As sports have evolved so have the motives for playing. What was once an industry driven by pride and competition now revolves around something much more material: Money.
$495.
An amount of money that can purchase an old rusty farm truck according to the country music star Kenny Chesney’s popular song, “Never Wanted Nothing More”.
Courtesy SLAMonline
$495 is also the current price of Lonzo Ball’s new signature shoe, “The Big Baller Brand ZO2”.
The price being this high is even more ridiculous considering the fact that Ball has yet to play one minute in the NBA. But by the way his eccentric father, Lavar Ball, markets his son and his products, you would think that Ball is already up in the ranks with the likes of players such as Michael Jordan.
However, this has become the reality in sports culture today–we have encouraged this kind of craziness by idolizing athletes and forgetting what they truly are: athletes.
Just look at how much LeBron James made this past NBA season. The small forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers made $31 million directly from the Cavaliers from salary, as well as an additional $55 million through endorsements, totaling a whopping $86 million total (according to Forbes.)
This is quite different than what it was like for former Boston Celtics star, and Hall of Famer, Frank Ramsey. Ramsey won seven NBA titles in his nine seasons in Boston while playing under the legendary Coach Red Auerbach, during a decade that is considered to be one of the most memorable and decorated in Celtics, as well as NBA, history. I had the incredible opportunity to sit down and chat with the Hall of Famer recently, and his description of what the NBA was like half a century ago is very noteworthy.
The most Ramsey ever made in one season was $12,000, with the team payroll as a whole being just $200,000.
Courtesy Lexingtion Herald Leader
“It’s a completely different atmosphere (today),” said Ramsey. “The minute the season was over when I was playing we all had summer jobs. We didn’t make enough to support a family year-round and the minute the season was over we didn’t touch a basketball until we started training the next year.”
Ramsey would return to his hometown of Madisonville, Kentucky, during the summer months and work various jobs, raging from construction to working at a grocery store.
Ramsey won seven NBA titles, while LeBron has only won three. But LeBron makes approximately 7,167 times more money than Ramsey ever did.
Something is wrong with THAT picture.
Ramsey also did something that is quite honorable. Ramsey had the opportunity to take over the helm of the Celtics when Auerbach retired in 1966, but he declined, and for a very valid reason.
“My kids were growing up and I needed to get them in school,” said Ramsey. “My family was all down here and my daddy was not in real good health. I had also had too many financial interests in Madisonville such as my father’s business. Also it just made sense for me to raise my children in a small town like Madisonville.”
So Ramsey surrendered an opportunity to take over for one of basketball’s all-time greats and come back home to take care of his family…wow. I do not think we would have any athletes today make this sacrifice.
Because professional sports today has become wrapped around one thing: money. Things like family and ensuring good values has taken a backseat in the midst of the pursuit of greed, power, and wealth.
Courtesy Lexington Herald Leader
But it’s not just professional sports. College sports has fallen victim to this as well. On May 1, 2017, the University of Kentucky announced that they were changing the name of their football stadium from “Commonwealth Stadium” to “Kroger Field,” meaning that now all three of the state’s FBS football teams have a corporate sponsor in the name of their stadium—-the other two being Louisville’s Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium and Western Kentucky’s Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium.
I can tolerate Papa John’s and Houchens Industries sponsoring U of L and WKU. This is because they’re both not only in Kentucky, but they are in the same city as the campus of each respective university.
However, Kroger Field I cannot accept.
Kroger is a company based out of Cincinnati. I would be able to come to terms with the name change if they were a Kentucky company, but they are from OHIO. They are replacing the name of “Commonwealth Stadium”, a title that was created back in 1973 to demonstrate that the stadium truly belonged to the people of Kentucky.
But now it is Kroger Field. Why? Because the deal lines the university’s pockets with more wads of cash. UK is receiving $1.85 million annually over the next 12 years as part of the partnership with the Cincinnatti grocery chain.
Sports has simply become motivated by one primary force that is not good for the future: money. Honestly, I think today’s athletes would rather make ridiculous amounts of money than win games and championships.
I long for the days of sports that Frank Ramsey describes, where playing professionally didn’t pay ridiculous amounts, yet they played for the thrill of competition and the love of the game.
Because somewhere these positive values became lost in the shuffle, and it is time for these to become the top priority. It is time to squash the excessive commercialism that has become far too rampant in sports today.
Reach Cameron Brown at cameronbrown647@yahoo.com
