Athletes get paid far too much money. Even an avid sports fan such as myself must admit it. The contract numbers of athletes around the world are preposterous. Baseball players receive contracts with a sum of hundreds of millions of dollars. This year's football rookie class is considered unfortunate because their contracts get maxed out in the twenty million dollar range (signing bonuses not included). Even cricket players make their millions! Throw on the extra millions for advertisements, and the numbers keep growing. I have engaged in many discussions about the money athletes make which usually ends with a demands/market conclusion. Athletes get paid what they do because there exists a demand for their skills and a market where people will competitively pay for them. (And that's as much our fault as anyone else's, but that's a topic for another day)
As a result of all this we have problems. In this year alone, the NFL wrestled for months over contract disputes before settling. Now, the NBA is in a similar stare-down with the NHL murmuring in the shadows (or at least those are the rumblings). You can look back over the history of sports and document plenty of examples where the issue of money created chaos.
Today I read an article about the current NBA lockout. It's more about the effect the lockout will have on fans, but the first two paragraphs grabbed my attention immediately.
The bond market indicator that has predicted every recession since 1970 is forecasting a 60 percent chance of the economy having another contraction within the next 12 months. Moody's Analytics says there's a 40 percent chance the U.S. will tumble back into the depths of a recession within the next six months. The unemployment rate, some analysts say, is likely to remain above 6 percent until 2015. The hourly pay of people who are employed can't keep pace with inflation. The most recent drop in household income is the largest in several decades and, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, has caused a "significant reduction in the American standard of living."
So with that as the economic backdrop, the NBA has decided to sit it out for a while because the owners and players can't agree on how to split up $4.3 billion. It's difficult to imagine that folks who live in constant fear of losing their jobs, of not being able to make their mortgage payments or pay their kids' tuition or do anything with their money beyond what is absolutely necessary have the stomach for this self-indulgent behavior. The country is in no mood for the NBA's stupid dispute.
As a result of all this we have problems. In this year alone, the NFL wrestled for months over contract disputes before settling. Now, the NBA is in a similar stare-down with the NHL murmuring in the shadows (or at least those are the rumblings). You can look back over the history of sports and document plenty of examples where the issue of money created chaos.
Today I read an article about the current NBA lockout. It's more about the effect the lockout will have on fans, but the first two paragraphs grabbed my attention immediately.
The bond market indicator that has predicted every recession since 1970 is forecasting a 60 percent chance of the economy having another contraction within the next 12 months. Moody's Analytics says there's a 40 percent chance the U.S. will tumble back into the depths of a recession within the next six months. The unemployment rate, some analysts say, is likely to remain above 6 percent until 2015. The hourly pay of people who are employed can't keep pace with inflation. The most recent drop in household income is the largest in several decades and, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, has caused a "significant reduction in the American standard of living."
So with that as the economic backdrop, the NBA has decided to sit it out for a while because the owners and players can't agree on how to split up $4.3 billion. It's difficult to imagine that folks who live in constant fear of losing their jobs, of not being able to make their mortgage payments or pay their kids' tuition or do anything with their money beyond what is absolutely necessary have the stomach for this self-indulgent behavior. The country is in no mood for the NBA's stupid dispute.
The first paragraph alone is a doozie. I am idiot when it comes to economics so I won't even begin to address that issue. What I do know is that God is sovereign and promises to care for the needs of His people according to His good pleasure. This isn't always easily to place our complete faith in, but God's Spirit helps us when we are weak.
As to the basketball issue, it goes to show how money can be blinding. The Bible is filled with passages warning us of the dangers of loving money (Prov. 23:4; Eccl. 5:10; Luke 16:13; 1 Tim. 6:10; Heb. 13:5 to name a few). And the issues between owners and players comes down to two parties wanting more of what they love than the other guys. Yes, both sides have some legitimacy to what their arguing points are, but it really boils down to the love of money. Worse yet, they are doing it on the grand stage in the midst of one of the worst economic crises in our nation's short history.
More than the common person, I want basketball back. I do enjoy watching it. I'll even DVR a game so I can watch it at another point in time (shocking, I know). But the current dispute (and I felt the same way with the NFL over the summer) is embarrassing. It's embarrassing to both the owners and the players in particular. For all their claims of caring for the fans, their actions work contrary to their words. What's worse is their lack of care for the real people who will be affected by their lust for more money: those who make a living by working at sporting venues. These two groups of grown men are fighting over billions of dollars while thousands of individuals are having trouble making enough to provide for their families. Greed for more money, regardless of any justified reasons they have for needing that money, has blinded them to reality.
I like to defend sports as the truest and most entertaining form of reality television. The truth of the matter is sports aren't reality either. At the end of the day, they are merely games. Unfortunately, these games get elevated (at least in my own life). And this elevation coupled with the unfolding of yet another professional sports labor dispute only proves the growing gulf between sports and reality.
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