Chapter 382 Continuing the Winning Streak 6

Knowing this David Falk understood what Jake was saying, he didn't need to make sponsorship money because he could get rich otherwise, so he had better focus on the best contracts than getting any contracts for him.

"I get that Jake, so you just want the most lucrative contracts, it helps me a lot because I can deny many smaller companies."

"Yes, tell companies I only accept a contract of up to 4 years, and it has to be worth over $ 1 million a year, if they think it's not worth it, say I win with two companies endorsements $ 3 million, gives more than $ 1 million a year and I signed this contract in 1996."

David Falk was going to say that Jake was asking a lot for an athlete who was debuting in the NBA, but after hearing that Jake currently earns more than $ 3 million a year he understood why Jake didn't want bad contracts.

"I understand, I'm going to say that to companies, and to the shoe company, which one do you prefer to sign with?"

"Just like I said before with Nike, but I want a $ 52 million contract for 5 years, if they think it's too much, say you're going to talk to Adidas, name Kobe Bryant that received almost $ 8 million a year from his contract."

"Nike hated losing the endorsement with Kobe Bryant a few years ago, and I managed to win an NCAA title and won some individual awards, so you might get a deal with them."

David Falk naturally knew these negotiating tactics and how he had many years of contact with Nike and everyone knew of his good talent vision, so maybe Nike would accept this deal that David had no doubt would be profitable for Nike.

But David was really surprised at how Jake had already thought of these negotiating techniques, so he could understand why Jake was able to earn over $ 100 million in a few years because he was talented at negotiating.

"I want to ask you to try to do something for me, David."

"You can tell what it is."

"I want you to try to make a deal with one of the NBA teams so they can trade some players for a draft pick, so I can go to that team in my debut season."

"This is very hard to get Jake, you're very good and you're sure to be a star in a few years, but it's a big risk for a team to bet on a rookie, especially when we don't even know if that team will choose you."

"I know, but I'm asking you to just try, I want to play on the Lakers team and they already have a history of doing something like that."

"It will be very difficult, they risked a lot to do that with Kobe Bryant, and in this team, you are not going to be the main player, you better stay as the main player of a weaker team for a few years and then go to a winning team when I have more experience."

"I'm asking you to just try, I know Lakers general manager Jerry West dreams of having an offensive trio to get the Lakers to win an NBA title, they already have Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal with me on the team. they will achieve that."

"Tell him that with me on the team I guarantee they will win 3 NBA titles over the next 4 years, and negotiate a contract for me that allows me to lose some running marathon games so my salary may be lower."

"It will be a good marketing move for the Lakers and they will save on salaries, I know they want to hire Glen Rice for a salary that will be over 5 million dollars a year, I can do better than him for 5 million dollars in 3 years."

David thought it would be very difficult to negotiate with the Lakers for such a contract, and even though David did not know that the Lakers intended to hire Glen Rice, he also thought it was very dangerous for Jake to guarantee that he could win 3 NBA title in 4 years.

Few players have been able to do that in all of history and the Chicago Bulls team have been able to do that because they had Michael Jordan and many other good players, Jake could be a star and a very good player, but he could not compare with Michael Jordan.

But David felt it was just worth trying to talk to Jerry West about it, Jerry West had already done it with Kobe Bryant and it worked and he really wanted a team with 3 talented attacking players.

It was much better to bet on Jake who was good for team marketing and was very talented and spend a few million dollars than hiring an older player who might not stay long on the team if it worked the merit would be all his and the team The Lakers really needed a talented PG.

Since Magic Johnson retired, the team has not had such a talented player in position, and Jake had a similar playing style to Magic Johnson and could make the Lakers team win games again.

With that in mind, David thought it might be quite possible that Jerry West would decide to risk hiring Jake for the team, so he would have perhaps the best NBA team paying the lowest wages.

After that David left to try to get Jake's endorsement deals, and he would also take the opportunity to try to make a deal with Jerry West, if Jake really joined the Lakers and managed to win an NBA title in the years he stays there he will become one of the most important players in the NBA even being a novice.

If he could win an NBA title it would be worth having a low salary and spending a few years not being his team's main player, after that contract was over Jake could go to another team where he would be the main player and could win many NBA title.

After talking to David about what he wanted to do when he joined the NBA, Jake could refocus on his training with the basketball team as well as the races for the next upcoming marathon.

After the last game that was not very good in the players' view, they put a lot of effort into training before the next game, the players were under a lot of pressure because of the great winning streak.

Even though Coach Guthridge was under great pressure because of this winning streak, everyone had already forgotten that he wasn't even the team's official coach and was just replacing Coach Smith until the Tar Heels team hired another.

Coach Guthridge no longer had to worry about whether Tar Heels would have a good season after switching coach, but how long they would be able to keep up this sequence of many games without losing.

For that, Coach Guthridge had Jake and Jamison who were the best players of the Tar Heels team, especially he would need Jake who was certainly the main responsible for the team to achieve this.

Jake had already warned that he would have to run a marathon soon and so would lose a team game, Coach Guthridge had agreed to that and knew that Jake running the marathons was what helped him get so much resistance to play the 40 minutes in all the games.

But with this team pressure to maintain the winning streak if the Tar Heels team continues to win until Jake has to lose this game to run the marathon will be the most difficult game of the Tar Heels team.

Everyone trusts Jake and a game without him on the team would be a completely different game, and if the Tar Heels team lost that game the whole team would blame Jake for that defeat because he would not have participated in that game.

That's why Coach Guthridge tried to change Jake's mind, but Jake didn't change his mind and was still convinced to run this marathon in Tokyo, the reason being that maybe this was Jake's last chance to participate in this marathon.

Always in February, there would be NBA games, and Jake wasn't sure if he would get a deal with an NBA team that would allow him to miss some marathon games.

Jake found this point of endurance and agility very important to him when it was so difficult to get opportunities to improve his stats, so even if the Tar Heels fans started to loathe him, Jake would still run in this marathon.

If Tar Heels won the NCAA title, the fans would forget that they had lost that record because of Jake, and that would even leave players with much less pressure to continue winning all games.

So soon the day of the next game of the Tar Heels team came, it would be a home game at the Dean Smith Center and so players were more relaxed with today's game after training for several days players were eager to perform well in this game.

The opponent of this game was the Florida State team that the Tar Heels team had already defeated this season, which was an even bigger reason for the players to be able to be more relaxed for this game even with all the pressure for the team He Tar to win this game.

"Welcome to everyone who is following this match between ACC conference teams, this is the second match between these teams and it is also an important match because of the great unbeaten sequence of games of team Tar Heels."

"Because of this even being a home game at the Dean Smith Center, the pressure of the need for victory can affect the Tar Heels players."