It's all about the sponsorships, baby
Hunter Prichard
Issue date: 4/24/09 Section: Sports
When LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade and about ten other top players in the NBA become free agents in 2010, there is going to be a lot of switching teams. The franchises that are going to benefit are going to be the big market teams.
Take the case of LeBron. Right now, he's one of the top two or three payers in the NBA, depending on who you ask, and he's going to have chance to basically pick which team he wants to play for. He could stay in Cleveland if he wants to be considered the "NBA's good guy," he could go to Portland or Oklahoma City (two small markets) if he only cared about winning titles, or he could go to New York and make more money then anybody could ever dream of.
Today, it's money that controls when a game will be played and where. It's the reason why the Super Bowl is now an American event on the level of Thanksgiving - meaning family and friends gathering on a random day every year to eat and drink together, and few care or realize what the reason is. Or why there still isn't a playoff to decide the end of the college football season. Or why the Colts moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis, the Supersonics moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City, and the Hornets moved from Charlotte to New Orleans to Oklahoma City and then back to New Orleans.
I'm all for athletes trying to make as much profit off their skill as they can. However, it's when the athletes starting thinking about money over their team is when things start going downhill.
I would rather see an athlete crying with joy because he has just won a championship, rather then crying with joy because he just got a contract that's big enough to feed ten or fifteen families for a year.
Hunter Prichard writes about sports so he can pick up girls. He once met Nate Robinson in a bathroom.
Take the case of LeBron. Right now, he's one of the top two or three payers in the NBA, depending on who you ask, and he's going to have chance to basically pick which team he wants to play for. He could stay in Cleveland if he wants to be considered the "NBA's good guy," he could go to Portland or Oklahoma City (two small markets) if he only cared about winning titles, or he could go to New York and make more money then anybody could ever dream of.
Today, it's money that controls when a game will be played and where. It's the reason why the Super Bowl is now an American event on the level of Thanksgiving - meaning family and friends gathering on a random day every year to eat and drink together, and few care or realize what the reason is. Or why there still isn't a playoff to decide the end of the college football season. Or why the Colts moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis, the Supersonics moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City, and the Hornets moved from Charlotte to New Orleans to Oklahoma City and then back to New Orleans.
I'm all for athletes trying to make as much profit off their skill as they can. However, it's when the athletes starting thinking about money over their team is when things start going downhill.
I would rather see an athlete crying with joy because he has just won a championship, rather then crying with joy because he just got a contract that's big enough to feed ten or fifteen families for a year.
Hunter Prichard writes about sports so he can pick up girls. He once met Nate Robinson in a bathroom.
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