If You Make $12 million a Year, Can You Claim to be Underpaid?
In this Sports Illustrated piece, the 10 most underpaid basketball players are profiled. My how we have skewed the value of chosen professions. While a missionary, social worker, or inner city school teacher scrapes by on fumes, we are paying really big people millions to bounce a ball and shoot it through a hoop.
But such is the free market. The truth is that good basketball players are harder to find than good teachers. The market for basketball players is a tight one and the competition to sign them is stiff. But what are we telling our children? While most of of our children will not end up hitting a baseball or bouncing a basketball, we expend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars feeding their desire to play. In the meantime, homework suffers and many of these children end up dropping out of high school, or going to community college or settling for lesser known state schools and never reach their true potential.
For that small percentage that makes it to the NBA, NFL or MLB or whatever initials sports enthusiasts follow, the lifestyle if lucrative and dangerous. The off court/field incidences prove that, although they are highly skilled athletes, they suffer from the same humanness that all of us have inherited.
But such is the free market. The truth is that good basketball players are harder to find than good teachers. The market for basketball players is a tight one and the competition to sign them is stiff. But what are we telling our children? While most of of our children will not end up hitting a baseball or bouncing a basketball, we expend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars feeding their desire to play. In the meantime, homework suffers and many of these children end up dropping out of high school, or going to community college or settling for lesser known state schools and never reach their true potential.
For that small percentage that makes it to the NBA, NFL or MLB or whatever initials sports enthusiasts follow, the lifestyle if lucrative and dangerous. The off court/field incidences prove that, although they are highly skilled athletes, they suffer from the same humanness that all of us have inherited.
posted by jawbone at
9:16 AM
3 Comments:
Do you mean to say that allowing your child to participate in sports is a poor decision. I venture to say that most high school dropouts and/or state college attenders (whether in sports or not) are products of much worse than misplaced focus.
By
Anonymous, at 7:22 PM
Jawbone isn't suggesting that participating in sports is a bad thing. However, I think the bottom line is where your treasure is, there will your heart be. Sports, for some, can be an addiction. It becomes an idol. We've tried to give our children a balance. To just simply introduce your children to sports is short sighted. Music, for example, lasts a life time. When it comes to your children, use sports as a means to an end. Let it be educational and fun. Don't let it consume them. Sports can be a wolf in sheep's clothing. What seems harmless at first can be a huge distraction from what God has planned for your child.
TD
By
Anonymous, at 12:03 AM
I think it's a shame when extra-curricular activities take center-stage to homework, growing spiritually, and spending quality time with friends and family.
Tracie McDaniel
By
Anonymous, at 6:00 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home