Chapter 436 - End of Time at the University 8 (1/2)
”I'm not saying that we have to abandon a good salary or get good statistics if you could have a good salary, but not the highest possible salary, play in a good team, but without you being the main star of that team.”
”Would you be on the starting team and also have the recognition of the fans, almost like it happened with the Tar Heels team, but with a good salary too, would you accept playing on such a team to win one or more NBA titles?”
Jake thought that maybe in the future if he became an NBA star and one of the best NBA players he could have enough influence to organize a team just as LeBron James can do to win his first NBA title.
But for him to think about doing something like that he had to know if Antawn and Vince would accept playing on the same team as him in this situation, if they said that earning higher salaries or being the best players on the team was more important Jake would have to give up making one team like that.
”For sure, if I were to win my first NBA title I would accept to receive a lower salary and not be the main player on the team since I had many minutes of play in the games of the season.”
”I would also accept it, my dream in the NBA first is to win a championship and then to become an MVP, but being an MVP is easier playing on one of the best teams in the NBA, my dream at the end of my career is to enter the hall fame, and winning an NBA title is important to achieve that.”
Jake was overjoyed to hear Vince and Antawn accepting his idea, the two were just talking without thinking because something like that would be hard to imagine in the future of the NBA, but Jake would remember said and could use this conversation to call them to play on his team in the NBA if it were possible in the future.
If Jake really managed to win 3 NBA titles with the Lakers' team as he thought, he certainly wouldn't be as criticized as LeBron James was for making a team that could win the NBA title.
The biggest challenge Jake would have that LeBron James didn't have would be that for the next 12 years it would be difficult to find a team that could pay the salaries of players like him, Jamison, Carter and other players that would be needed to win the NBA title, even if Jake accepted to receive a salary much lower than he deserved.
”So who knows in the future in the three of us we could play together in an NBA team and win at least one NBA title with our team, surely with all three of us we could have a strong team to win the NBA title.”
Carter and Jamison just laughed as if they didn't believe it would be possible, the NBA currently had 29 teams and they knew it was the teams that chose the players and also had the restriction on the players' salaries.
So they just thought about playing on the best teams and if they could become NBA stars they would try to play on a better team that could win the NBA title, but they didn't think they could play together again unless it was all-star game.
They kept talking for a while and Jake said he would go to Australia after school ended and so they would only see each other again on the night of the NBA draft, Jake also said he thought the three could be among the first 5 draft choices and they laughed again.
After Jake was able to chat with all of his friends and his mother as well, Jake finally set up an interview with ESPN who asked to speak to him about the NCAA tournament win and the individual prizes he had won.
Jake accepted the ESPN interview because he liked the channel more and he also liked sports Ill.u.s.trated, but as he received no contact from the magazine he decided to accept the ESPN invitation.
A reporter would speak to Jake at a hotel he chose because Jake thought it would not be appropriate to do this interview at the university and it was not so important for Jake to go to ESPN headquarters to be interviewed.
Jake naturally warned that he would not answer any questions that could adversely affect his career and ESPN did not want to do something like that and damage their relationship with Jake who could be an NBA star in the future.
”Good afternoon, Jake Smith, thanks for the interview, I'm going to ask you some questions and if you don't want to answer any questions, that question will be cut in the edit, you can rest easy and think about it.”
”OK Alright.”
”Jake, this season the Tar Heels team that you were playing had one of the best seasons in history after the Tar Heels team won the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament last season.”
”The Tar Heels team managed to win the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament again this season and without losing any games and thus achieving a record for a sequence of 64 victories, what do you think about that?”