Money

              When I was younger I was taught that the reason for sports was to having fun.  During timeouts my coaches would tell me to relax and just have fun.  Isn’t that why we participate in sports in the first place: for the thrill and the excitement.  To me it was more about playing for bragging rights and the pride of being the best then for anything else.  It was about being able to walk down the hallway at school and hold my head up high knowing that my team is the best.  But if we look at the example of the NBA, NFL, and every other professional sport organization, it seems evident that money is everything.  

         It appears that some professional athletes don’t care about their sports anymore.  Some couldn’t care less if they play as long as they get their paychecks.  For example every athlete I know would do anything and give everything to get the chance to play for a championship.  But in the 2011 NBA Finals we watched LeBron James “check out” and stop playing.  What could make a player do this?  It could be many things but money has the power to change an attitude.  LeBron James was living life as the best player in the NBA, but in the off-season of 2010 he decided to change teams and become a member of the Miami Heat organization.  Was it only for the opportunity at a championship like they say?  It could be but also it could be that Miami offered LeBron a huge contract of $100 million.  How did money cause a NBA superstar to fall so hard?  Money did this by taking away the most precious thing an athlete has, their commitment and desire.  We watched LeBron lose his commitment to the Cleveland Cavalier’s and his desire to play all for money.  

  Recently we watched the NBA go through a lockout that lasted 150 days.  Approximately 150 hours of negotiations occurred that involved ultimatums and various dooms day scenarios.  At its heart was money.  Basketball Related Income (BRI) was the biggest argument of the lockout.  BRI, as Charlie Zegers explained is, “The amount of money the players receive, in the existing collective bargaining agreement.   BRI includes just about every revenue stream, from tickets to parking to broadcast rights to concessions…” (Zegers).  During Negotiations the BRI went from 49% for players and 51% for owners, to a 50-50 ultimatum, and finally a negotiated 51.2% for players and 48.8% for owners. NBA players already make so much money.  Even a rookie in the NBA makes millions of dollars a year.  So why are these athletes complaining about losing only hundreds of thousands of dollars on their million dollar paychecks while most Americans work their entire lives just getting by?  It is disgusting that the NBA players went into a 149-day lock-out and put an entire season in jeopardy to fight about losing a few million dollars per player each year.   Even losing that much money they would still make more money per year than most Americans make in a lifetime.  Money has infected sports with greed and once a player gets a taste of all that money they just want more.

  Another example of the affect of money on athletes again comes from the NBA lockout.   At the beginning of the NBA lockout nothing was really happening.  Negotiations were stalled.  Even as games and the season were in jeopardy little was done.  NBA superstars still didn’t seem to care.   They just went on with their business. LeBron James talked about playing NFL football while other athletes went to other events like football games instead of solving the problem.  Eventually they started to realize that individually they were starting to lose money and they started to panic.  Some took their talents across the seas and signed multi million dollar deals in other countries just to make money.  Other players started to put their opinions in and the negotiations started to pick up as they realized that they were starting to lose money.  Ultimately a tentative deal was quickly made in a 15-hour negotiation marathon on November 26, 2011.  Both owners and players started to realize they were losing a lot of money and that they quickly needed to agree on something.  For example as William Van Noll wrote, “Kobe Bryant [the] highest paid-player in the NBA saw his paycheck of $1,051,833 go by the wayside” (Van Noll).  With players losing that much money it is no wonder they picked up the negotiations and threw together a deal.  

Don’t get me wrong I’m ecstatic that the NBA lockout is over.  But it’s sad that money has become an infection in sports.  Knowing the attitudes of professional players takes the fun out of watching the games.  If only professional sports were like college sports where the goal was to improve, compete, and win championships then professional sports would be very entertaining. 

 

Works Cited

             Van Noll, William. "NBA Lockout: Each Los Angeles Laker's Money Lost." Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report, 16 Nov. 2011. Web. 1 Dec 2011. <http://bleacherreport.com/articles/942876-la-lakers-how-much-money-has-each-laker-lost-due-to-the-nba-lockout/page/13>.

 Zegers, Charlie. "NBA Lockout 101: Basketball Related Income (BRI)." About Basketball - NBA and NCAA Basketball News and Commentary. About.com, 2011. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. <http://basketball.about.com/od/nbateams/ss/Nba-