Professional Sports - NBA Players are Greedy

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NBA Players are Greedy

How many of us would love to make $2.4 million a year? Or even better, how does $126 million over a six-year period sound? Then again, why stop there? As John Donovan, a sports analyst for Sports Illustrated and CNN points out, with the average salary of players in the NBA at $2.4 million a year, and some players with contracts well over $100 million, it's hard to see what many of them are complaining about. Players in the NBA need to stop being so greedy, agree to a drug policy and realize that they are employed by the owners and should follow all rules and regulations set by the league.

Even though the NBA is a multi-billion dollar industry, it does not mean that the owners should have to pay over 50% of their revenues in player salaries. Something needs to be done to stop the enormous growth of player salaries that has been taking place the last couple of years. The NBA players union seems to believe that they should have salaries as high as the market can bear. The NBA was started by the owners and others as a business. Therefore, all of the players are employees of the owners and the league. The league and owners are the ones who do all of the advertising, make deals with television stations, sign contracts for licensing and make it all happen. They are the ones who should be reaping the most financial rewards. In his magazine article, "Held Ball", Phil Taylor, a writer for Sports Illustrated lets us know that with the signing of a new four year, 2.6 billion dollar contract with NBC and Turner Sports, the league seems to have plenty of money. But with figures of about a billion dollars being paid out in player salaries, there is not enough money to pay for all the employees, ...

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...h the introduction of a hard salary cap, restricted free agency, and a drug policy, the league would be more competitive and have a better image with the public. It is sad that some players in the league care more about how much money they make than the opportunity that they have, created by the league and the owners, to play the great game of basketball.

Works Cited

Donovan, John. "A lockout primer." October, 1998, Online. World Wide Web. http://cnnsi.com/basketball/nba/1998/labor/news/1998/06/24/lockout_primer/ 13 Oct 1998

Donovan, John. "NBA on Shaky Ground as Owners, Players Fight Over Money." CNN/SI. June 24, 1998

Jorgensen, Loren. "Black day for NBA." Deseret News 14 Oct 1998, none

Robinson, Doug. "In NBA tiff, who are the good guys?" Deseret News 14 Oct 1998, none

Taylor, Phil. "Held Ball." Sports Illustrated Oct 1998: 68-73.

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