Greedy Billionaires?
Who likes a billionaire?
Not me. Those guys sleeping on mattress stuffed with $100 bills can pound sand. That smug Mark Cuban should wipe that condescending smile off his smug face. Am I right, or am I right?
See, that’s the card these multi-millionaire players are playing. Making us feel bad for these poor players. And you know what? It almost worked on me. And then I remembered, when I rose to go to work at 6:00am, making the kids lunch, driving my 2000 Honda Odyseey, that you know what? Those players have it pretty good, too. They play a sport for a living, and make millions of dollars doing it.
The other card they play a lot is that they claim that they are the product. They are the talent. If not for them, there would be no league. While this seems obviously true, it is very misleading. When the players say, “they are the talent”, who, specifically are they referring to? The top 20 players who are the majority of the drawing card? The top 50? 100? What I don’t understand is, what do they mean? Are they saying, without them, there would be no NBA?
The reality is, you could wipe out the top 50 players tomorrow, and they would be replaced by 50 more, in a flash. We’d forget about them. Sure we would say, “What if we still had Lebron playing?” Then we’d shrug our shoulders and go watch the next great player. The reality is, the NBA would march on, and wouldn’t lose a beat. We’d find ourselves with new favorite players, and we would still look forward to the Celtics – Lakers games, and Christmas Day would still be filled with great basketball. Why? Because the NBA marketing machine would tell us so. They would have us believing that the next great NBA game was about to happen, and after all, this game is “Fan-tastic”, so tune in and don’t miss one thunderous dunk.
You see, I believe that the players are not the product. I believe that the product is the NBA’s ability to market basketball.
Want proof?
Regularly on this site, we have the old bar argument. Who is the best of all time? The latest one, and the one that won’t go away, is who is better? Russell vs Jordan. You could argue one way or the other. You can talk about Russell’s defense, or Jordan’s high flying act. At the end of the day, neither side wins. However, there is no argument who made more money. Bill Russell was one of the highest paid players in his era, and it pales in comparison of what Jordan made in his playing days, and continues to earn afterwards.
So tell me…is this because Jordan’s ability is so much greater then Russell’s, or is this because the NBA owners, and Commissioner Stern, have become really good at marketing? Yes they took advantage of the modern technology, satellite TV, the internet, etc…but without this expertise, the players wouldn’t be sharing in over TWO BILLION DOLLARS of salary in the form of GUARANTEED CONTACTS!!! They don’t fly around in private jets. They don’t have locker rooms that many of us would want for our house. And they don’t earn extra millions on shoe contacts, product endorsements, and appearance fees.
So yes, I do believe they players deserve their cut. They deserve a 50-50 split of revenue. But what’s wrong with a semi-hard cap? What’s wrong with shorter contracts? Especially if they are guaranteed? What’s wrong with having to earn your check?
I don’t really care if these Billionaires make one red cent from their investment of hundreds of millions of dollars. But why should the players expect the owners to subsidize the fans watching experience..and their salaries? Last year, in a banner year for revenues, they lost 300 million dollars, just so the fans could enjoy watching NBA basketball. And the owners are the ones at fault here?
I don’t get it.
