Chapter 388 The Last Major Marathon 2 (1/2)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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