Hank shockly
Years ago
Poorly written article on bogut from The Advertise
Here's the link
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,15782156%255E23673,00.html
If you want to tell him how ignorant he is you can email him here: [email protected]
And if you don't want to click the link for some reason here it is copyed
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Nobody is worth $15m to play sport
01jul05
THERE is something obscene about a 20-year-old man being paid $15 million a year to play basketball. Nobody, not even a children's heart surgeon, a corporate captain or a moon-walking astronaut, can be worth that much. But apparently Andrew Bogut is.
In case you haven't caught up, Bogut, from Melbourne, was the first pick in the American National Basketball Association draft. In the next five years, he will earn $70 million in salary and sponsorships.
He will probably earn at least $140 million during his career.
That is serious money. To put it in some sort of perspective, the best of the best in the Australian Football League, people like James Hird and Michael Voss, earn about $700,000 a year. An 18-year-old rookie fresh from school can pick up $150,000 a year.
Bogut is going to earn $15 million 20 times as much as Hird and Voss, 100 times more than an AFL rookie.
Obviously Bogut is a good basketballer. Nobody is going to risk that much money for an untried novice. But part of his skill depends on luck the luck of growing to 213cm tall and 110kg at the age of 20.
Hird and Voss, to mention two, probably have better ball skills than Bogut, but he just happens to be as tall as a door frame and nearly as wide.
A bit of me says good luck to the boy. He's worked hard, practised hard and toughened his body and his mind to compete in the best basketball competition in the world.
But in a world where there is so much deprivation, so much hunger and human suffering, can it be right to pay one person $15 million a year because he can catch and throw a round ball of compressed air?
If nurses who work long nights and weekends battling to save sick children are paid $50,000 a year, why is a giant of a lad who plays basketball worth $15 million?
Good people like businessman David Holst, who fight to raise funds for severely disadvantaged children, would be reduced to tears of gratitude if they were given $15 million.
Young Bogut will pocket that by the time he is 21. Of course, the world is full of inequities. For many, life is not fair. For some, it is downright cruel and unjust. For most, it is a struggle centred on limited financial resources. Ironically, we all think money is the hidden gate to happiness. We look at Bogut and imagine how we would live if we earned $15 million a year. Big houses, flashy cars, luxury holidays. A life free of worry.
Cricket has made Shane Warne a millionaire. Is he happy? As his marriage crumbles, Warne appears to be a pathetic and unhappy man who cannot come to terms with wealth and fame.
Russell Crowe has made obscene wealth from his acting but anyone who hurls a telephone at a hotel bellboy because it's not working can hardly be happy. He may yet go to prison.
Tennis player Lleyton Hewitt earns $13.7 million.
Whether he beats Roger Federer in the semi-finals at Wimbledon or not, he appears happy. But that's because he has the lovely Bec Cartwright on his arm, not a full wallet in his pocket. There's no price on love.
There is no guarantee Bogut is going to be happy simply because he will earn $15 million a year. Within weeks, he will be the most identifiable person in his adopted home city of Milwaukee. Within a year, he will not be able to walk down the street, sit in a restaurant or shop at a supermarket without being pestered for his autograph. Any moral or social indiscretions will be front-page news.
Bogut may be going to earn $15 million a year but he has sold his right to privacy. He will be a public commodity. Nobody is worth $15 million a year but Bogut is certainly going to earn it.
[email protected]
