Athletes are employees....act like one.

[jbhofmann]

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

 

[muchuckwagon]

This is just a rant, right?

It is a rant....sports are entertainment. I don't care nor do I want to hear about off the field issues or stars demanding to run organizations. It is entertainment, entertain me...don't make it into a soap opera via the media and don't make your problems, my problem as a fan.

The same goes for sports reporting. I don't want to hear about the "hardship" an athlete faces in their personal life. I don't care who died in their family, family members who are drug addicts, their hardships growing up as a child or family members who are in jail.

I watch sports to be entertained. I have my own problems but I don't have a multi-million dollar contract to help deal with those issues. I turn on the TV to watch sports to be entertained, relax and set aside my own problems for a few hours each week.

 

[sportscardtheory]

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

They are paid by someone. They aren't making their money out of thin air. They play for contracts. LeBron chose to play somewhere else because it was an option he had. He's not in Miami making head coaching decisions and team bankroll decisions. lol

 

[JoshHamilton]

They are not employees. They are investments

All employees are investments

 

[Junior Griffey]

Mike Brown's recipe for winning coach of the year:

1. Have LeBron on your team.
2. Wear a suit.

As a Lakers fan, I'm not a fan of this hire at all.

 

[jbhofmann]

They are not employees. They are investments

All employees are investments

Exactly. Tom on the 2nd shift can be replaced by Dick or Harry from 3rd shift. LeBron, not so much.

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

They are paid by someone. They aren't making their money out of thin air. They play for contracts. LeBron chose to play somewhere else because it was an option he had. He's not in Miami making head coaching decisions and team bankroll decisions. lol

How did 'Bron 'Bron get to Miami? Did he and his posse sit and throw darts at a map? Did he make up his mind while gazing at Jim Gray's long nosehairs? Of course not, 2 other non-disposible "employees" got together and made "team bankroll decisions". You're welcome.

 

[Tomlinson21RB]

They are not employees. They are investments

All employees are investments

Exactly. Tom on the 2nd shift can be replaced by Dick or Harry from 3rd shift. LeBron, not so much.

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

They are paid by someone. They aren't making their money out of thin air. They play for contracts. LeBron chose to play somewhere else because it was an option he had. He's not in Miami making head coaching decisions and team bankroll decisions. lol

How did 'Bron 'Bron get to Miami? Did he and his posse sit and throw darts at a map? Did he make up his mind while gazing at Jim Gray's long nosehairs? Of course not, 2 other non-disposible "employees" got together and made "team bankroll decisions". You're welcome.

And I'm sure there was some say in the head coach. If LeBron and Wade said to Pat Riley that they would only sign if some "Free agent" coach was signed to replace Spolstra, I bet it would have happened.

 

[sportscardtheory]

They are not employees. They are investments

All employees are investments

Exactly. Tom on the 2nd shift can be replaced by Dick or Harry from 3rd shift. LeBron, not so much.

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

They are paid by someone. They aren't making their money out of thin air. They play for contracts. LeBron chose to play somewhere else because it was an option he had. He's not in Miami making head coaching decisions and team bankroll decisions. lol

How did 'Bron 'Bron get to Miami? Did he and his posse sit and throw darts at a map? Did he make up his mind while gazing at Jim Gray's long nosehairs? Of course not, 2 other non-disposible "employees" got together and made "team bankroll decisions". You're welcome.

I didn't thank you. It's funny to me that you see these guys as anything more than what they are... employees.

employee: A person who is hired to provide services to a company on a regular basis in exchange for compensation and who does not provide these services as part of an independent business.


I have never said that some players are influential in their team's decision making, but that doesn't change the FACT that they are still just employees who are paid by the company and who can be "fired" at any moment.

 

[sportscardtheory]

double post

 

[jbhofmann]

They are not employees. They are investments

All employees are investments

Exactly. Tom on the 2nd shift can be replaced by Dick or Harry from 3rd shift. LeBron, not so much.

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

They are paid by someone. They aren't making their money out of thin air. They play for contracts. LeBron chose to play somewhere else because it was an option he had. He's not in Miami making head coaching decisions and team bankroll decisions. lol

How did 'Bron 'Bron get to Miami? Did he and his posse sit and throw darts at a map? Did he make up his mind while gazing at Jim Gray's long nosehairs? Of course not, 2 other non-disposible "employees" got together and made "team bankroll decisions". You're welcome.

