Re: interesting NBA notes

[Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu (Kestutis Kveraga)]

--- Joe Hironaka wrote:
At 18:46 11/07/01 -0400, Jim Metz wrote:
>    Please! 60 million dollars! 99 million dollars! What do these players 
> do with that kind of money after they buy mom a house for half a million 
> and a half a million on jewelry and another half a million on cars?

But like I said, these kids are all tax payers and no one's forcing owners 
to pay them that much money. Basketball is my favorite entertainment in the 
world. I don't think anyone on this list doesn't think it is all worth it.
--- end of quote ---

Exactly. To paraphrase the famous saying, we have seen the reason they're
making this kind of money, and it is us! It's simple supply and demand. The
salaries are roughly proportional to 1) the interest the league generates, and
2) the perceived value of the player in the context of the salary structure  of
the league. That's why A-Rod got quarter of a bil, and that's why a superstar
in Major League Soccer (which tightly controls costs by being a 'single
entity') makes a few hundred thousand (at least officially).  Now, what I want
to know is why CEOs who run companies into the ground and cause pain to
innumerable families by firing thousands of workers still make 10, 50, or 200
mil a year. OK, it was a rhetorical question.  
Kestas