Thank you, David Stern.
Since you and the NBA owners are having such a hard time winning the public’s sympathy to your cause after locking up the players, I will do the PR job for you. Face it, you and the owners are less popular than Anthony Casey swore. You claim NBA teams are losing money because player salaries are too high. Players, including, do not expect to return any of their salaries to their billionaire employers. These opposing considerations will ensure that the lockout will be uglier and last longer than a Mexican Hairless cat sleeping in an oxygen chamber.
Mr. Stern, it is unlikely that you support the idea of wealthy, tax-subsidized owners seeking to portray players as greedy, unscrupulous, and grossly underpaid. You can do this by comparing the player’s salaries to those groups of people who are blamed – Fortune D CEO’s who run “big oil” companies, inhumane health -carenem, greedy financial service organizations, and artists who plunder the planet Avatar are mined.
So here’s what you do: Compare the 2010 pay for Fortune 500 CEO groups with salaries below average NBA players. Player compensation for NBA contracts only (excludes endorsements), while CEO pay includes salary plus the value of the company salary they have. Your PR salary comparisons. After all, would the average person prefer the lifestyle of an NBA player or a CEO? I call it easy. Players stumble around and then go back to the Ritz Carlton to sleep and play X-Box for nine hours. Army CEO 3:00 p.m. quarterly earning conference calls from Hong Kong while lowering blood pressure medication and burning catpotions as Mike & amp; Ike’s. Watch:
$12.0-$15.9 Million
Players: Richard Jefferson (SAN, $14.2), Larry Hughes (SAC, $13.6), Peja Stojakovic (NOH, $13.4), Brad Miller (CHI, $12.2), Erick Dampier (DAL, $12.1).
CEOs: Brian Moynihan (American, $15.4), Andrew Liveris (Dow Chemical, $14.1), Robert Eckert (Mattel, $12.8), Richard Davis (US Bancorp, $12.4), and George Barrett (Cardinal Health , $12.3).
$9.0.-$11.9 Million
Players: Bobby Simmons (NJN, $10.6), Eddy Curry ($10.5), Ben Wallace (PHO, $10.0), Cuttino Mobley ($9.5), and Darius Miles (POR, $9).
CEO: Peter Darbee (Pacific Gas & Electric, $11.7), John Watson (Chevron, $11.7), Vikram Pandit (Citigroup, $11.6), George Buckley (3M, $10.5), and James Wells. SunTrust Bank, $9.4).
$5.0-$8.9 Million
Players: Thomas Kenny (SAC, $8.8), Mark Blount (MIN, $8.0), Ethan Thomas (OKC, $7.4), Brian Cardinal (NYK, $6.8), Dan Gadzuric (GSW, $6.7), Jason Kapono (PHI, $6.2), DeSanga Diop (CHA, $6.0), Adam Morrison (LAL, $5.3).
CEO: David Cordani (Cigna, $8.9), Robert Henrickson (MetLife, $8.9), David Wood (Murphy Oil, $7.8), Mark Ketchum (Newell Rubbermaid, $7.2), Donnie Smith (Tyson Foods, $5.2 ).
Under $5.0 Million
Players: Matt Carroll (DAL, $4.7), Marcus Banks (TOR, $4.6), Darius Songalia ($4.5), Hasheem Thabeet (MEM, $4.5), Trenton Hassell (NJN, $4.4).
CEO’s: Scott Donnelly (Textron, $3.7), Larry Zimpleman (Principal Financial, $3.1), Russell Smyth (H&R; Block, $2.5), Lynn Elsenhans (Sunoco Oil, $2.3), Daniel Fulton ( H&R Weyerhauser, $1.7).
For the same amount of money, who was more valuable in 2010, Larry Hughes and his 9.0 points and 3.2 rebounds per game, or the guy who runs Mattel and increased his stock by 27%? Who worked last year, Eddy Curry and spent 62 minutes total all season, or the CEO of Chevron? For the same salary, Adam Morrison would rather be human and earn $5 million in cash and a championship ring for sitting on the bench in Los Angeles, or would they rather be Donnie Smith and be responsible for 115,000 Tyson Foods employees? Plus, NBA players become multi-millionaires when they first sign a one-year contract removed from high school. Most CEOs worked their way up to the top for twenty or thirty years before earning big salaries. The average person understands and even keeps. This is the kind of logic that can help you get a better public perception and a better business deal.
You could even tell that good (not great) players can become incredibly rich if they stick around long enough. Few people probably know that Jermaine O’Neal earned $153,000,000 in salary during his career alone, or that Juwan Howard made $150,000,000. Other good, but not great, fans in the CMillion Dollar Club? Elton Brand ($126 million), Zydrunas Ilgauskas ($124), Rashard Lewis ($117), Shawn Marion ($107) , Mark Camby ($107), Mike Bibby ($105), and Michael Redd ($100). Guys like Erick Dampier ($98) and Andrei Kirilenko ($91) are knocking on the door of the club. That door was large, heavy, solid with gold, and with a diamond ring.
As for my compensation for the sum of this game exchange rate for you, Mr. Stern? All I ask is a reasonable sum in NBA terms. You know, pay me like what an average NBA player like Tayshawn Prince or Richard Hamilton earned in 2010.
Both made over $10 million. You can send it to my PayPal account.
