Dwyane Wade, Ray Allen think NBA players should get paid for Olympics

Now here is the next question since everyone here wants to pay them.

How much? Does Wade sit out because he wants $2.0 mil but is only getting $1.5? Does he show up for $100,000?

Where is the line drawn at who to pay and who not to pay?

 

Same as it is in every job.

Who has leverage?

 

Have fun writing all the Olympic negotiation stories. They will be riveting.

 

Answer the question.

Paying the players has created a potential problem. Start throwing out some numbers.

 

This is a really great reason to deny them pay.

Because it will make your job more difficult.

 

Asked and answered.

He should be paid what he can get through negotiation.

 

You figure it out in a very similar way to the way, say, NBC and the IOC decide rights fees -- you negotiate.

 

Yeah that has never happened before. I distinctly remember all the stories that weren't written about the non-issue of whether Michael Jordan would show the Reebok-sponsored Olympic logo. But he solved the problem by literally draping himself in the American flag, so he wasn't greedy. I miss the purity of those days.

 

Interesting debate.

As was said, they're already compensated if they medal. They aren't salaried - but what salary could USOC possibly offer proportionate to what they earn in the NBA?

They should get a cut of merchandising, certainly. The Olympics, as has also been said, generates many, many billions in revenue.

Athletes in other countries in a wide range of sports - high and low-visibility - already draw a wage from their governments, so the amateurism argument is moot. And probably always has been.

Back in 1996, Roger Angell made a very good argument that the Dream Team represented a kind of "true" amateurism - in that everyone on the team already made so much money, that money couldn't possibly matter to them any more. They played instead for patriotism or passion or some unquantifiable inner purpose.

Which meant that they had become exactly like the Victorian aristocracy upon whose Gilded Age notions of honor and money the modern Olympics were built.

 

Not my job.

I cannot wait until Bolt and Phelps demand $10 mil each to participate in the Olympics.

 

You of all people asking someone to answer a question, now that is rich.

Without knowing the figures you can't throw out numbers.

 

Numbers