novelA Great Deal 1
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"Yes, I love to play basketball and I love to run and I like to win too, I am managing to make all my dreams come true, I was able to play in the NBA, I was able to be happy and you are also happy, mom, I know you suffered for many years and I think you're happier now."
"I'm very happy, having a restaurant has always been a dream of mine, I have great friends around me, and you're happy what's most important to me, Jake, I'm sure your dad would be proud if he saw the man you became."
Jake talked to Eva for a while and went to sleep to get the rest he deserved, the next day Jake woke up very early and rested, that day the team would have no game and only have light training.
Even though he was able to rest fully after a good night's sleep, Jake knew his body needed a few days like this to rest, Jake needed to rest his mind also with the pressure of NBA games.
Jake thought about just resting before going to train with the team, but he got a call from Emily saying that Charlie sent word that Larry Page and Sergey Brin had already tried to sell their company to Excite's CEO, George Bell and had failed.
Jake warned Charlie that if Larry Page and Sergey Brin tried to sell the company and couldn't, it was for Charlie to tell him soon afterward, Charlie didn't understand how Jake knew they would try to sell the company, but he kept watching to see what happened and when what Jake wanted happening he asked Emily to let Jake know.
Jake was risking a lot by letting Larry Page and Sergey Brin tried to sell the company because Jake knew he had already changed the future he knew and so it could happen that George Bell decided to buy Google and that would be a disaster.
Even so Jake decided to wait for everything to happen as it should, the only problem was that he didn't know when the two would try to sell Google, he just knew it would be in early 1999 and before June 1999 when they were going to make a round of investments.
So Jake asked Charlie to watch when Larry Page and Sergey Brin would try to sell Google and if they couldn't, it would be an ideal time to make his offer, now it seemed like the right time for that.
Jake was happy to hear that and thanked Emily and asked her to thank Charlie for the information, Jake had been waiting for it since the first time he met them both last year, Jake picked up the phone and called the number he talked to Larry Page.
"Hi, this is Jake Smith speaking."
"Hi, Jake, I didn't expect you to call me so soon, you usually talk to me once in several months."
"Hahaha, I know that, but I heard that you tried to sell the company and I was shocked to hear about it."
"So you already know about that, we thought about selling the company to Excite, but we couldn't, after thinking about it we thought it might be good that we were unable to sell the company."
"Of course it's good, you should have talked to me before trying to sell the company, I said I was interested in investing, I just didn't have the money to invest yet, but seeing that you tried to sell the company for 1 million dollars I decided that I should invest in the company right now."
"I want you to come to Los Angeles on the 12th of this month, bring your lawyer because I am going to make an offer you cannot refuse and we will become partners."
Larry Page was quiet on the phone if it was someone else saying that he certainly wouldn't go to Los Angeles thinking it might be a joke, but Jake had already told them several times about his interest in investing in their company.
They thought that Jake didn't really want to invest after going several months without making a proposal, but now Larry felt that Jake was really prepared to invest, at the very least they could talk to Jake and if they didn't like the proposal they would refuse.
"Okay, Jake, I'm going to talk to Sergey and we'll be there in Los Angeles on the 12th, I hope your proposal is as good as you said."
Jake was happy that Larry agreed to do this meeting in Los Angeles, he couldn't go to California right now because he was at the beginning of the game season with his team and had trained almost every day.
If Larry said he wanted to hear his proposal then it meant that they were interested, after all, they intended to sell the company a few days ago for $ 1 million and Jake would offer much more than that for only part of the company.
But Jake had to focus on the games because the Los Angeles Lakers team would still have 2 games before the day of their negotiation, later on, the team did light training before the next game, and Jake was already in the PG position in training.
Seeing this, everyone understood what was happening because it was expected by everyone, Rick Fox was happy too because he was finally going to play in that game, he was afraid Jake would continue as SF of the team and so he would never have the opportunity to play again.
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant spoke to Jake after training, they were happy that Jake would finally play as PG in the next game, in PG's position Jake would have much more opportunities to organize plays and assist.
Not to mention that it could disrupt the PG of the opposing team to organize the plays, they knew how a good PG could make an opposing team be much more dangerous than a team with a player who scores a lot of points.
With that day of rest, the players'physical condition was much better for the next game, so the next day came and that was the day of the Los Angeles Lakers' game against the Denver Nuggets team.
The Denver Nuggets team was the weakest opponent they would face this season, they got Raef LaFrentz who was an excellent player in the 1998 draft, but after a few more games after that LaFrentz would suffer a serious injury that would leave him out for the rest of the season.
Even so, the Denver Nuggets team should not be underestimated, any NBA team could win a game if their opponents underestimated the difficulty of the game, of course, Jake would try his best in this game that would be his first as a PG in the NBA.
After a few hours the Los Angeles Lakers team arrived at the McNichols Sports Arena for the game, basketball fans would fill the McNichols Sports Arena in that game because the opponent was the Los Angeles Lakers team that had Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and the rookie Jake Smith.
The players put on their uniforms and went to the court to warm up a little more before the game, Jake was excited about this game and Rick Fox was also if he played well in this game he could be the starting player on the team throughout the season.
"Welcome to everyone who came to watch this game of the NBA season, today's game is between the Los Angeles Lakers team that won all three games this season and the Denver Nuggets team that lost the first three games of the season."
"So the Los Angeles Lakers team is definitely the favorite to win this game after all this team has players like Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant who are making a great start to the season and the best rookie of this season currently Jake Smith who made 2 triple-double in three games."
"Certainly Jake Smith is the center of attention in this game, mainly because he will play his first game as a PG on the Los Angeles Lakers team and in the NBA, he had played improvised as SF and had made excellent games, let's see how he does on PG position."
"I think he will play the same or worse than he played as SF, after all, PG doesn't normally have as many chances to score points and rebounds as an SF has, only his assists and steals can increase in that game."
"I don't think so, Jake Smith seems to play differently than other PG we know, and we had NBA Magic Johnson to show that a PG can also score a lot and help the team win."
The Los Angeles Lakers team came in this game with the starting players Jake Smith playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Robert Horry playing as PF, and Shaquille O'Neal playing as Center, that was the debut of Jake as the team's PG and everyone was excited to see what it would be like.
The Denver Nuggets team that was playing at home came in this game with the initial players' Nick Van Exel playing as PG, Chauncey Billups playing as SG, Bryant Stith playing as SF, Raef LaFrentz playing as PF, and Antonio McDyess playing as Center.
Antonio McDyess was the main player of this Denver Nuggets team and he was really a great player at that time before injuries hindered his performance in games, Nick Van Exel who was a player of the Los Angeles Lakers team was also one of the highlights of this Denver team Nuggets.
The game started with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the first ball possession, Jake received the ball and was thrilled playing the first time as PG, now he could organize the plays and control the pace of the Lakers' game.
Jake advanced with the ball and Van Exel came to press on defense, Jake did not rush and passed the ball to Kobe Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and easily got rid of Chauncey Billups defense and made the mid-range shot to make the first 2 points of that game.
Kobe Bryant played well in the first three games of the season, but he thought he was not good enough as in all games Jake Smith and Shaquille O'Neal played better than him, so in this game, he wanted to take the opportunity to score more points.
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