I didn't thank you. It's funny to me that you see these guys as anything more than what they are... employees.

employee: A person who is hired to provide services to a company on a regular basis in exchange for compensation and who does not provide these services as part of an independent business.

You're as dense as my grandma's poundcake.

 

[Tomlinson21RB]

They are not employees. They are investments

All employees are investments

Exactly. Tom on the 2nd shift can be replaced by Dick or Harry from 3rd shift. LeBron, not so much.

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

They are paid by someone. They aren't making their money out of thin air. They play for contracts. LeBron chose to play somewhere else because it was an option he had. He's not in Miami making head coaching decisions and team bankroll decisions. lol

How did 'Bron 'Bron get to Miami? Did he and his posse sit and throw darts at a map? Did he make up his mind while gazing at Jim Gray's long nosehairs? Of course not, 2 other non-disposible "employees" got together and made "team bankroll decisions". You're welcome.

I didn't thank you. It's funny to me that you see these guys as anything more than what they are... employees.

employee: A person who is hired to provide services to a company on a regular basis in exchange for compensation and who does not provide these services as part of an independent business.


I have never said that some players are influential in their team's decision making, but that doesn't change the FACT that they are still just employees who are paid by the company and who can be "fired" at any moment.

Isn't that a different argument? Yes, technically they are all employees that can be hired and fired just like anyone else. The rant by the OP seemed to indicated that they should all just be treated as dispensable employees and should not be involved in the business of the team or be allowed to get away with many of the things they get away with. The issue with that is not whether they are in fact employees that can be hired and fired, but why this is not the case and shouldn't be. By definition, Brian Scalabrene and Derrick Rose are just employees of the Chicago Bulls but it's going to take a hell of a lot more for them to fire Rose. And at the same time they need to involve Rose in team decisions so when his contract is up he doesn't decide to seek employment elsewhere.

 

[elmalo]

You have to realize you're dealing with a collective group of workers that have the same level of education as a typical McDonald's employee. Throw in multimillion dollar contracts, the Alpha Male Syndrome, arrogance, a sense of self-entitlement, loads of people kissing their ass and loads of skanks ready to drop their *******, not to mention powerful unions backing them....and you have the perfect recipe for total douchebaggery

We aren't dealing with MENSA members here. We're dealing with Neanderthals who think MENSA is the name of a ***** bar

Actually, most of the Pro athletes that I know are pretty down to earth, intelligent, average every day guys. Bit of a generaliztion dont you think?

 

[sportscardtheory]

They are not employees. They are investments

All employees are investments

Exactly. Tom on the 2nd shift can be replaced by Dick or Harry from 3rd shift. LeBron, not so much.

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

They are paid by someone. They aren't making their money out of thin air. They play for contracts. LeBron chose to play somewhere else because it was an option he had. He's not in Miami making head coaching decisions and team bankroll decisions. lol

How did 'Bron 'Bron get to Miami? Did he and his posse sit and throw darts at a map? Did he make up his mind while gazing at Jim Gray's long nosehairs? Of course not, 2 other non-disposible "employees" got together and made "team bankroll decisions". You're welcome.

I didn't thank you. It's funny to me that you see these guys as anything more than what they are... employees.

employee: A person who is hired to provide services to a company on a regular basis in exchange for compensation and who does not provide these services as part of an independent business.


I have never said that some players are influential in their team's decision making, but that doesn't change the FACT that they are still just employees who are paid by the company and who can be "fired" at any moment.

Isn't that a different argument? Yes, technically they are all employees that can be hired and fired just like anyone else. The rant by the OP seemed to indicated that they should all just be treated as dispensable employees and should not be involved in the business of the team or be allowed to get away with many of the things they get away with. The issue with that is not whether they are in fact employees that can be hired and fired, but why this is not the case and shouldn't be. By definition, Brian Scalabrene and Derrick Rose are just employees of the Chicago Bulls but it's going to take a hell of a lot more for them to fire Rose. And at the same time they need to involve Rose in team decisions so when his contract is up he doesn't decide to seek employment elsewhere.

I understand that every team runs their business differently. I think the OP's rant has more to do with the something along the lines of "If you want to run a team, buy a team." It's just funny to me that some millionaire athletes thinks they are more than just a worker bee for a billionaire who pays his or her paycheck.

 

[elmalo]

Comparing professional sports to regular jobs is absolutely rediculous. It is two different worlds.

