if the Tar Heels team can win another game."

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