Chapter 67 Going to New Ways 3
It was good for Jake to watch these matches, because maybe an opponent of the Nationals could be in one of those matches, they all had the level of skill to play the national championship, if Jake could he could just pick one player for each position and then take the trophy home in this year's championship.
So he hoped for the Elite school to bring players of such a level to his team so he would be safe in bringing the trophy.
In addition, Jake did not know if all the people were from New York or came just to play a game, because if he was the first he only had to admire the level of basketball in that city if he lived here he would have no problem finding rivals.
Looking at the matches Jake could not find anyone who could challenge him, but that does not mean they would be easy games, but that was normal as well, after all, Jake's level had already surpassed those of the same age, but his players were brilliant too.
Jake's next opponent was a quick boy named Lane, in the match he saw before Lane seemed to be a fast-paced type of player, who depends on the dribble to pass his opponents, but his dribbles did not have many feints but sudden bursts of speed.
This was an easier opponent for Jake who had a great speed of reaction and also agility, yet he admired Lane who had his training alone and the talent to reach that speed and not a system as he had.
So the game started and Jake, who had only seen Lane attacking, was impressed by his firm defensive stance, he gave just a little space and did not give Jake many chances to shoot, it should be because Lane also had confidence in his reaction speed.
So Jake just moved calmly and was choosing which path to take to pass his opponent, so Lane thought that Jake was distracted and tried to steal his ball when he did that gave the opening that Jake wanted.
When Jake slipped out of his hand and ran, Lane also noticed and tried to run back, but he had already lost the advantage and Jake who broke free ran to the basket for the first point.
Lane had now realized that Jake could be as fast as he and so opened up a little more space to react in time, Jake also realized this and started another attack, after a feint he hesitates and then a perfect step back that gave the impression that he would go to the basket and then just made the mid-range shot with the space he opened.
So Lane was now helpless and understood quite a bit what was going on with Jake's opponents, now only a taller player could cause problems for Jake in his age range, but it's also hard to find someone taller than him at age 12, and the taller ones are always slower than him.
After the game continued so until when unintentionally Lane slapped Jake's arm that made him miss the shot, but the referee did not seem to have seen the action, Jake also did not care much and so the possession of the ball went to Lane who tried to pass using his speed, but to no avail.
So he just got a little space and then shot himself to make a point, after Jake got used to playing with much more skillful players in his imagination training his defense was much more stable, so the pressure he created for people of the same age with your strength is now huge.
That's what the system meant he would have to play some games to realize the difference, it's like playing tennis every day with Federer, you can play with him for several years without making a point and just losing, but one day you play with someone weaker you realize how much you've improved.
It is important for an athlete to play games to be able to know how his or her current ability is more clearly, only workouts have given you wrong information about yourself sometimes.
So the pressure on Lane was very big in this game, yet he realized that Jake seemed to be taking very seriously this game what irritated him after scoring the second point Lane began to see a new hope of winning.
So he went to a new attack and fast movements he managed to run to the first basket in the game, confident in his speed he just ran to the basket and when he tried to make the layup realized that Jake was near him.
Even so now he was about to make the point so he did not care, what he did not expect was that Jake who was only slightly taller than him with a blast of strength jumped and gave a block.
So he lost the chance to score the third point and also a bit of morality, Jake had been someone tall in his past life, and despite not playing well he had a long time to time rolls like the block, so his ability still increased even though he did not do it in the games.
The system had already said that his height would also influence the rank of some of his skills as a layup, block, and dunk that has not been learned, after the ranks were to know its ability to make the move in court, the higher he was more chances of doing a dunk.
So he easily scored the points and won that match, now he had just one more game today and then the final on the last day of the tournament.
After a while his opponent in the semifinal appeared, he was named Doug and had had a victory 10-5 in the last match, as all 8 were about the same skill had been a more comfortable score in addition to Jake.
Doug also looked at Jake with a worried look, he had felt it did well to win by 5 points. Jake won by 8 points, and he heard from some in the audience that Jake did not seem to have worked hard.
Clara was satisfied with the game in the stands with Tiffany and Eva, many men were looking in their direction because it was difficult to see several beautiful women together in games like this, as Eva was healthier now the three looked like sisters.
Clara and Tiffany were hoping for Jake and so they called him here, but they knew that street basketball games were different from basketball that was played as a team, so they were not sure of their victory.
But after they started watching the games and saw Eva who should be more nervously calmly watching the game was curious, so Eva told that when Jake had just turned 11 he had participated in a street basketball tournament and his opponents had 15 years and he managed to win.
After hearing that they both relaxed and were surprised, they had not heard about it before, so this tournament should not be a challenge for him.
And so Jake's game started this time he lost the draw and who started with the ball was Doug, Doug was also very happy, he was an SG in the games of his school, and had played in last year's nationals, but did not I remembered seeing Jake.
So he inferred that he had not participated, because otherwise, he would have found him in the regional or state before that, he had trained several different ways to make a point, so that year he would be the team owner.
Jake tightened the scoring and gave no space, Doug was prepared for this and defended the possession of ball turning with his back to the basket, so he wanted to have a power struggle before trying to turn to make the point.
Jake who saw this just smiled and started to increase the pressure and use his strength to stop Doug from acting, after a time when Doug saw that he was losing the fight turned around and tried to hurl but Jake reacted quickly and jumped to block, Doug noticed, too, and he just shot himself, and did not even hit the basket rim.
Jake ran and got the ball to start his attack, Doug followed behind and kept a small distance, Jake just smiled and ran, after stopping and giving a small feint he made a bait behind his back catching Doug off guard and easily passed him make the first point.
Now Doug was sure that Jake played more street basketball, this dribble is not common for players of that age unless they liked to do the show, but on the streets, the more beautiful and different the cooler the play.
In fact, Jake really liked shooting more than 3, but after deciding to be a PG he started to train more variations of passes and different dribbles, he tried all the ones he had seen in NBA games and video games.
It was hard to learn on his own, but with his high skill rank in dribble and ball control it was easier to get the hang of it, the harder it was to decide which situation required that kind of dribble, but the only way to figure it out was by playing.
And that was more important now that Jake was trying to create a move of his own, he knew it would not be easy, it would have to be something that would help him in the games too, a move that was not useful was meaningless, but Jake had already thought of some, just that the difference in thinking and performing was great.