Those Million Dollar Slaves

Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Jackie Robinson, Micheal Jordan, have accomplished so much in the world of sports and broke barriers for many athletes generations after them. Even though they gained wealth and fame they were still slaves. I'm sure you are thinking what am I talking about. Let me make this simple and plain. They were "million dollar slaves" think about it like this when there is an NFL or NBA draft you see many young, tall, and brute African-American men being selected by coaches and team owners who are "White" and they sign a contract and gain endorsement deals. Hmmm we have seen this scene somewhere earlier in American history; the slave auctions. African-Americans were auctioned off and examined by their height, teeth, appearance, etc. just like animals for hard manual labor and breeding purposes.

As a former athlete I respect professional athletes and what they do I understand some people do it for the love of the game and while others do it for the money and I do not feel as though anything is wrong with that.

NBA Lockout 2011: The current lockout is the fourth lockout within the history of NBA ( National Basketball Association) it began on July 1, 2011. During this time teams cannot trade, sign or contract players, and players cannot access NBA team facilities, trainers, or staffs. All pre-season games and the first two weeks of the 2011-2012 season  have already been cancelled. Some players have signed contracts overseas while other players have the option to return to the NBA when the lockout ends. The lockout will remain in effect until the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) reaches a deal with the NBA owners.

What Caused It? Apparently negotiations on a new CBA began in early 2011. The league claimed that it was losing $300 million a year (22 out of 30 teams were losing money last season) and proposed to reduce 40% of players' salary (about $800 million) and this would create a hard salary cap ( $45 million per team) as opposed to a soft cap ( at $58 million) currently in use. The union disputed those figures and opposed those changes. Players union director Billy Hunter said that he was advising players to prepare for a lockout. Therefore by May 2011, the NBPA filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), accusing the league of negotiating in bad faith. Although the  NBA rejected this complaint saying that the league complies fully with federal labor laws.

Impact? The cancellation of the first two weeks of the season cost players around $175 million in lost pay. As of October 25th, an estimated 400 NBA alteration since the the lockout around in 200 the league office and another 200 among 30 teams.




Toni's Thoughts: As I said once before these men are million dollar slaves and I support them 100 % I hope they get what they are asking for. I played basketball, ran track, and Cross Country and at the end of the day the school and the coaches benefited from my aches, pains, and sweat. The same thing applies to colleges in the country there is money to made from the Athletic Department the athletes should always remain students first but the school, coaches, and program benefits the hard work of its athletes. You have to perform sick or well if you have never played sports or do not watch sports then I feel as though you can not look down on athletes.



They have a job and they receive a paycheck sure the professionals make millions but so many sacrifices must be made to please coaches and team owners. The team owners are billionaires which means they are "wealthy" while the athletes are " millionaires" trust me there is a difference. No, the athletes are not saving lives although they are putting theirs on the line baseball, basketball, football, and soccer players suffer serious injuries everyday. Last year people in Cleveland were pissed that Lebron James wanted to play for the Miami Heat he is a stellar basketball player but would have no chance of winning a championship ring if he would have stayed in Cleveland those cheap bastards wanted him to run, jump, and skip to their beat.