If you're a high school athlete in the U.S. who likes to play football, baseball, and basketball..... you best be focusing on playing basketball. Doesn't even matter how much football is still "king" in the US. Basketball is where you get P-A-I-D. Unbelievable. And it gets even crazier next offseason.
There are plenty of 3/4 pitchers in the league getting paid crazy amounts, too. Guys that can throw 180 innings, but still have 4+ eras. There's multiple of those guys getting $20+ million. Moreover, there is more opportunity in baseball just from a numbers standpoint. 9 position players, 5 starters, 5 relief players, plus bench. It's the 25 man roster... which expands to 40. If you're guy #25 sure, you're not getting paid crazy, but it's still a pretty good gig, right. If I'm looking at $$$s, I'm pushing my kids towards baseball. The one thing that scares you away from that is if it just slowly gets less and less popular. But it's been doing that already, and the $$ amounts keep going up, just with inflation, sports being the only live programming that seems to matter anymore, and the economics of baseball generally with 162 games, stadiums that can seat 40k+, tv rights, etc.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mavs source: "The worst thing we can do is overpay for mediocrity."</p>— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) <a href="https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status/748894171574919173">July 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But you do need to be somewhat blessed from an athletic/genetic standpoint to have the best chance at succeeding at basketball. Same goes with being a pitcher in baseball, albeit you do see all sorts of body types (and genetic backgrounds) able to succeed here.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bradley Beal has agreed to a five-year, $128M-plus max contract to stay with the Wizards, agent Mark Bartelstein tells <a href="https://twitter.com/TheVertical">@TheVertical</a>.</p>— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/748896204700971009">July 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Dang it. Thought Marv would be a great target. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Now that the Hornets have retained Nicolas Batum, league sources say Charlotte is actively working to seal a deal with Marvin Williams ASAP</p>— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/748913829858332672">July 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Indiana is nearing a deal with free agent center Al Jefferson, league source tells <a href="https://twitter.com/TheVertical">@TheVertical</a>.</p>— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/748915126183440384">July 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Freaking steal: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Al Jefferson and the Indiana Pacers are close to verbally agreeing on a three-year, $30 million deal, according to league sources</p>— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/748916103426895876">July 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>