Chapter 473 Basketball and Business 7
After some time the players' cars arrived and they were entering the Arena to go to the dressing rooms that were prepared, the fans were already entering the Arena and going to their seats in the stands to watch the game.
When the players of Jake's team arrived they saw that Jake was already wearing the uniform and had the bandanna and the yellow arm protector that was the color of their uniform, Jake's team would play in yellow uniforms and the opponents they would have blue uniforms.
The players greeted each other and put on their uniforms and then started the warm-up exercises, then they would have to make some moves on the court to be more relaxed for the game, so Jake decided to say a few words to the players.
"Once again I would like to thank everyone who came to this game that I organized, this will be important for children who receive help after we send all that money to charity."
"As I said before, this game will also be important for NBA fans to get to know you more and how you play, of course, some do not need this game for this, but that way we will help others with this game too."
"Everyone knows who will be the starting team for this game that was decided in yesterday's training, everyone will have the opportunity to play, I want you to have fun and relax and play as you always do that we will win this game."
After Jake's speech, they and the players went to the court to finish the warm-up there, the opposing team had also arrived on the court and were in the left half of the court.
The players looked at the stands and saw that they were full of fans who came to watch them play, of course, everyone was used to it playing at their universities, but they knew this was considered a game by NBA players, so it was special.
In the crowd, the fans shouted more the name of Tim Duncan and some fans called the names of the other players who had already debuted in the NBA, of the players who had not yet played in the NBA the name most shouted by the fans was Jake.
After all Jake was very famous in Miami for appearing several times in the newspaper and for playing in high school in Miami too, besides, Jake was known for his marathons and commercials too.
"Welcome to everyone who came to watch the broadcast of this special basketball game among NBA rookies who haven't made their NBA debut yet, and also some who made a good debut season last year."
"This is a special game in which all the money raised goes to a charity, this game was organized by the number 1 draft pick of this season Jake Smith, and it is also for basketball fans who were longing for basketball games between NBA players."
"That's right, we only have new players today and many of them could become big NBA stars in the future, Tim Duncan, Ron Mercer, Tracy McGrady, Jake Smith, Vince Carter, Mike Bibby, Antawn Jamison, and many other players could be the stars the NBA."
"The players have already warmed up and now everyone will stop respecting because the national anthem will be sung, the singer Kate Annesley who had a song in the first place on Billboard that year will sing the national anthem."
Kate was very applauded by the basketball fans and the players were already waiting for the national anthem, Jake knew that Kate was very talented and the only advice he gave was for Kate to sing the national anthem normally using her talent and not try to be different.
After all, Jake had already seen big names in the music being embarrassed for trying to sing the national anthem in many different ways, Jake thought that the national anthem had to be sung with respect and a lot of talent could be shown singing correctly.
Kate listened to Jake's advice and sang the national anthem normally with only a few differences in that she sang a few longer lines to show her talent, and the audience loved what Kate did and applauded a lot.
"It was a beautiful presentation of our national anthem sung by Kate Annesley, she will still be back in the game to sing two songs, we can wait for that."
"The players are already prepared for the start of this game between the yellow team of Jake Smith and Tim Duncan and the blue team of Mike Bibby and Ron Mercer."
"The yellow team starts playing with Jake Smith, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Tracy McGrady, and Tim Duncan, and the blue team starts playing with Mike Bibby, Larry Hughes, Ron Mercer, Raef LaFrentz, and Robert Traylor."
"They are two very strong teams of young players, but I think the yellow team is more likely to win this game with Tim Duncan, Jake Smith, and Vince Carter on the team, but we will follow the game to know the result."
The game started and Tim Duncan soon won the ball for the yellow team to start the move, Jake received the ball and advanced slowly towards the attack, Mike Bibby was defending against him, but knowing how Jake played Bibby was a little distant to prevent Jake move quickly with the ball.
Jake advanced with the ball and soon passed to Vince Carter on the left, Carter was being defended by Larry Hughes, Carter held the ball and soon passed ahead to Antawn Jamison who was playing as a PF in that game.
Jamison was being defended by Raef LaFrentz and would have difficulty to attack calmly in that game, Jamison passed the ball to Tim Duncan who was on the right, Duncan received the ball and advanced to make the layup and the first 2 points for the yellow team.
Robert Traylor who was defending against Duncan cannot do anything to stop him, Bibby took the ball and went forward to try to make the first points for the blue team, the defense of the yellow team was not so good with the defense of the blue team, but they still had Duncan and Jake to defend.
Bibby knew that and was prepared not to score too much in that game, he went forward and passed the ball to Hughes on the left, Hughes advanced with the ball and quickly passed it to LaFrentz later on.
LaFrentz received the ball and turn to lay up and get the first 2 points for the blue team, Jamison was unable to stop LaFrentz who made the points easily, both teams had players in the attack who could easily make the points.
In the first minutes the two teams were seeing how they were doing and making safe plays, so the two teams were still tied in the game, the fans were excited to see a game played and the players attacked with skill.
"Almost 5 minutes of play and the two teams are tied, it seems that the players are still trying to analyze the opponents and making the plays safer, neither team is taking risks in the attack nor putting pressure on the defense."
"Duncan has already scored 4 points in the game and Jake has yet to attempt a three-point shot, so when players start to take more chances the game will be more exciting."
Jake really wanted to give his teammates the opportunity to score and show their skills, in the attack the most guaranteed plays were with Duncan and Tracy McGrady, Jamison had difficulty winning the plays against LaFrentz and Carter had difficulty winning many plays against Hughes.
And on the side of the blue team, the attacking players who had the easiest were LaFrentz, Hughes, and Ron Mercer, so the two teams were pretty much the same after Carter scored 2 points for the yellow team the blue team was attacking with Bibby.
He advanced with the ball and passed it to Hughes, Hughes did not try to do the feint and passed the ball to Mercer on the right, Mercer tried to do the feint against McGrady, but failed and passed the ball farther back to Bibby, Jake was further behind analyzing the move and Bibby tried the shot from outside to make 3 more points for the blue team.
Jake was surprised by this because he thought Bibby would assist, but he didn't care and went on the attack after receiving Duncan's ball, Jake passed the ball to McGrady on the left who advanced to the three-point line and went on to the ball for Carter.
Carter received the ball and held the ball a little before passing it to Jake who was further behind, Jake received the ball and even far from the three-point line he tried the shot from outside and hit with 3 more points for the yellow team.
Jake wanted to make more assists in that game, but he thought that Bibby had challenged him by making the three-point play and he had to respond, the crowd that had been excited about Bibby's play was also excited by Jake's play.
So the first quarter ended with the yellow team winning by 3 points difference and Jake had made 6 points in that game, Jake decided to let Bibby make the shots from three points so that he could also show his skills in that game.
After all, if the two tried 10 shots from three points Jake would hit 7 and Bibby would hit 5 at the most, so it would not hinder the yellow team from getting the win after all this was a friendly game and Jake didn't need to show all his skills to the team yellow achieve victory.
"The yellow team ended up winning this first quarter, it is being a balanced game in which the two teams are very offensive and the defenses are unable to stop the opponent's attack."
"That's right, Jake and Bibby started trying the shots from outside as well and the game started to get more excited, the fans are enjoying this game and we are seeing the skill of the new players."
In that first quarter, Jake had played the 12 minutes, made 6 points, and 2 assists, as was agreed in the second quarter the players who were in the reserve would enter and only one player from each team would remain on the court.