 

[jbhofmann]

[quote="jbhofmann":1erbznqb]They are not employees. They are investments

All employees are investments

Exactly. Tom on the 2nd shift can be replaced by Dick or Harry from 3rd shift. LeBron, not so much.

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

They are paid by someone. They aren't making their money out of thin air. They play for contracts. LeBron chose to play somewhere else because it was an option he had. He's not in Miami making head coaching decisions and team bankroll decisions. lol

How did 'Bron 'Bron get to Miami? Did he and his posse sit and throw darts at a map? Did he make up his mind while gazing at Jim Gray's long nosehairs? Of course not, 2 other non-disposible "employees" got together and made "team bankroll decisions". You're welcome.

I didn't thank you. It's funny to me that you see these guys as anything more than what they are... employees.

employee: A person who is hired to provide services to a company on a regular basis in exchange for compensation and who does not provide these services as part of an independent business.


I have never said that some players are influential in their team's decision making, but that doesn't change the FACT that they are still just employees who are paid by the company and who can be "fired" at any moment.

Isn't that a different argument? Yes, technically they are all employees that can be hired and fired just like anyone else. The rant by the OP seemed to indicated that they should all just be treated as dispensable employees and should not be involved in the business of the team or be allowed to get away with many of the things they get away with. The issue with that is not whether they are in fact employees that can be hired and fired, but why this is not the case and shouldn't be. By definition, Brian Scalabrene and Derrick Rose are just employees of the Chicago Bulls but it's going to take a hell of a lot more for them to fire Rose. And at the same time they need to involve Rose in team decisions so when his contract is up he doesn't decide to seek employment elsewhere.

I understand that every team runs their business differently. I think the OP's rant has more to do with the something along the lines of "If you want to run a team, buy a team." It's just funny to me that some millionaire athletes thinks they are more than just a worker bee for a billionaire who pays his or her paycheck.[/quote:1erbznqb]

The problem is, there would be no "hive" without the worker bees. In manufacturing, the next sportscardtheory could step in and run an assembly line. Not so much in professional sports.

 

[Tomlinson21RB]

[quote="jbhofmann":3qfad139]They are not employees. They are investments

All employees are investments

Exactly. Tom on the 2nd shift can be replaced by Dick or Harry from 3rd shift. LeBron, not so much.

They are not employees. They are investments. Ask Dan Gilbert if LeBron was an employee or an investment? Better yet, ask his bank account if LeBron was an employee or an investment. That nutjob lost MILLIONS, seconds after "The Decision". Employees don't have that much power.

They are paid by someone. They aren't making their money out of thin air. They play for contracts. LeBron chose to play somewhere else because it was an option he had. He's not in Miami making head coaching decisions and team bankroll decisions. lol

How did 'Bron 'Bron get to Miami? Did he and his posse sit and throw darts at a map? Did he make up his mind while gazing at Jim Gray's long nosehairs? Of course not, 2 other non-disposible "employees" got together and made "team bankroll decisions". You're welcome.

I didn't thank you. It's funny to me that you see these guys as anything more than what they are... employees.

employee: A person who is hired to provide services to a company on a regular basis in exchange for compensation and who does not provide these services as part of an independent business.


I have never said that some players are influential in their team's decision making, but that doesn't change the FACT that they are still just employees who are paid by the company and who can be "fired" at any moment.

Isn't that a different argument? Yes, technically they are all employees that can be hired and fired just like anyone else. The rant by the OP seemed to indicated that they should all just be treated as dispensable employees and should not be involved in the business of the team or be allowed to get away with many of the things they get away with. The issue with that is not whether they are in fact employees that can be hired and fired, but why this is not the case and shouldn't be. By definition, Brian Scalabrene and Derrick Rose are just employees of the Chicago Bulls but it's going to take a hell of a lot more for them to fire Rose. And at the same time they need to involve Rose in team decisions so when his contract is up he doesn't decide to seek employment elsewhere.

I understand that every team runs their business differently. I think the OP's rant has more to do with the something along the lines of "If you want to run a team, buy a team." It's just funny to me that some millionaire athletes thinks they are more than just a worker bee for a billionaire who pays his or her paycheck.[/quote:3qfad139]

The term worker bee to me means everyone is the same in the hive and each worker bee can step in to replace another. If that's the case, some athletes are not just worker bees for a billionaire who pays his paycheck.

