Chapter 388 The Last Major Marathon 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.

Meanwhile, David called Jake to ask for his opinion to see if he would agree to sign a sponsorship deal with Adidas, Jake replied that if Nike did not accept what he asked for he would close a deal with Adidas.

Jake wanted to strike a deal with Nike because he knew they were the best-selling shoe company in the world and the players who earned the most from selling shoes had an agreement with Nike.

But just as Jake had told David he had confidence in his ability and didn't have to worry about money, so the only thing he wanted was for companies to pay what he knew he was worth.

So if only Adidas agreed to pay for this 5-year contract he would accept, Adidas also had a lot to gain from it because they would virtually dominate all fans if they had Jake and Kobe Bryant as athletes.

Having received confirmation from Jake, David now had more strength to negotiate with the companies knowing that if Nike did not accept the deal he would close a verbal deal with Adidas, so David would have to wait a while before deciding.

But the agreements with the other companies he could easily close, even if a verbal agreement did not guarantee anything and the companies could break a verbal contract if they wanted to, but with David Falk who had a lot of influence and was an agent for many important players, no one would want to break a verbal agreement with him.

He signed a verbal contract with 5 companies, 4 of which were guaranteed that they would close the formal contract with Jake when the time was right and another company that could break the verbal contract in the future.

The companies that were guaranteed were Gatorade, Chevrolet, Pepsi, and Gillette, three of which were impressed by the success of the Tiffany companies and the company that John and Alan currently represented were drinks and razors.

For these companies it was easy to get a contract using examples from the past, David got a contract with Chevrolet also because many of their customers liked basketball and athletics.

And it was a risk that the company wanted to take, these verbal contracts were practically guaranteed because David already had contracts with them through other players and they would not risk breaking that contract, the other company could break it because it was not afraid of David.

So David had already guaranteed that Jake would receive more than he currently receives from his sponsorship companies, and David had secured almost $ 2 million in his fee for getting those contracts over the 4 years.

But that would not be even half of what Jake would receive with the contract with the shoe company that was already guaranteed with Adidas at least, even with the salary that Jake would receive in the first ones it would not be higher than that.

Now David needed to hear Jerry West's final answer and also Nike's answer, there were other companies that were in having a contract with Jake too, but David was not very optimistic with these companies after Jake didn't appear in a game so these companies would end the talks.

David thought that if Jake managed to win the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament then it was possible that until he entered the NBA the companies would decide to sign a contract with Jake, but David did not count on that.

Meanwhile Jake was training hard with the basketball team for the next game that was very important and also training for the next marathon that was very close, Jake was confident of winning the marathon with his training.

He had to win this marathon because maybe it was the last chance he would have to win this marathon in Tokyo, which is why he was risking losing a game to run this marathon.

The Tar Heels team players were very anxious for the next game and were training excitedly, it would be one of the most difficult games of the season against the team that was considered the Tar Heels team's biggest rival.

Jake also wanted to do the best he could and was even doing extra training with Jamison and Carter, and was also doing extra training with Williams for the next game, he had to make sure they won that game, like that in the next game when he didn't play even if the team lost they would still have an incredible record of games without losing.

Fortunately, that game was only 5 days after the last game and so the players could train a lot and still be rested before the next game.