Quick rant while I wait for my friend to get back from work: All I hear about on ESPN today while watching basketball on the little news ticker is how Stephon Marbury and the Knicks are quarreling. Apparently, Marbury (who had been riding the pine all season due to a me-first mentality) was asked to suit up for an upcoming game due to people getting traded and having a thin bench. The Knicks suspended him for disagreeing to do so. Although he hasn't come up with a defense, he simply said that those EXACT words didn't come out of his mouth, and "the marriage is over, it's done" regarding his relationship with the team.
THEY PAY HIM $22,000,000 THIS SEASON.
I don't care if his feelings are hurt. I don't care if the organization has blackballed him up to this point, and are only using him out of necessity. The man is making more money than most people will see in a lifetime, and if the organization that is paying him says jump, he should say how high. Frankly, money aside, I don't think any athlete should be able to refuse to play for the organization THEY SIGNED THE CONTRACT WITH based strictly on principle, let alone when you're simply being a spoiled brat.
More and more, you see athletes today focusing less on championships and more on getting paid. It's uncanny how well players will play in a contract year (meaning this is the last year before they are a free-agent again), after having terrible years previously. On the same note, it's amazing how hard some guys work, then as soon as they get that big contract, they start mailing it in, playing without the passion that got them paid in the first place.
On top of that, agents are no less to blame. Scott Boras is the devil - I realize it's the nature of his job to an extent, but his greed is in a level of its own. The thing that boggles my mind is the length of the contracts. 6-10 years for men that are in their early/mid 30's, where statistics show they are going to begin to fade within the first few years. How does this make sense?
I don't understand why contracts can't be year-to-year (actually, I do, but the answer is so political and far away from the integrity of the game that I just can't bring myself to accept it). It should be that way anyways! If the player is going to be as good as the agent says they are, then it shouldn't be a concern of theirs to be able to go one year at a time on the negotiating table. Injuries happen. Aging happens. Unfortunately, I can't really sympathize for someone for only making $2 million one year instead of $10 million. It's a privelege to play a sport, something kids do for the love of the game, for an amount of money that if managed correctly will set these people up for the rest of their lives, and they should be put in a position not to forget that.
As for this volleyballer, if I can graduate, head overseas, and make enough to pay off my college loans and bank whatever's left over to possibly put a down payment on my house when I move back to America, I'll consider myself to be the luckiest man on the planet.
Screw you Stephon Marbury.
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