Submitted by admin on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 08:51
How many of us hate our jobs?
While many of us are thrilled to even have a job at the moment, that doesn’t mean that we actually love getting up in the morning to go to it. For many of us it’s just a means to an end…many of our jobs are not meaningful careers.
Playing in the NBA - a chance of a lifetime
But what if you were able to get up each day, for so many days a year, and do something that you enjoyed doing? What if you enjoyed this job so much that it became a highly paid career?
And what if your career was to play a game for so many months within a calendar year?
Would you enjoy that job? Of course you would, as a matter of fact I’m sure that many of you are wondering where you can sign up right now, well you can if you’re being drafted into the NBA. But at the moment, that may not be such a great thing to be doing either, since these men are going out on strike.
Are you kidding me!
How do you go out on strike from playing a game? You’d almost think that some “other worldly” influence was affecting these players, because I just cannot fathom any rational explanation as to a walkout of this magnitude by a bunch of people that are living their dreams to play a game that they love to play.
Forget about the love of the game
In the last round of talks between the NBA team owners, and the team players, with NBC commissioner David Stern, the players not only rejected the latest offer, they apparently are now looking to decertify their union. And there are definitely different points of view from both ends of the bargaining table.
Commissioner Stern had said that this latest decision on the part of the players to decertifying the union was a terrible idea, and on the other end of the table Derek Fisher, president of the player’s union stated that “This is the best decision for the players,” and “I want to reiterate that point, that a lot of individual players have a lot of things personally at stake in terms of their careers and where they stand.”
It's all about the money
In my opinion, this decision is purely based on greed, and shows that the players have no real consideration for the fans that follow the sport from week to week. Several years ago the NBA’s Charles Barkley was in the news for his statement “I am not a role model,” which was actual text for a Nike commercial that sparked a lot of discussion and controversy for Barkley.
In truth, these athletes whether they like it or not, are role models and it’s really not a matter of parents not raising their children, as was suggested by Barkley’s rather crude comments during the controversy. It’s a matter of kids seeing their idols playing a game that they excel in and get paid very well to play, on top of the money that they make doing promotions for such companies as Nike and Gatorade to name just two.
Maybe we should just blame the devil
Remember that “other worldly” influence that I alluded to earlier in this article, well let’s take a bit of a leap here and fan the fires a little…is it possible that the devil made these players do it? For those of you readers who believe in “Heaven and Hell,” and believe in a Father over all creation and that an angel was cast from the heavens and fell to earth to become the lord of Hades, then is it a stretch to believe that Satan is influencing these players decision to reject this latest contract?
While this may be a stretch for many of you, there is no doubt that many people associate the devil with greed, among other things, be it sexual immorality (promiscuous sex), pride and conceit (yeah, we see a lot of that in professional sports), and anger, rage, and voilence (sure that happens from time to time also). So is the devil at work today in the NBA?
Who knows what's really going on here? All I know is this - how can you be blessed with so much talent, only to let the love of money and your pride further destroy a past-time loved by so many people? The NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball ... professional sports today is losing it's luster. Rather than the players shining on the field, now it's gold chains, Bentleys, Lamborghinis, and appearances on MTV Cribs that are getting them the attention.
Just remember who they say was responsible for getting Eve to take a bite from the Apple in the Garden of Eden…it certainly wasn’t Adam. Certainly, we have been witness to “Pure Evil” throughout much of man’s history; is that what we are witnessing in regard to the NBA players and this walkout?
Did the devil make them do this? That’s something that only you, dear reader can decide for yourself.
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NBA "strike"
Technically, the players did not go out on strike. The owners locked them out. It's not only money that is the issue here. Players want to be able to work for who they choose. You and I can leave our jobs for a better one at any time. So players feel like they should be able to do the same. Plus, when you buy a jersey and it has a player's name on the back and his number on it, the players want a cut of that sale. Neither of these are unreasonable from a player's standpoint.
What players don't seem to get are two things.
One is the owners will still be rich whether basketball is played or not. They don't need basketball. If an owner wakes up tomorrow and his money is gone, it will have nothing to do with the fact that there was no basketball played this year. Players? Not so much. So the owners are in control here. It's not like a player making millions playing for the Nuggets, covered in tattoos from head to toe, can go get a job in a three piece suit tomorrow making millions.
Two is that they are not in a traditional business. If McDonalds puts Wendy's and Burger King out of business, hooray for them. That means everyone will have to eat at McDonalds. If the Lakers put the Timberwolves, Nuggets, Rockets, Spurs and all the other franchises out of business, not so good for them. Without those other "businesses" there is no need for the Lakers. So it behooves the Lakers and all the "big market" teams to keep the little guys in the game. This cannot be done by running these franchises like a true free market enterprise. The object is to crush them on the basketball court, not in the market. Players do not seem to get that.
Three is that while that jersey may have James #6 on it, it also has Miami on it too. So a 50-50 split seems to be more than fair.
But do not for one minute think this is about players being greedy. The players are taking a lot of hits in their pocket regardless. They are trying to take as few as possible. Can't really blame them for that.