by Andrew Wasik ‘13

With 15.1 percent of the United States population living in poverty and the average Maryland teacher making around $54,300, why are NBA players and owners arguing over the lockout?

With the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expired, the players and owners of the NBA are now fighting over what to do with $170 million dollars that goes toward player salaries and $3 billion dollars that goes to the new CBA that will last the next six years.

Before the lockout NBA players were making on average $4.79 million dollars a year. That’s $92,199 per week. With teachers making less than an NBA player’s weekly salary in a year for doing an actual job as opposed to putting a ball in a hoop, my question is: why are athletes being paid so much? Is it because they really do need the fleet of luxury cars in the garage of a mega mansion?

Basketball is my favorite sport and I avidly follow the entire NBA, but as entertaining as it is I can’t help but feel that players’ extreme salaries could be put towards raising the salaries of policemen or firemen since they protect our community and keep us all safe. The difference between a fireman who risks his life on daily occasions to protect strangers, and a person who gets paid to make two or three points with a ball and a hoop should not be a couple million.

The NBA currently has a league minimum salary. If it is a player’s first year or if the player spends the entire season sitting on the bench or is injured, he will still be making at least $473,604 dollars, all for watching basketball with great floor seats for 82 games. There are countless more mediocre NBA players making more in one season than average working Americans make in a lifetime.

While professional teams do provide entertainment to the community, the prices owners charge are getting outrageous. Floor seat tickets at a Miami Heat game can cost from $900 through $9,000 dollars during the regular season. Sports teams should transition into becoming instruments of the community, for the community. Right now, not just basketball, but all professional sports teams are money-making machines that charge incredibly high prices to earn outrageous salaries.

Some athletes do give back. NBA legend Michael Jordan donated $5 million to the Hales Franciscan High School, a historically black all boys school in Chicago. In one game, Derrick Rose, a current Chicago Bull, donated $1,000 dollars for every point he scored in one game towards relief funds for the Japanese earthquake. He ended up contributing $24,000 at the end of the night.

The NBA itself has enacted programs such as NBA Cares, an organization that will help 10,000 schools and more than 15 million fans by addressing education, health and wellness. To date, the organization has raised more than $160 million dollars and over 1.7 million hours of community service. Organizations like NBA Cares and NFL Play 60 are a start, but with such incredible amounts of money coming in, the money going out to charities is nothing compared to the amount being spent on ridiculous purchases. Chad Ochocinco, New England Patriots wide receiver, purchased a $100,000 semi-truck as a birthday present to himself. He parks it right next to his tiger cage. Orlando Magic guard Gilbert Arenas spends approximately $6,500 a month to keep his own private tank of sharks. With poverty in the United States and starvation all over the world, do you really need that eighth car or that solid gold necklace modeled after your own head? I’m talking to you Marquis Daniels of the Sacramento Kings.

With all this arguing over such an extreme amount of money, I personally say stop whining. You’ll still get paid more than most Americans will ever make in a lifetime by the time next year’s CBA expires, and this process will happen all over again. Stop making ridiculous and unnecessary purchases and start donating more to charity. The community gives to you, and now it’s time to give back.