Posted by Nalod:

Posted by playa2:

If the NBA REALLY CARED for the young players today, they wouldn't just have someone get up in front of them for a few minutes or a day.

The method they are using might be well taken by past generation ball players, but these guys make a significant more amount of money in such a short amount of time it ain't funny.

IMHO to reach this generation the NBA should put together a filmed documentary of interviews done with former players who never planned for their future and thought the money would last forever.

We live in a video generation now, so if you really want to get something across to young people you don't just lecture them with knowledge, you also put it in a cinema(video) type form, then you would get their undivided attention.

Show them the players who played decades before them who also thought they knew it all, have them explain and discuss their extravagant lifestyles and baby making adventures.

Then after you show the bad news on what not to do, show a video on those who made some intelligent and wise decisions after playing ball and then have some financial experts to give some sound advice on what to do with some of their money that won't even affect their current lifestyle.

This would show me that the NBA "really cared"

Maybe cartoons can help.

Don't blame the NBA, the Union does plenty to help them.

Instant money is not an easy thing to digest.

Posted by rocknick:

I think the players union needs to step up in regards to this (I say this not knowing what they are currently doing). I can remember being 20yrs old. I played college football in D1-AA and I know the issues with that. Being a 20 yr old basketball player at the top of my game and having 4 mil. in my pocket would be a very tough thing to handle from a maturity standpoint. Your mind isn't on 10yrs from now. Its on doing all of the things in life you've dreamed about. It's easy to look down on a kid and say, "well he should know better". Now people like Spree?? No excuse in my book for players like him . . . and I'm a big Sprewell fan.

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by rocknick:

I think the players union needs to step up in regards to this (I say this not knowing what they are currently doing). I can remember being 20yrs old. I played college football in D1-AA and I know the issues with that. Being a 20 yr old basketball player at the top of my game and having 4 mil. in my pocket would be a very tough thing to handle from a maturity standpoint. Your mind isn't on 10yrs from now. Its on doing all of the things in life you've dreamed about. It's easy to look down on a kid and say, "well he should know better". Now people like Spree?? No excuse in my book for players like him . . . and I'm a big Sprewell fan.

I'm not looking down on guys like this. I too know what it's like to be young. I also know what it's like to go from being poor to having some money in my pocket. But this is real life and if guys won't listen to the advice of veterans and 6 day seminars and team suggestions sometimes the only way they will learn is to suffer the consequences. Sometimes losing all your money is sthe one way to teach you to value your money. Now the NBA should constantly evolve in the way they try to teach these guys. They owe it to them. But they are not responsible for making sure these guys take advantage of the resources avaialable. It is up tot he players. Pretty damn sure bet that after they go bankrupt and then have to get regular jobs like the rest of us, they will begin to value money.

It is not the NBA's responsibility to make sure that a millionaire remains a millionaire. It is the millionaire's responsibility. Make bad choices and pay the consequences just like every other person on the planet.

Posted by playa2:

You guys crack me up

Posted by sebstar:

Posted by playa2:

when you are in the situation being coddled all your formative yrs , growing up with a broken home, TV becomes your standard on how to live and what to get a buy growing up.

Now if you or I would have won the lottery at 18-19 yrs old, how many hanger oners would we still have ? How many school buddies would still be our friends. Who would we trust with all the vultures out there plus relatives. This is how a kid coming from an uneducated family has to think.

I don't think everyone would make the right choices in those type of circumstances.

You don't really know what you would do in those circumstances.

This is exactly right. Many athletes, thrust in the limelight and with little-to-no background on how to deal with such circumstances, are essentially sitting ducks. Its not the same as Joe-Anonymous getting a decent windfall from his corporate job.

Its easy to sit here and pass judgment considering that I damn near eat Ramen noodles every night, but I think its unfair to not appreciate what many top-shelf athletes are faced with. Impoverished backgrounds, youth, mental and physical demands, hanger-ons...ext.

Nothing is absolute, and I understand that it can be hard to garner sympathy for NBA'ers considering how out-of-whack the pay scales are

I think everyone on this site acknowledges what you and playa keep saying they don't acknowledge. Yes we understand young guys are poor, get lots of money and don't know what to do with it. So the question becomes what should the NBA be doing? If a 6 day seminar and ongoing training from team officials isn't enough, what is? The resources are there for everyone but noone wants to listen to the corporate exec of the team telling you what you should be doing. So what is the solution? We have taught these kids over and over that the execs don't care about their well being so how do we get the kids to listen to anyone besides those making the same mistakes? When is it the responsibility of the player to explore his own circumstances?

It is not their right to be millionaires. If they pay the consequences the life hands them because they don't want to listen to the resources given to them, they simply become like you and me. It's not that bad.