I do not understand why people get so worked up about the NBA players making too much money.
Question 1: If I offered you $10 million to play basketball for six months per year, would you reject it because it is too much? if I offered you $10 million to do whatever you are best at, would you reject it?
Question 2: If there were a good chance that your boss would give you a huge raise, would you ask for it? if you thought you deserved a raise, and you asked for it, and your boss gave it to you, would you be wrong?
Question 3: If there were a company that made millions of dollars and had about 8-12 really crucial employees, without whom the company would basically cease to sell any product at all, don't you think those 8-12 people deserve a major share of the company's revenues?
Question 4: If people pay hundreds of dollars to see the Chicago Bulls play basketball and if NBC pays millions to broadcast Bulls games, who deserves the money more, the owner of the Bulls or the players (in particular, Michael Jordan).
My thought on this is that people don't like the fact the players get a ton of money for playing a sport when they have to work their tails off formuch less at jobs that are not fun. But I really do not think many people would turn down that money if it were offered to them, would refrain from asking for it if they thought the answer would be yes, or would feel like it was unfair if they did all of the most valued work and also got about half of the revenues.
If you really want basketball players to earn less money, refuse to attend games, refuse to watch games on TV, call up the sponsors of the NBA and tell them you will not buy their products, etc. Because as long as most NBA games sell out, and as long as television s willing to pay for games 9which in turn means as long as sponsors are willing to pay to advertise on games), the NBA will bring in tons of money. And if the NBA brings in X million per year, the players are going to get about half of that.
Personally, I think they deserve more. I cannot see how the value added by the owners and the league merits more than about 40% of the take. If you exclude the cost of players and you cannot make a huge profit on 40% of the NBA's revenues for all other expenses (coaches, cheerleaders, towel boy, road trips, whatever else), you need a new accountant.
Andy