Great article. More emphasis should be put on players' salaries. Suppose a max contract was worth $10 million, not $23 million? Would the players become poor, refuse to play, move to Spain or Greece? I'm a professor of world lit and T-Mac makes as much money in one year as I make in 489 years. Is that really necessary? OR The U.S. Department of Transportation values one human life at $2.6 million (1994 dollars). One season of T-Mac is worth eight human lives. Isn't something out of whack there?
Simmons is making an ethical argument, i.e. "The NBA should treat its fans better." What the fans want is relevant, but what ultimately matters is what the owner wants. It's his team, not the fans'. If the owner's primary concern is money, then he treats the fans as well as he needs to maximize profit. Nothing wrong with that. Or maybe the team is more of a toy for the owner to have fun with (Cuban) and finances are secondary to winning and star power. Or maybe it's a combination of things, an owner would be willing to sacrifice a little profit in order to please fans or donate to charity or whatever. If as a fan all you care about is winning, then you better find a team with the same mindset. If Simmons wants to be a Clippers fan that's his perogative, but he isn't entitled to having a team that does whatever it takes to win.
well to be fair, basketball players do something useful and entertaining for society and you teach world lit. 489 to 1 might be about right. if as many people wanted to pay good money to watch us do our jobs as do for basketball players, we might get paid $23M as well. people get paid relative to how much value they produce and/or how easy/difficult it is to replace them. in fact, the current system actually holds salaries down by having max salaries. lebron would get paid significantly more than he does now if the free market set his price.
Bill Simmons addressed the core problem in one sentence, he didn't need to write a thesis. you don't have a superstar, you aren't competitive. the 2004 pistons are rare occurances
I'm sorry but are you saying that being a teacher is worthless and pointless, and that being a professional ball-player is more important to society? I really hope you intended something much different what you just typed.
I don't think thats what he meant but he was trying to shut down the usual rhetoric of athlete xyz earning this much while the professor of xyz class or the regular joe the plumber is earning this much. Apples to Oranges. Funny how so many people forget about the insane amounts of money average actors and actresses pull in (paycheck movies) to make atrocious movies. Plus, if the professor of world lit had ABC, ESPN, TNT, etc paying big money(tv contract) to show him teach his class then I guarantee he'd be raking in the $$$. Like Simmons noted, the tv contracts bring in the money and that eventually goes into the players salary.
On Simmons article- I have no mercy for his idiocy in continuing to buy Clippers season tickets. Especially when he notes the available options-HDTV, stubhub, etc. Wouldnt give a dime to the sicko of a slumlord they have at the helm of clipperland.
how many teachers are there in the world? how many athletes were as good at basketball as tmac in his prime?
