Chapter 482 - NBA Season Begins 6 (1/2)
Jake called his mom and Kate to tell him about his first NBA game and they were happy that he won, the other day the media and fans were excited about Jake's performance at the premiere and everyone was saying that he deserved to be the first draft of 1998.
Coach Harris had to do an interview to talk about Jake, he praised Jake's debut game and said he would have to play some games like SF until Rick Fox could play, and he also said he believed Jake had the quality to do that.
That was not the initial intention of Coach Harris, but as Jake had played so well he started to have greater respect for Jake and the team management was happy with that, the players had a light training because the next day they would have another game.
All teams would have to play more than 14 games that February and many games would be on straight days without rest for the players, so Jake had stopped training for the Olympics and was even thinking about eating a stamina bar if necessary.
So the day came for the second game of the Los Angeles Lakers team and Jake's second game in the NBA, the opponent was the strong Utah Jazz team, and in that game, the Los Angeles Lakers team would lose so Jake could try to change the result of that game with his skills.
The Utah Jazz team had great players that Jake admired a lot too, that player was John Stockton who was one of the best Point Guard ever in the NBA, John Stockton ended his career with an average of more than 10 assists per game and he was also sometimes leader in steal and assist in the seasons.
In addition to Stockton the Utah Jazz team still had Karl Malone who was one of the best Power Forward of all time, Karl Malone would enter the NBA Hall of Fame along with Stockton and be the second player with the most points scored in his career in the NBA.
This season even Karl Malone would be the MVP of the season doing one of the best seasons of his career even at the age of 35, so it was not strange that the Los Angeles Lakers team ended up losing to them.
Jake really wanted to play defending against Stockton in this game, but he would have to play as SF in that game again, even so, Jake was happy to play his second game in the NBA, this was the second game of the Los Angeles Lakers team at home playing at Great Western Forum.
It was another opportunity for fans to watch Jake play and so Jake wanted to help the Los Angeles Lakers team win that game, Jake again arrived at the Great Western Forum before the other players and Kobe Bryant arrived right after him and came over to talk to Jake.
”Jake, congratulations on your great debut game, I confess I didn't expect you to play so well playing in the SF position.”
”Thanks, Kobe, it was thanks to your good performance and the team that I had the opportunity to score so many points and get assists.”
”It's good to be humble, but you don't need to be underestimated because of that, you showed that you are a great player, I will pass the ball over to you and I hope this debut game is not the only good game of yours this season.”
Jake was happy to receive recognition from Kobe Bryant who was an idol for him, so he was even more determined that he would play well and help the team to win the game even if it was difficult.
The opposing team had Stockton and Malone, but they both played as PG and PF, and on the Los Angeles Lakers team there was Kobe Bryant who played as SG, Shaquille O'Neal who was the Center and Jake who played as SF and they wouldn't have one quality opponent to defend against them and could make several points.
”Welcome to everyone who came to watch this great game from this reduced NBA season, this season we will see more games this month and maybe the players will not be able to play all the games or the reserves will have more opportunities to play.”
”This is not such a problem for the Los Angeles Lakers team that has young players, Jake himself said he could play every 48 minutes in every game, we saw him doing it in last Friday's game.”
”That's right, Jake Smith made a great debut scoring 26 points and almost triple-doubling his debut game which would be historic, and that's because Pippen was pushing in defense against Jake the entire game.”
”Yes, we can see in the next games Jake playing as SF which is not the position where he plays best, but seeing this debut game I think he can play more games in that position and that would perhaps help the Los Angeles Lakers team more.”
”It's true, but due to his different playing style, we can see that Jake can play in various positions, like PG, as SG, and as SF that he's been playing, of course in this Lakers team I think he could help the team more as PG, after all, he still had more than 30 points and 10 assists per game as a PG at the university.”