Chapter 385 Continuing the Winning Streak 9
This made it harder for the Tar Heels team to keep up the pressure in the attack in the 2nd half when Jamison was out of the Jake team, he would have difficulty with the defense more on top of him and less choice for assists.
So at the beginning of the 2nd half the Clemson Tigers team started to put more pressure on the attack, Jake had to put more effort into the defense and even then it was more difficult to prevent the Clemson Tigers team from getting the attacks right.
In the attack Jake tried more three-point shots and had Williams to score when Carter and Jamison were not on the court, luckily Williams was rewarding confidence by making a good game.
The Clemson Tigers team seeing this was also doing a lot of fouls in that game, luckily all the players on the Tar Heels team had a good hit average in the Free Throw when the foul was against Williams or against Jake the points for the Tar team were almost certain.
Even with a complicated game in the 2nd half, the Tar Heels team still managed to win by making 101 points against 73 points of the Clemson Tigers team, even so, it was a victory with a good advantage on the scoreboard and increasing the winning streak of the Tar Heels team.
In that 2nd half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 15 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals, with another double-double even though the game got more complicated in the 2nd half, the Tar Heels team still managed to win.
It was a good game that was even difficult and the Tar Heels team players had to work hard in attack and defense to guarantee victory, with Jamison and Carter playing less time it was more difficult for Jake to organize the attack.
But with that they would be more prepared for the next game after a few days, the media now followed all the games of the Tar Heels team, so either they followed this historic moment of the team or they would be around to see their defeat.
The players were free to do interviews, but Jake always tried to avoid the interviews because he didn't want to say anything unnecessary and in many interviews, the reporters hinted that he was the one responsible for the Tar Heels team that was winning the games.
Jake knew well that this was not true and that the Tar Heels team was able to win the games even without him on the team, only in a few games in which the team would lose that it could be said that Jake was instrumental in the victory.
So Jake just spoke a few words to reporters and avoided answering questions, he liked to do interviews at high school because he could advertise the companies that sponsored him, but at university, he was forbidden to talk about it.
But the next day when Jake was going to focus on his training, he got a call he couldn't help but answer, it was from someone who hadn't shown up in a long time that Jake was even starting to forget about him.
"Hi, Jake, how long ago, I thought you wouldn't take my call."
"Hi, Eric, really long time ago, I thought you forgot how to talk to me after so many years."
"Hahaha, I knew you were going to say that, Jake, but I told you that I wasn't going to cover high school games or college team games anymore, which is why I didn't have a place for you for so long."
"I remember you saying that you would not work with it anymore and that is why you would not do interviews with me anymore, but I thought we were friends and there is no reason for a friend to spend so many years without calling."
Hearing Jake say that Eric had nothing to say, it was true that he and Jake were friends and also helped each other even when Eric didn't have to interview him, so going several years without talking to Jake was something he did wrong.
Eric managed to become successful in his work because of his talent, but the opportunity came when he decided to follow Jake's basketball career since he was younger.
So they became friends and Jake gave him some exclusive interviews and Eric helped when Jake was out of the high school basketball team, with everything that happened Eric gained more attention for his talent and started to have more opportunities.
He has worked at major sporting events like the Olympics and NBA basketball games all these years, with his talent Eric managed to become a respected reporter and the players liked to talk to him too.
Having so much work and starting to live in another environment Eric who had stopped covering high school and university games lost contact with Jake, then he actually forgot everything he had been through with Jake, got other friends and just worked.
But in recent years things have changed, even if Eric wanted to forget about Jake he couldn't because little by little Jake started to become news in all sports media with an incredible performance in the Tar Heels team winning all the individual awards and winning the NCAA title.
And Jake was also well known for winning several important marathons and even gold medals at the Olympics and the Athletics World Championship, Eric thought about calling several times to talk and congratulate Jake on his success.
But after having spent so many years without talking to Jake he was embarrassed and decided not to try, but this time he had no way to escape, his boss knowing that Eric was friends with Jake and got several exclusive interviews in the past asked Eric do an interview with Jake for the newspaper.
Just as his boss sent Eric had no choice but to accept the shame and seek out Jake to see if he could get an exclusive interview with him, Jake was smart and of course, he knew it must be when Eric called.
He was very disappointed in what Eric had done, but he understood that this was Eric's job too, and Eric helped him a lot in the last few years to increase his popularity and also put some advertising ads that Jake wanted in the newspaper.
Eric also helped when Jake needed an opportunity to return to the high school basketball team after being 2 years off the team, so if Eric asked he would do an interview with him.
"I'm really sorry Jake, I have no excuse to say about it, it was my mistake and I know I shouldn't have done that."
"Okay, this is now, what do you want to call me?"
"You have been very successful in college basketball and have been breaking all records, so my boss knew that I already had contact with you and asked me to try an interview with you."
"I can do an interview, but it will only be one because I don't like doing interviews and I will not answer any questions that I think may harm me."
"Okay, thanks for that, Jake, we can meet later at a restaurant to do this interview."
"Okay, I'll see you later."
Jake wasn't too surprised after talking to Eric even though so much time had passed, he knew it would be because Eric was a reporter and they would meet someday, Jake hoped it would be after he joined the NBA because that's where Eric worked after they stopped talking.
After a few hours, the two met in a restaurant that was not far from the university and which was a good place for them to do the interview, even if Jake didn't answer many questions in this interview it would still be an important interview because of the great season of the team Tar Heels and Jake's impressive performance.
"Thank you for accepting this interview, Jake, I'm going to ask the questions and you answer as many questions as you can."
"It's all right."
"You are 19 years old now and you are considered very young in the world of sports, yet you have won more than 10 international marathons and you have broken your world marathon record twice and won some important gold medals in the sport even though you are running less 4 years old, I wanted to ask how you feel about it?"
"I always loved to run, since I was a kid I liked to run in the square that was close to home, after 10 years old I started running longer until I got tired and I think it helped me when I started in basketball to have more resistance."
"I liked to run and also to play basketball and my family did not have a very good financial situation with only my mother working, and one of my mother's dreams was for me to go to university."
"So I decided to start training in basketball because in basketball I knew that I would have more opportunities to get a scholarship and could perhaps become a professional player."
"After many years I finally managed to play on the high school basketball team and after it performed well I knew my training had paid off and so I could get a scholarship at a university if I continued to perform well."
"Knowing this, I decided to try to fulfill my dream of running a marathon, I was already training to run for several km because of basketball, but I wanted to try to run more than 43 km to make sure I could run a marathon."
"Fortunately, after training in basketball for so many years, I already had the necessary physical preparation and the talent to run for a long time because I had good resistance, so it didn't take me many months to be able to run 43 km."
"Then I tried to aim to run the 43 km in less than 3 hours so as not to be embarrassed in the marathon, and always without trying my best because I had to do the training with the basketball team."