Dollars lavished on NBA players no longer make any sense
DALLAS -- NBA players make too much money. David Stern is right. And David Stern isn't always right, or even close to always being right. He handled -- and allowed the Washington Wizards to handle -- Gilbert Arenas all wrong, for one thing. He is handling the NBA's expansion effort into a place as despicable as China wrong, for another thing.
But on this thing? The latest labor battle between players and owners? David Stern is right.
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| You know things are out of whack when Larry Hughes is paid $13.7 million. (Getty Images) |
That was me at age 11, and it was me up until, well, this past week. When all hell broke loose. Forgive me for getting all personal again, but walk for a minute in my shoes. They're size 10, by the way, and if you don't think that's very large, you're right. But the size of the shoe doesn't matter, and that's all I'm going to say about that.
But walk in my shoes around Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where we're immersed in the coverage of Super Bowl XLIV. Only, we're not immersed only in Super Bowl XLIV. We're also immersed in labor talk. The NFL players association accuses the owners of preparing for a lockout in 2011. The owners say that's not fair or accurate, but they concede that something radical must be done to fix the NFL's economics. Meanwhile, I'm just trying to pay attention to the Saints and Colts. Is that so hard, guys? Could you please stop spoiling your signature event with all this nonsensical talk about millionaires not making enough millions?
Now walk some more, just four days later, down to Dallas for the NBA All-Star Game. We're trying to get revved up about Kevin Durant and LeBron James, but the NBA Players Association accuses commissioner David Stern of preparing the owners for a stoppage. Stern says that's not fair or accurate, but he concedes that the players make too much money for the NBA to continue to thrive.
So as for me -- and you, too, because you're still walking in my size 10s -- I'm starting to get a little depressed. And maybe more than a little angry. Because the shoes I walk around in are recycled workout shoes that I've already worn down at the gym, but since good shoes cost in the neighborhood of $100, you and I are wearing these things until they disintegrate. And why? Because we're not rich, or even financially secure. Because new shoes cost money, and because we don't work for a company where the minimum salary for a new employee is $457,588, and where if they survive that first year on the job they're guaranteed a nearly $300,000 raise for Year 2, and where the average salary is $5.4 million, and where a worker as mediocre as Andrei Kirilenko can earn $16.4 million, and where a worker as absolutely useless as Larry Hughes can earn $13.7 million.
You see where I'm going here? NBA players make a ton of money, and for years my position was: Good for them. Today, my position has changed to this:
Enough for them.
They have enough. Andrei Kirilenko and Larry Hughes and their obscene wealth. LeBron James, my favorite player in the NBA, makes $15.8 million now but becomes a free agent after this season and could double that. Look, he's the most fabulous player I've ever seen, better (in my opinion) than Michael or Kobe, and more likeable than either of them too. He's damn near the perfect professional athlete, in my eyes. But if he ever makes $30 million, I'm going to be sick.
This isn't the early-2000s when Alex Rodriguez was breaking the bank -- but not really, because the bank was still the steadiest pillar of American society. A-Rod could sign his 10-year, $252-million contract because that's what the market would bear, and capitalism has worked in this country since about 1776.
But this country has changed. Most of us weren't around for the Great Depression, but what has happened here since late 2008 will suffice. Millions lost their homes and their jobs. Older folks -- my mom and my dad, to name two -- lost retirements they had been saving for 40 years in a matter of months. Entire banks folded.
So now NBA players, angling for their next collective bargaining agreement, want to break the bank? Sorry, guys, but the bank already broke.
And so I'm putting my faith in David Stern. He's the smartest commissioner I've ever seen, and that's saying something. The NFL's Roger Goodell is no dummy, and neither is baseball's Bud ... never mind. But anyway, Stern is the smartest commissioner I've seen since I started following this stuff in 1981. The guy's brilliant, and he strikes me as fair. He postures on behalf of the owners, obviously, but remember -- he has overseen a league that has allowed a stiff like Mike Dunleavy to earn $9.8 million for his 11.2 points per game, where Tracy McGrady makes $23.2 million for not being healthy enough to play, and where Kwame Brown commits a felony every time he cashes his $4.1 million paycheck.
And if David Stern says this financial insanity cannot continue, well, guess what?
I'm inclined to listen.
