Part of the Problem with Professional Sports

Watching the Celtics get smoked last night by the lowly Atlanta Hawks, 100-96, ("Victory eludes Celtics") we were hounded by dark and negative thoughts. To wit: No wonder Red bought the farm a week before this Titanic edition of his beloved Celtics set sail.

Bob Cousy (guest announcer) informed us that the average age of last night’s Celtics starters was 22, his tone if not his words telling us this was the root of the problem.

Now, we all know that we go onto the floor with the team we have, not the team we want to have. Not the team we drafted. Not the team we are paying obscene wheelbarrows of cash to to don the green and white. Basically, we go into the game with the team who can’t afford to goldbrick.

An average age of 22 means that right now the once-mighty Celtics are in effect a college team, which sounds about right. At present they would have a tough time cracking the college top ten. The reason these kids are out there at all is that the Celtic’s entire starting five are out injured.

Now, Paul Pierce, Brian Scalabrine, Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West and Theo Ratliff (not to mention sixth man Tony Allen) are not going to give the Mavs or Suns much to worry about in a playoff series, but hell, even a blind pig finds a truffle once in a while. In fact, the starters are earning an AVERAGE of $5.5 MILLION while sitting on the bench in street clothes watching the games and cheering.

Cousy, as always the master of understatement and condemnation by implication, went on to note how much the game has changed since he played. "Athletes today are so much bigger and stronger and faster that they used to be, but the one thing they are not, is more durable."

Is this possible? Perhaps the bigger bodies and stronger muscles are putting unsustainable loads and stress on bones, tendons and joints designed for more mundane wear and tear. Was this what the Hall of Fame guard was alluding to?

We suspect not. Rather, like most things in this life, it boils down to money. Surely some roundball fanatic MBA candidate will soon write this phenomena up as a metronomic analysis, maybe win a Nobel prize in economics, showing that in an increasing number of cases NOT playing their chosen sport may be the smartest microeconomic decision for many of these star professional athletes.

Think of it this way. In the NBA at least, players get guaranteed contracts. The average player salary is currently;y $3.7 million, and taking into account the newer, unproven players, who can earn as little as $412,718 (and who, not coincidentally, are the only ones playing for the Celtics currently), the average veterans contract is over $5 M.

Now, as clueless and shortsighted as most of these athletes seem, all of them have very smart and sober agents, many of the Jewish persuasion (and we say that with pride and envy – another path not taken), who have negotiated the devil into these contracts, which commonly include multi-million dollar cash bonuses, deferred payments, ancillary off-court deals, direct deposits in off-shore accounts and huge salary payments to the heirs of heirs, yo unto the Nth generation. For example, the Celtics are still paying Vin Baker.

So there you are, 26 or 27 years old, a multi-millionaire after growing up in poverty, and you’ve finally made it to the big time. But it’s hard work – countless hours of hard work, discipline, sacrifice to get to the Show; drugs and gangs passed by, given up, relationships sacrificed, friends left behind, hard lessons learned.

And you soon realize that’s just the beginning; endless more sweat and discipline are required just to stay where you are. Because it’s no picnic at the top. There are 50 million kids out there who would kill for your job. 500 of them just might have the skills and the chance to take it from you.

And then, in an inspired moment of world-class athletic self-expression, going in for a dunk, or coming down with a rebound, or flying into a 300-lb 7-foot moving pick, you crack a bone, or pull a muscle, or sprain a joint, or tweak an old injury somewhere.

Now, you could just tape it up, play in pain, gut on through for the team and your teammates and the love of the game, and maybe get your surgery done after the season. But would that really be the prudent thing to do, from a financial and career point of view? A few more games, at the risk of, what, 5 or 6 more years at that $5 million average salary! You’d have to be nuts, or retarded, to risk that kind of future income for a questionable short-term benefit.

Or you can decide to ride the bench for a while. The checks keep coming – your income is not affected, and you have more time to enjoy being able to do pretty much anything you want. Of course, you have to do your rehab a few hours a day, in a 20 million dollar state-of-the-art private facility with a team of doctors (who ply you with legal narcotics), nutritional experts and trainers. And you get to watch live professional games in your favorite sport and root for your favorite team.

The only thing you are giving up is the visceral thrill of hearing the crowd roar when your name is announced, or when you do something spectacular, and that is no little thing for a professional athlete, but you have received so much acclaim in your life, that perhaps you can wait a while for another dose.

Of course, while you are out injured you are giving up opportunities to burnish your legend, add to your statistics and increase your value as a player for future contracts. However, once you are a veteran, and have proved your value, ability to play at this level and to produce numbers, you would only increase your future value marginally while risking shortening your career by playing through injuries.

The exceptions are the young guys, the Allan Rays and Rajon Rondos, who have yet to prove themselves and get their first big guaranteed contract. Even they suddenly find themselves with more money than they had ever imagined before, but they realize its just a taste so far, and they will do anything to prove themselves worthy of joining the multi-millionaires they see cheering them on from the sidelines.

Therein lies the problem.

In Cousy’s day, professional basketball players were one nasty fall away from baling hay or stocking the top shelves at the A & P. They had no high-powered agents, no investments, no pensions and no guarantees. If they couldn’t play for any extended period due to injury their stock dropped faster than Enron’s. Of course they played hurt. They would be crazy not to.

Today, the situation is reversed. Looked at from a strictly economic potential gain/potential loss point of view, most professional athletes are much better off not playing most of the time. In fact, after running the numbers, we are frankly surprised more professional athletes are not on the injury list.

At least until fans get sick of seeing their favorite stars getting paid not to play, and find a way to change the rules. It’s just a game, after all.