 

[scooter2374]

Like it or not, professional sports are a business, a big business. At the end of the day, athletes are nothing more than employees of their respected team. They are not part of management or the ownership group....let me repeat myself, they are employees but we call them athletes which holds a special place in our society/culture.

Players are paid and paid very well to take the field and execute the game plan. Posada is going to earn $13 million this year, he can't hit his weight and yet recently he refused to take the field. In layman's terms, he refused to work. In the real world he would have been fired....no need for overpaid and unproductive employees on the payroll. If the Yankees had the stones to release Posada, I doubt many, if any, teams would have lined up to pay $13 million for a 40 year old catcher who is struggling at the plate.

There is a buzz around the fact the Lakers didn't consult Kobe before hiring Mike Brown. Who cares? Kobe doesn't own the team, I believe that would be Jerry Buss who will sign Mike Brown's paycheck....right? So why should Kobe be consulting on the hiring process? He is paid very well and expected to perform at an elite level regardless of the coach.

The ego that exists in professional sports today has gone unchecked long enough that it has become detrimental to the product on the field/court and image that is marketed to fans of a "game". We cheer for uniforms, rarely in the age of free agency do we cheer for individual players. People are life long fans or teams, not players.

Perhaps, it is just the media trying to make a story out of nothing to fill air-time. I have lost track of how many times in the last three or four months that I heard an "expert" on ESPN radio declare a player or a player's accomplishment one of the greatest in the history of their sport. Really, if that is true then 2011 will be view by history was the golden age of sports.

When you add it all up - selfish athletes, inflated ticket prices, talk of lockouts - you begin to alienate fans and start to shine the light on the ugly side of sports - MONEY. Once the causal fan starts to view the sport as a business the appeal and magic with sports becomes lost.

My sentiments exactly. I couldn't have said it better myself

 

[Mozzie22]

You have to realize you're dealing with a collective group of workers that have the same level of education as a typical McDonald's employee. Throw in multimillion dollar contracts, the Alpha Male Syndrome, arrogance, a sense of self-entitlement, loads of people kissing their ass and loads of skanks ready to drop their *******, not to mention powerful unions backing them....and you have the perfect recipe for total douchebaggery

We aren't dealing with MENSA members here. We're dealing with Neanderthals who think MENSA is the name of a ***** bar

Actually, most of the Pro athletes that I know are pretty down to earth, intelligent, average every day guys. Bit of a generaliztion dont you think?

Really? You know a lot of professional athletes? I have to agree with the generalization above. You ever watch the post game interviews of NBA players? Half of them couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. So they're not all linguists you say. Fine, how many American presidents do you think LeBron James can name right now? Not how many can he name in a row or what years they served, just names. I put the over under at 4.

 

[DRav87]

You have to realize you're dealing with a collective group of workers that have the same level of education as a typical McDonald's employee. Throw in multimillion dollar contracts, the Alpha Male Syndrome, arrogance, a sense of self-entitlement, loads of people kissing their ass and loads of skanks ready to drop their *******, not to mention powerful unions backing them....and you have the perfect recipe for total douchebaggery

We aren't dealing with MENSA members here. We're dealing with Neanderthals who think MENSA is the name of a ***** bar

Actually, most of the Pro athletes that I know are pretty down to earth, intelligent, average every day guys. Bit of a generaliztion dont you think?

Apparently you don't know Derrick Rose.

 

[hive17]

This is just a rant, right?

It is a rant....sports are entertainment. I don't care nor do I want to hear about off the field issues or stars demanding to run organizations. It is entertainment, entertain me...don't make it into a soap opera via the media and don't make your problems, my problem as a fan.

The same goes for sports reporting. I don't want to hear about the "hardship" an athlete faces in their personal life. I don't care who died in their family, family members who are drug addicts, their hardships growing up as a child or family members who are in jail.

I watch sports to be entertained. I have my own problems but I don't have a multi-million dollar contract to help deal with those issues. I turn on the TV to watch sports to be entertained, relax and set aside my own problems for a few hours each week.

Good points.

Then would it be fair to say you have a problem with sports reporting, and not even the players so much? Besides the "color" commentary during lulls, you don't have to hear too much about anything besides what happens "inside the lines". You could feasibly block out all the ******** and just watch the game if you never tuned into ESPN.

But I'm also with you in that ESPN and others make you sit thru their BS "in-depth reporting" when you're just trying to get the highlights and the stats.