RE: 'Sheed speaks up for the exploited masses

[Josh Rice <joshr@xxxxxxx>]

What is interesting to consider here has nothing to do with Sheed - he's a
pretty unattractive character - but.

The NBA is in fact a charade to some degree. We don't know the degree, at
least I don't. The league is not about basketball, it is about money. The
real money is in endorsements, advertising, TV contracts, etc. Winning a
championship has no real economic value. The #1 goal of 90% of the players
is to make enough hi-lite clips to get an endorsement. The #1 goal of 90% of
the front offices is make big money by getting on TV and raise the resale
value of the team. David Stern is the mastermind, and we all know he plays
by Enron rules.

Bottom line, the league is a TV show. TV shows are always scripted to some
degree. What is the degree?

joshr

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-celtics@xxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-celtics@xxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
Kestutis Kveraga
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 6:17 AM
To: celtics@xxxxxxxx
Subject: 'Sheed speaks up for the exploited masses


Speaking of Rasheed, some priceless quotes from him, courtesy of ESPN:

"In an interview published in Thursday's edition of The Oregonian, Wallace
said
league's white establishment is exploiting young black athletes to enrich
itself.

"I'm not like a whole bunch of these young boys out here who get caught up
and
captivated into the league," Wallace, 29, said. "No. I see behind the lines.
I
see behind the false screens. I know what this business is all about. I know
the commissioner of this league makes more than three-quarters of the
players
in this league."

[My comment]. If it weren't for the Commish, the NBA Finals would probably
still be shown on tape delay and you'd be making $207,000 per season (if
you're
lucky), not $207,000 PER GAME.


"Wallace added that teams are drafting high school players because they want
athletes who are "dumb and dumber."

"That's why they're drafting all these high school cats, because they come
into
the league and they don't know no better. They don't know no better, and
they
don't know the real business, and they don't see behind the charade."

[My comment] The real charade is that this is coming from a guy who's being
exploited to the tune of $17M per year to be a destructive influence on his
team. If that's exploitation, please exploit me! Heck, I'd even settle for
the
rookie-scale  wages -  a mere few mil/year - that the "dumb and dumber" (as
'Sheed so kindly calls them) get for being born tall and athletic and
'captivated into the league'.

The reason Rashweed's feeling like the class valedictorian? His wife's been
educating him about this cause-and-effect thing:

"Wallace said his wife helped him realize that some of his actions can have
a
negative effect on their family, such as when he was arrested and charged
with
marijuana possession in November 2002 while riding in a sport utility
vehicle
with guard Damon Stoudamire."

[My comment] I guess missing checks at roughly $207K/game while 'Sheed's
suspended (again) doesn't make the missus very happy. That kind of coin buys
a
lot of bling bling.

Anyway, as fantastically talented as he is, trading for him would amount to
dropping a 'daisy cutter' on our team's morale. I'm sure he'd teach our
'cats'
a few things, show them 'behind the lines', and make them see through the
charade. It would be better than the peer-to-peer counselling that Joe Forte
so
helpfully provided for his fellow rooks.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1683689