Posted by sebstar:

"Feeling sorry" is a stretch but getting squeezed by greedy owners and executives, who dont put forth 1/10000000th of the effort but still pocket healthy coin, sucks.

Posted by jimimou:

Posted by sebstar:

"Feeling sorry" is a stretch but getting squeezed by greedy owners and executives, who dont put forth 1/10000000th of the effort but still pocket healthy coin, sucks.

i dont know if you can look at it on its own merits without a little societal comparison seb - i agree athletes make ridiculous coin and shouldn't feel so bad that they are getting squeezed a little, but looking at it from a capitalist point of view - its the same in any industry. forget the amount of $ for a sec - i know its hard to b/c of what some of these guys get paid but, lets say you work hard at your job all year and at salary increase time, your boss says that you're only gonna get a 3.5% cost of living raise when you feel you deserve maybe a 5% or 10% increase b/c of all your valuable contributions to the firm. i think we'd all feel a bit undervalued in that scenario no?

as for the owners, they're job is to make profit and i am sure there is alot that goes into owning a basketball team, so i dont believe its a fair statement to say they only put in 1/10000000th of the effort as they had to work hard (most of them) to get to where they are and i beieve sme of these cats work extrememly hard today on their brand.

not attacking you, just think it's important to see the other side. make sense?

No offense taken at all, good post.

I try to keep players and their salaries in as much context as humanly possible. Players make for easy targets because their earnings are splashed on the front pages, not the earnings of executives and owners. I've always maintained that they wouldn't be command outrageous salaries if they werent generating significant revenue. I try to stay as pro-employee as possible.

That said, their salaries have inflated at such a ridiculous clip, that a little flattening in a tough economy is to be expected. Lee can quibble about a "3-5%" raise, but what would David Lee earn if he were playing in 1988 or 1992? With the hyper-inflation of NBA salaries in consideration, he is still WAY ahead of the curve.

And considering owners and execs. Yeah, some executives may work hard, but they arent subject to anywhere near the scrutiny or deal with the physical cost of being an NBA player. Player makes a mistake, front page headline. Player suffers injury, get out there and play. Not to mention the daily physical tolls and carving out of personal time for practice and training. In addition, lets face it --- most owners and cushy exective positions are born out of nepotism. Not hard work. Thats a situation that kind of hits close to home *coughDolancough*

Posted by TMS:

^ so basically you pretty much sympathize w/the players in this case... interesting, interesting

Posted by nyk4ever:

Do the players feel sorry for me being squeezed by my boss?

Posted by sebstar:

Posted by TMS:

^ so basically you pretty much sympathize w/the players in this case... interesting, interesting

I cant in good conscious "sympathize" with someone making 6 milly as opposed to the 8-10 milly he/she (Bitty!) demands, but I know that the NBA is just an exaggerated version of any employee-employer relationship. Cats at the lower end of the totem poll always take the hit before the cats at the top.