"Are you sure it's $ 4 billion?"

"Of course I'm sure, you think I would be wrong talking about so much money, I know you will have a hard time buying all these shares, but in this moment of distrust of investors you may be able to buy these shares."

"Okay, you can trust me and my team that we will be able to take care of everything before the stock price increases again, will this be your last investment? After all, you said you would sell the shares in 2000."

"No, at the beginning of 2000 I will receive my profit share from Matthew's company and I will also receive again in a few months this year's money from the sponsors and the Los Angeles Lakers too.

"Until a few months after the beginning of the year, the shares will still appreciate a lot and soon after we will sell the shares, but at the beginning of 2000 we will have to make a strategy to sell all the shares at once, we have to do this so as not to break the market."

Emily didn't know where Jake's confidence came from, but she learned to trust him, and if they really wanted to sell the shares, even if they lost some money from it or broke the stock market the most important thing was that they didn't lose money on it.

This was good for Emily because Jake said he would give her and the rest of the company a break as soon as they sold all of the shares, in addition, Emily would receive 1 percent of Jake's earnings from the sale of the shares.

This counted on the shares that Jake had and the money he would receive on the sale of Matthew's shares, that for Emily, who received a great salary to take care of Jake's companies, would be very good and would make her an even richer person.

After resolving all his affairs in the NBA, Jake was called to New York to vote on the deal that the players' association and team owners had proposed.

It was on January 10, a few days later than it normally would have been for what Jake remembered, it showed that he caused a small change in the events that should have happened with his game.

Jake went over there and saw several players and a climate of tension in the place of the vote, Jake didn't care much for what the sides said and voted for the deal to be accepted because he knew it would be accepted anyway.

Jake returned to Miami because the Los Angeles Lakers team had not yet asked him to return to training, Jake was prepared to start playing as soon as the deal was decided, and after a few weeks as it had originally been signed.

Jake said goodbye to Eva who was happier that Jake had spent many months at home this time, Jake would go to Los Angeles before the Los Angeles Lakers team had to call him.

Jake warned Coach Davis before that and he had already bought a house in Los Angeles to live with his family, meanwhile Jake was training on his own because currently, his training was so much easier.

Jake could feel that he was ready to compete in the Olympics that would be next year, and he wanted to compete to win all the disciplines that he would participate in, Jake knew that he would not get as much popularity in the NBA in the coming years with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant on his team.

With Michael Jordan's retirement, many NBA fans who were already frustrated with the NBA blockade would stop watching the games, and even if they didn't stop watching the games they would not buy shirts and products from the teams they supported.

After a few years, the NBA would regain some of its popularity because more fans would have access to internet games and more fans would have money to buy shirts and sneakers that they couldn't before when the economy was weaker.

Jake knew there would never be a player like Michael Jordan, but many talented players like Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Stephen Cury, and maybe even him, would make the NBA have several talented players and not just one who would rule.

Jake arrived in Los Angeles and went directly to the house he had bought a few months ago, arriving at his home in Bel Air he saw his house differently than when he bought it after the renovation he had done.

His house already had a house with the employees that he sent a trustworthy company to hire, had employees to clean the house, take care of the garden, take care of the swimming pool, sports facilities, to cook, and a housekeeper.

All these employees lived in one of the employee houses and the other employee house was occupied by Jake's security team, they would take care of the house's surveillance and his protection as well.

It was a different team than the security guards who took care of him in Miami and who took care of his mother for many years, Eva had even gotten used to having security guards protecting her in the restaurant and everywhere she went.

Jake has done this since his house was invaded many years ago and just so he could be calm, he just didn't hang out with his security anymore because when Jake went to university he had to live in the dorm for many years and so more security guards taking care of him.

But in Los Angeles he would leave the security guards who could protect him from paparazzi too, his house already had the security of the condo and so he could rest easy, Jake saw that the basketball court and the Olympic track with the official measures were ready.

His gym was also ready after the renovation and his pool was also bigger now, inside his house Jake can see the movie theater he had ordered, the library and the soundproof music studio that was the same as the record companies.

Jake decided to do this because his house was very big and still had 7 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms and even had an elevator going to the second floor and to his garage that had space for 7 cars, going to the garage he saw the Chevrolet corvette zr1 blue color that he had gotten from Chevrolet.

And there was also the yellow McLaren F1 that had finally arrived earlier this year and Jake had sent them to his garage, that was one of the advantages of having a security team, being able to have things delivered to his house.

The housekeeper at Jake's house was called Mary and she was 41 years old in 1999, she was an efficient housekeeper who knew how to organize the other employees of the house and still be discreet, she was the type of person that Jake looked for to receive guests and take care of the house while he was traveling.

Jake was happy to have the house renovated and to buy all the necessary things several months ago, now he could just live peacefully in his complete house and wait to start training and games.

After spending a few days in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles team coach Lakers Del Harris asked him for training, Jake knew that the team's first game would be on February 5th and not be surprised with that even though he had little time to play. train with the team.

Jake was the player who had been the first pick of the draft this season, and he was switched to three players to play on the Los Angeles Lakers team because the team needed a player like him to score a lot and to support Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in the team's attacks.

But the Del Harris team coach didn't want to put Jake as a starting player, he didn't even intend to let him play for many minutes just like he did with Kobe Bryant who was on reserve in his first year and only started a few games.

Even the other teams that didn't have the first pick would let novice players play every game as was the case with Mark Bibby and Vince Carter on the Vancouver Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors teams.

That was why Jerry West wanted to switch the other players in Kobe Bryant's position so he could play more and it was one of the reasons why the Lakers' directory disapproved of him, with pressure from the board Coach Del Harris would have to put Jake to play.

This was something that Jake did not know, but he also thought he would play for the team after all the team had weaker players in two positions after this exchange so that he would join the Los Angeles Lakers team.

For sure next season the Los Angeles Lakers team would buy players to strengthen those positions and also change the coach as Jake remembered, but he was happy to be able to play on the team and show his skills to be able to play next season too.

When Jake arrived for his first training, he was thrilled to see so many players that he was always a fan in his past life, especially now when he was a player he was still a fan of those players and would have the opportunity to play with them.

Jake saw Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, he also knew many other players, but he was more a fan of these two players, of course, Jake knew he shouldn't go where they were because the team was going to start training.

Who came first to talk to Jake was Rick Fox who was one of the players who would be starting this season with Jake's entry, Rick Fox was a skilled SF and had previously been a player on the Tar Heels team as well as Jake.

"Hi, you must be Jake Smith, I'm Rick Fox."

"You can call me Jake."

"Nice to meet you, Rick Fox, I know you naturally, I've seen you play and I know you played for the Tar Heels team, I'm happy to meet someone who played at the same university as me."