While most of us will be enjoying a fat turkey for Thanksgiving the National Basketball Players Association is serving out to their overpaid athletes a big fat goose! It is a special goose. There are few of them in the world. There will be one less when the axe comes down soon on the neck of this honker. It is the GOOSE THAT LAID THE GOLDEN EGG!
That "goose" is the owners of this league. They are the ones who risk their millions and use other millions to build attractive arenas for basketball. They are the men who have pumped economic life into cities like, Detroit, Memphis, Phoenix and other places. Hundreds, and even thousands of related jobs are tied to the NBA. All those folks will have a bleak Thanksgiving and Christmas while these misguided, selfish, spoiled athletes finish off their final plate of goose.
Personally, the demise of the NBA doesn't bother me all that much. The way this game is played has changed drastically since I saw the first high school basketball game at Cavanaugh, Arkansas. The guys on that rural team practiced and played outdoors. They wore shorts....real short ones....not those ugly baggy things worn today. The court was dirt.There was little contact with a player who had the ball. There was no dunking. Shooting skills were important, not just standing over a goal and stuffing the ball in the ring. With a tie- ball the two contestants would "jump center". A high scoring game would be a anything above thirty! The guys played for the love of the game. They were going no where later, except to the fields to plow in the spring.
It is incredible what these guys are paid today. Coming out of a university where they had everything paid for them, they often get an annual salary beyond that of the President. They have opportunities beyond imagination to make other monies and expand their millions. Most of them have no concept of saving or investment.
Well, the goose is cackling. The axe is being sharpened. These guys who know only how to dribble and block and dunk may find it a bit more difficult when they actually have to work for a living. Honk! Honk!
