Chapter 114 The Tournament in Europe 2
If Jake knew what his mother was thinking he would just laugh, it was impossible that Jake wanted to get away from Eva, even if he started dating people his age or even got a girlfriend he would just organize the way how long he passed with each one.
There was no reason for him to lose the family relationship just by having new friends and meeting new people, as Jake had already said the only reason people moved away from their families when they grew up was out of shame, and Jake was the same in his life last.
He often wanted to have dinner with his mother after he got older and did not do it because he did not have the courage, so in this life that was his second chance he promised not to lose the good things in life out of shame, if that was so he would not have made so close to Anna.
"And then Jake, how do you feel after playing for the first time after so long?"
"All right, Mom, I really missed that, but it's better to know that it looks like even though I stayed so long without a game I could still improve."
"This year I hope you can get back to the school team."
"I do not think this is going to happen, even without the height rule the coach will not want me to go back to the team and play as PG which is my position."
"Then why do not you give up and play in the position the coach wants you to play, I'm sure you'll play well."
"I have confidence that I can also play well as SG, but I do not want to play in that position until I get to college at least, otherwise I feel like I will not be able to play PG for many years."
"And why this?"
"Because I still have a lot to improve as a PG, and in that position, I feel I can play better in the future, but as SG I can play perfectly, so everyone will realize this and will not give me a chance to improve."
"I don't understand."
"It's more like that, if I have a potential of 90 on a scale of 1 to 100 as SG I've already reached 85, that means I can do very little, but as PG my potential is 100, and I'm in the 79 now, I mean if I have the chance I can become much better as a PG than as SG in the future do you understand?"
So Eva can understand, Jake wanted to say that it might be better as PG in the future, but it was better as SG now and he did not want to let the others know about it, otherwise, no one would give him a chance to get better.
And most of all Jake knew that coach Philips did not know any of this, after all, he trusted the system that said that that means that for some reason coach Philips wanted to take Jake out of PG's position, and that did not was thinking the best for Jake and neither of the team.
Jake wanted to take advantage of high school to train and improve as much as he could his PG skills, then if he was in college or the NBA and that was a decision thinking the best for the team he would accept.
So Jake's rest time was over, and he saw his opponent, he seemed to be smaller than Jake was bigger than his last opponent, so Jake planned to do what he had thought before.
He heard someone call the name of his opponent that was Carlos, Jake had the first possession of the ball, so he made a feint, he saw that Carlos appeared not to be very good in defense, after the feint he made a step back and gave the shot from outside to make the first 2 points.
In addition to being very confident in his shots from outside, Jake also planned to let the opponent have a chance to attack also to be able to train his defense a little, so Jake planned to only shoot from the outside.
It was not like Carlos knew this, so he just prepared for any attempt by Jake, Jake made another feint and Carlos fumbled again, so Jake made a step back and shot the outside.
Jake could only laugh at this when he did not mind making mistakes, then Jake got another space and fired another shot from outside and hit again to make 2 more points.
When Jake saw that Carlos was discouraged he just forced a shot out to miss, so Carlos finally got the chance and took the rebound and prepared to attack as Jake hoped Carlos can only get in the top 8 because he was good at his attacks.
Jake placed himself in a position of defense and prepared calmly, being 6 points ahead and with an opponent who did not seem to be shooting from outside he could defend calmly.
Carlos did not know he was being used to train Jake and just attacked, Carlos seemed to be very good at dribbling and was confident in his speed, but Jake was firm in his defense, Jake played over a thousand games in his imagination training, and Most of the games were with bigger opponents and more skilled than him.
So if there was one thing that Jake learned and would never forget was to keep a small distance and defend well, so Carlos could not get rid of Jake's defense in any way and was forced to do a mid-range shot that ended up hitting.
So Carlos had to admit that Jake was very good at the defense, this was Jake's mistake too, having had so much experience in the games of his imagination training he was an excellent defensive player, Jake just could not recognize it because he was very focused on skill ranks.
So all Carlos attacks were the same way, he tried anyway, but could not get rid of Jake's defense and ended up doing the mid-range shot, even though he was very good at it and made 3 points in 3 attacks.
Jake still defended calmly, he knew that if he continued to defend so Carlos would make a mistake while focusing on the defense Jake realized that Carlos had a ball domain error and took the opportunity to steal the opponent's ball.
Carlos made a small mistake and Jake stole the ball, this was a difficult game, so with possession, Jake did not want to give Carlos another chance, he made a feint and then a cross jab and ran to do the layup.
Carlos did not expect Jake to score internally and ended up suffering a dribble, now he was 7 to 3 for Jake, and Jake made some more feints and using the speed managed to pass Carlos and make 1 more point with a layup.
So Carlos gave some space to react better Jake's speed, Jake took a step back and made another shot from outside, and so did two more points and won the game.
After Jake missed a shot from outside the game looked like it would be disputed, but then in 3 more moves, Jake can guarantee the victory by 10 to 3.
Carlos was sad for have lost but accepted the result because he knew that Jake was better than him, in fact, many in the stand thought that even if Jake played with those at the age of 17 could still win.
Jake greeted Carlos for the good game and soon returned to his mother's side, Jake wanted to see the games of his possible opponents, Jake could immediately see two opponents that he thought could be strong in two different games, so he hoped that one of these two were their next opponents in the fifth game and in the final.
The two were players with a height of 1.76 that was the minimum required by the Philips coach, they should be Centers or PF by the style of play, they were looking for the force showdown and then they tried to do the layup.
Jake had a lot of experience in playing with much higher players, but his current opponents were not so the games were close to finishing, yet the results of the two games were not so remarkable, soon they won as Jake hoped.
And so it was time for Jake's fifth game, as Jake hoped his opponent was one of them, so the other should win the semifinal as well and could be the opponent of the Jake final, Jake had heard the name of his current opponent that was Miguel.
Soon the game started with the ball in Miguel's possession, Jake would not risk giving the ball to a difficult opponent so, as Jake hoped Miguel soon tried to use his body to force the passage to the basket.
But he had chosen the wrong opponent if Jake was confident in anything it was in his strength that could be seen in numbers in his statistics window, so Miguel soon realized that he was losing in the power struggle and so decided to try the dribble.
The dribble was not the forte of Miguel so Jake did not fall into any of his feints, so Miguel tried to use his speed and could not pass, and like his colleagues before him decided that the way was to shoot the mid-range, and so Miguel made the first point.
Even though Jake could defend well even someone taller he could not make a block be a foul, so he just had to press and wait for the opponent to miss.
So Miguel went again to the attack, even though he was not accustomed to attacking like that, Miguel was also a good player of his team in the school.