Chapter 33 The First Competition 1
To tell the truth, at the beginning of the training Jake was using as an excuse the fact that he was having to train himself and neglected his defense training, after all, he knew when he saw since training a good defensive player takes much more time than an offensive.
As Jake ended up taking more interest in basketball when he was already disabled he ended up not having many experiences with a team, and only interested in making points, how after 2010 the best teams were very offensive and always celebrated the buried, the dribbles and the baskets of 3, and in defense only the locks were celebrated, Jake thought the attack was much more important.
More after he came back and had a chance to be a great player, he did not want the defense to be his weakness, so he figured he should raise his skills just a little, and it got better, then when the system said he could only see the next skill level when he had all S skills, he got really angry plus decided to join the team to have an S defense, he did not want to wait until he was 13 years old to see his skills being updated.
More only when he started doing this Imagination training that he saw the big difference between having a good defense or not, on television when he saw the games he goes that all were well marked and rarely had a very big mistake in defense, so he could not see the difference between a good defense and a bad defense, the biggest defensive player he saw was Tim Duncan, but he thought he only got 2 NBA MVP for also having a good average points and not so much for being a great defensive player.
When Jake played with friends they were all amateurs and the defense was not that important, so much so that the taller ones like Jake always had the positions of Center (C) and Power Forward (PF).
More like he was playing a training putting all the players besides him with SS defenses and with SS attack, although it was only in the novel Middle School, he realized that it was the fault of the defense, all the opponents tried to attack by his position, and not it was only because he had the smallest height but because he did not have the right positioning and did not know how to score as well.
It was there that he sounded an alarm in Jake's head, glad that he was still young but because of his lack of judgment and because he did not have a coach to guide him, he might have missed a chance to have a career in the future.
After all if at a Middle School level your defense is already a flaw when playing in the NBA would be like the defensive team having one player less.
In addition, the best player Jake has ever seen and if idol Michael Jordan besides being considered a genius in the attack was also a great defender, only if he can become a player so it is also important in defense he could become a great player in the NBA.
While training with his new resolution, the weeks were passing and finally arrived the day of the tournament, when the day of the tournament was coming and mainly this morning Jake finally began to feel the pressure of having his first competition, although he is confident of winning the categories he was going to participate in yet the nervousness did not disappear.
So Jake went down to his breakfast, when he came down he saw his mother finishing preparing the breakfast table, there were several things Waffles, bacon, pancakes, cakes, bread, cheese, ham, eggs, orange juice, and some more things.
It was already beyond a normal breakfast, it was turning into a banquet, and Eva had already arranged to take Jake to the tournament, she was wearing a beautiful purple 60s style dress, her hair was tied like a ponytail with a rubber band.
"Mother I think you exaggerated today, I'll have to play later, I do not think I'll be able to eat enough."
"I did not make you eat everything, and I'm going to eat too, this is to celebrate your first tournament, and to be lucky, who knows you can win with that, now as a little of each, I will not play outside even in the afternoon you eat the rest to celebrate if you win. "
His mother always had an answer to everything Jake was talking about, he was glad she had woken up earlier just to have a breakfast banquet for him to cheer up, but Jake was also a bit sad because he realized she did not have much hope for him to win.
But it was normal for her to think this, after all, unless she has a very talented genius, usually the older ones always win those tournaments, and Eva has never seen Jake play, in fact beyond him no one has ever seen him play after training his skills, after all, the training of imagination was something that happened inside his head.
So it was normal for his mother or his friend to question his ability, but as Jake had the system to be sure of the level he was in, she was angry at his lack of confidence.
"Mother you look very beautiful today, your hair and dress are very beautiful."
"Look at you, already knowing how to praise at this age, do not tell me that my son is going to be a Casanova at school, I do not want to have a daughter-in-law so soon."
"With you that way, anybody would praise you if you were not blind, and your daughter-in-law is still going to be a long time, I have to study and play basketball now, I'm too busy to think about it."
"It does not have to be that serious it was just a joke, but I'm happy to know that my son already has his priorities in mind, for me while you study well you can do whatever you want you're still so young, you do not have to be so mature , let Mother take care of you for a long time and just enjoy playing now as much as you can. "
"No need to worry, I have a lot of fun playing basketball and when I want to play I have my friend Joseph, so more than that I can not enjoy it."
"I like this friend of yours, Joseph, he is a very good boy, some friends like that can become like a brother when you grow up, and a sincere friendship like yours, a lot of people are not lucky enough to spend all their school time, I did not have for example. "
Jake knew what his mother was like.
She had always been very responsible in everything she did, and for her, Jake was the most important responsibility she had ever had since his father died she had to be both mother and father at the same time.
So she wanted him to have everything but she did not want to spoil him, Eva wanted to be stern when Jake did something wrong but also wanted to comfort him when he was sad.
That's why when Jake became disabled in his past life Eve became depressed until she died, after all, as a mother she thought she was responsible for everything that happened to Jake until he left the house.
More in this life would be different, Jake wanted to be the only reason for her pride to his mother not of concern, the only reason for happiness not of sadness.
So since they had a happy talk and a very full breakfast, they went out to go to the tournament, on the way it was full of people, it seemed like everyone was going to the same place as them, Jake had never heard of a competition of young street basketball, so he thought he was not very famous, and it looks like Jake was wrong.
As it was sponsored by a famous local school and local radio, it was normal for the tournament to attract a large crowd as they reached the open court that now had several people inside, Jake realized how much they moved the venue to the tournament, the organization made some temporary bleachers for the public to see the game, and also near the place had several food stalls, a festival instead of a tournament, so when they located the place of registration had a very large queue in the more than 3,000 young people.
The inscriptions had not started yet, it was now nine in the morning and the first competition would start only at noon, so Jake decided to come early to do his registration, but he did not think he had come late, so when there were only a few minutes left for the registration was put up a banner on top of the registration desk that gave everyone at the site read.
When people saw what was written on the track a commotion happened at the tournament site, many people went to the venue of the tournament organizing team to complain, only Jake was calmer and now he finally realized why he did not know that tournament, probably today was the last time it would be held.