Chapter 36 A Star Is Born 2
Chapter 36 A Star Is Born 2
Jake was much calmer in this competition than in the last, actually after hearing from the system that the strong force was needed to make good pitches Jake already knew that it would be very difficult to find someone of his level in the 3-shot category.
He was training a lot right now just because in a game it is very difficult to throw without jumping and not taking a block, so now he is just going over what he already knew, after all in his past life he had more than ten years of shooting training, in this court today nobody trained more than him although he is the youngest.
So his confidence came from his training and not without foundation, not to mention that in the competition he could pitch without skipping what was his specialty, he just did not tell his mother that he was confident of winning in that category just because he did not know the rules of the competition and he did not want to underestimate his opponents.
More now that the first round was over he knew he would win, especially as he realized that the distance of the 3-point line from this court was much smaller than his home using the official NBA measures in 2018.
So everything was easier for him to win, the first competitors made their pitches and as everyone expected they could not make all the pitches in time, and because they were trying to hurl faster, many mistakes were made.
When it came to Jake that was the last one who had hit the most had made 14 points, that's because he was lucky to hit 4 of the Moneyball, the second only had 11 points, and no one was able to throw all the balls in a minute.
Now Jake was crying still, he also was not going to throw all the balls, not because it did not give more time because he would not need.
When time began to roll Jake also went to make his pitches, he again started throwing on the left side of the court, so calmly and quickly he hit 3 of the 5 pitches with Moneyball too, so he made 4 points.
Then he hit two of the five pitches and went to 7 points, in the middle that he was better he hit 4 of the five pitches including the Moneyball thus reaching 12 points after he hit 3 of the five on the right diagonal including Moneyball and went to 16 points, and since he had already won the competition, he purposely missed the last 5 balls and 5 seconds left.
So the audience was silent for a moment before starting to clap frantically, several people whistled and some shouted his name until his opponents began to applaud him.
Because it now became obvious that he actually made some mistakes, although he did not know the reason or how brilliant his performance would be if he gave the maximum many thought it was not to humiliate his competitors and liked his humility.
Many people thought he was not seeing a young man plus an NBA professional because of both the correctness and him had in this competition, after all they had no way of knowing that the measures of this court are completely different from the official, even those who knew also found this, after all, Jake was still seven years old at least to be able to play for the NBA so they saw him as a new star.
Only her mother could not applaud much because she was crying with happiness if before she could tell that Jake was lucky now everyone was sure of her skill, and Eva was happy and wondering if her husband was a blessing and seeing what his son was doing the sky.
Eva did not care much like Jake, who had now earned an extra $ 500 and put together everything that gave $ 1,000, to say that Jake had already returned the investment he had asked Eva to make.
His mother had spent less than $ 500 on the basement remodel and some clothes for Jake and now he could make a double comeback, and it had only been a year since he started. Eve had not thought of that and did not even care anymore.
Jake wanted to show his mother that basketball could bring a better life for his family and also pay for Jake's university, what he wanted to show his mother was that she did not have to work so hard and hurt her health than Jake did in the future could help her.
After Jake received the trophy and his prize money, the organization took even more pictures of him and the crowd applauded him as well, so they cleared the court that was going to start the 1-on-1 competition.
For this competition there were a lot of people participating despite the entry fee and they were all over 13 years old, the youngest ones who just wanted to participate in something have already participated in the Free Throw competition, now only the older ones were trying, most of them still I was 3 on 3 and not this one.
Only those who came alone were in this competition, yet the total was 400 people.
The rules of this competition were that the game would last until someone made 10 points or 5 minutes later. The rules were different, but the organizers had to change to finish today.
Then the people would begin to make the raffles to determine who would compete against whom, each one would make 8 games until deciding the winner, it was now 5 o'clock in the afternoon this tournament was going to take until 11 at night probably, so the raffles were being made until Jake climbed the court again, everyone applauded him again, now Jake was the favorite to win, no one cared more for the difference in height or age, in fact many thought the others were at a disadvantage now.
Of course, Jake's opponents did not think so, they thought that with their height difference as long as they did not let Jake hurl they would win, they also thought he might have other cards up his sleeve but could not give up for fear of someone younger before to compete.
Jake really had a card up his sleeve, it was his speed that would surely be superior to anyone from here so he could use his top speed together with his dribble and good ball control to run into the basket and do a layup, and if the opponent of space not to let him go to the basket he would just throw.
Of course, he was not too confident about winning this competition, he has little experience in games with real people and also Jake had seen some people over 1.70 m that would compete with him.
So Jake could only hope these players were eliminated before playing with them, he preferred to play a very skillful opponent with a height similar to him than someone much taller than him, after all the only problem he had now was his height.
The games would be played on both sides of the court in order to reduce the time, but it would not really take 5 minutes each game before reaching the last 100, so the first round would have 200 games, plus many games would end in 2 or 3 minutes when someone made 10 points quickly.
The games passed faster to the joy of the organizers and soon came the turn of Jake his opponent was 1.55 m, then only slightly higher than him, and did not seem to be very skillful, his opponent began with possession of ball and soon tried to leave for the basket using his body, it seemed that the opponent had no confidence in his pitches.
Soon as it seemed that he was going to try a layup Jake prepared to defend and stepped forward, but it was a feint of his opponent who took a step back and made a pitch making his first point, then when his opponent started with ball possession again Jake soon tightened the mark, after seeing that he could not move forward, then tried a pitch and missed.
Jake ran weighed the ball and went to the three-point area to start his attack, then soon turned around to face his opponent, Jake was trying in that competition a typical street basketball dribble style, he hit the ball quickly in low pitch close to his body and sometimes between his legs, so the opponent could not take the ball, so the opponent closed the distance to not let Jake throw, Jake made a feint to the right and ran to the right, when his opponent realized that it was a fake Jake had already passed and when he tried to run to score Jake accelerated and went to the car, soon made a basket with a layup, so his opponent soon realized as well as the public also that Jake was very well in dribble and was also very fast.
When Jake's opponent realized this, he gave a small space to take time to react to his advance, as soon as he did, Jake cut to the right and flipped without jumping, then made his second point, so now his opponent was in a dilemma , if he gave space Jake would fling and if he scored closely he would dribble.
Soon all his competitors had a serious look on his face, Jake was now really the favorite.