All-Stars and Nice Cars

We're into All-Star Weekend, with its challenges and shootouts and glamor and showboating. Sure, it's a lot of fun to watch the best basketball players in the world show off their talents for a couple of days. However, it reminds me of a little problem in professional basketball: these players are filthy rich. Not only that, but they seem to be greedy as well. Currently, there is conversation going on between the "Player's Association" and the team owners. The Player's Association is a group of NBA players designated as representatives for the league regarding salary, benefits, contracts, etc. These two sides have been debating over salaries, and they are at a standoff right now. The group of team owners has just ripped up the Player's Association's new offer, and neither side is willing to budge at this point. This means a lockout (where nobody plays) could be in the near future. It would be the first NBA lockout since 1998-1999, when the regular season didn't start until February 5.

Let's take a step back and look at this. The average NBA player's salary is over $5 million! That is more than I am planning on making in my lifetime (unless the secret inventions I'm working on actually come to fruition). The highest-paid player this year, Tracy McGrady, will make $22.9 million (and he has only played 6 games this season due to injury). Sure, they are extremely good at playing basketball, but they are playing basketball. With the way the economy is hurting right now, and with major businesses and programs struggling to stay out of bankruptcy, it makes me a little sick to see all this money going to NBA players.

There's nothing I can do about it, and to be honest, I hope the players and owners come to an agreement soon, because I LOVE watching the NBA. I will probably sit in front of the TV tonight and watch Nate Robinson throw down some impressive dunks, and I will be very pleased. But in my sleep tonight, some small part of me will be squirming, knowing that I support and love some of the most overpaid people in the world. But it will only be in my sleep.