Athletes Like Money!

Yeah I know, shocking right? Well apparently Randy Hollis just learned this fact and has disclosed this revelation to the Deseret News loyal readers (me in regular/Randy in italics):

Money trumps loyalty in pro sports world

Not to sound like a cynic, but that's pretty much true everywhere.

Enough already with all this endless free agent scuttlebutt about Boozer and LeBron, Bosh and Dwyane (which, by the way, might be the most convoluted way ever invented to spell the name Duane).

That's right! Pish posh to the most exciting free agency period in any sport that I can even remember. ENOUGH! I want more analysis of the 1-3-1 zone defense.

If you're anything like me, you've grown weary of hearing about where they might end up playing basketball next season, and how many gazillion dollars they'll be making just to put that ball in the hoop.

And there it is. Two sentences into the article we get to the gist of the argument. That these professional athletes who are genetic freaks able to do things 99% of people can't, make gazillions of dollars and Randy Hollis is still paying off his Ipod in monthly installments. It's the kind of complaint guys who call into radio sports shows make: "A-rod makes 200 billion a year, why did he strike out last night?" "That doctor makes 6 figures a year, how come one of his patients died?"

I sure do miss the good ol' days, when many star players spent their entire careers with one ballclub.

Ugh...another columnists waxing poetic about a past that didn't actually exist. You know who stayed where they were? Players who played in Chicago, LA, New York and Boston. Know why? They offered the best opportunities to make money. Not just on the court.

I miss John Stockton, who toiled for the same Utah Jazz team throughout his entire 19-year, "Little Engine That Could" career. You don't think he could've bolted sometime along the way to go play somewhere else for more money?

I don't know, I don't have a list of the offers Stockton received as a free agent.

You'd better believe it. Of course he could have, several times.

I'm guessing you don't either then since you provide ZERO examples. But hey Randy, we'll take you word for it. I guess I'll provide the example for you:
Stockton said he would only play for the Jazz and then would meet with the owner and sign a deal. He made a demand in the summer of 1996 when tens of millions of dollars were flying around for free agent guards. He'd sign a $5 million per season deal, less than half of what other free agent guards were making, but he wanted to guarantee ice time in the Delta Center for his seven-year-old son's hockey team.

But, to his credit, Stockton stayed here. Maybe he was afraid to get out of his comfort zone. Maybe it was his fear of the unknown.

Wait wait...Does Randy have some sort on inside info on Stockton? How do you know he feared the unknown? I see nothing about that in his wikipedia profile at least. (what is that picture from? A scan of a Polaroid from 1988? They couldn't do any better than that for the all-time assist leader?) All I've read is that he was most comfortable in the anonymity of Salt Lake City. That's not a moral stance, that's a personal preference.

Maybe he simply chose to stay where he felt he belonged, where he knew he'd always be loved and appreciated by fans and a franchise that treated him well.
I'd prefer to call it something else.
Loyalty.
Loyalty to the franchise that drafted him when a lot of so-called "experts" thought they should've taken somebody else. Yes, Stockton's selection drew plenty of boos and jeers on draft day, just as Gordon Hayward's selection did last week. Back in 1984 — and, perhaps, again in 2010 — several other NBA teams probably scoffed out loud at Utah's first-round pick.
Stockton stayed loyal and true to the team that gave him his chance, an opportunity that many other NBA teams likely would not have given the baby-faced kid from Gonzaga.

This is one of those cases where your rep buys you lee-way. Remember that thing about his son's hockey team getting to play on the ice of the Delta Center? I have no doubt that if it was another athlete like Kobe or Wade it would read "He DEMANDED guaranteed ice time for his son's hockey team." If it was Bonds or Owens they would say he was holding the franchise at gun point just so his spoiled brat of a son could play on the ice of the Delta Center. I really have no doubt about it. That's how sports reporters work.

That loyalty turned into a historic, Hall of Fame career for which Jazz fans and management will be eternally grateful.

Yeah, they tend to be grateful when you turn into a Hall of Famer.

The same could be said for Karl Malone — well, except for that little one-year journey to L.A. to play for the Lakers in an ill-fated attempt to win a championship at the end of his career.

That link I put up there about Stockton also talks about how Malone's contract negotiations were "contentious." But he at least stayed around I guess.


I certainly can't fault Malone too much for leaving, either. He played for peanuts, by NBA standards anyway, in his short stint with the Lakers. And he was honest in his desire and sole goal for leaving Utah — to try and win an NBA title before he was done.
For 18 seasons, though, you could count on the Mailman to make his deliveries in Utah.

And women's vaginas! Dude 3 kids by the age of 20, he's lucky he made that NBA salary. Wonder how much of that is left.

Too often nowadays, professional athletes loudly proclaim that their biggest priority is to win a championship — and then they promptly go sign with whichever team waves the most money in front of their overpaid faces.

I will point out that those are not mutually exclusive.


Loyalty.
The kind that would keep LeBron James in Cleveland and Dwyane Wade in Miami.
Indeed, any more, it seems like a lost quality.

That's just a horribly constructed sentence. He's trying to be poetic but...FAIL. Should read "MORE and more, it seems..."

Heck, the only loyalty most athletes seem to have nowadays is to themselves — and to the almighty dollar.

As opposed to back when the owners were making millions and the players had to work two jobs to support themselves while they destroyed their bodies. That's loyalty. Asking for the amount of money you're worth at your job, that's selfishness. As Dwight said on The Office, "I'm going wherever they 'value' loyalty more."


Of course, you could make the argument that, quite often, professional franchises aren't very loyal to their players, either. Loyalty should be a two-way street, and athletes often get traded away or released right when they're about to receive a fat salary bonus, or just before it's time to pick up their option.

Well at least he pointed it out.

In this day and age of free agency and mega-million contracts, I suppose it's silly to think that a pro athlete would want to stay in one place, especially if he could make more money someplace else.

Hey, Randy is starting to get it.


But, fortunately, that wasn't always true. Some of pro sports' all-time greats stayed put, even though they certainly could've gone elsewhere.

Do you have any examples?

John Elway spent his entire NFL career with the Denver Broncos.

Franchise quarterbacks tend to get paid lots of money and therefore tend to stay with that team. Also he retired instead of carrying on a yearly soap opera like Farve. When the Packers were done with Farve, the face of their franchise what did they do? That's right, they sent him out to pasture. Some loyalty.

Ditto for major league baseball player Cal Ripken Jr. and the Baltimore Orioles. Way back when, if you can imagine, Brooks Robinson (Orioles) and Carl Yastrzemski (Red Sox) each played 23 years — and never changed teams.
But, let's face it, the bulk of their careers came before Curt Flood's bold decision to challenge baseball's reserve clause, which eventually opened the door for free agency.

Thank goodness you pointed that out, I was about to freak completely out. And remember, back then (and still today for the most part) a team could just trade you on a whim and you'd have to pick up your life and move with no choice in the matter. Where's the loyalty there?


Since then, however, a handful of high-profile NBA players have, like Stockton, stayed with the same team throughout their careers. And currently in the NBA, stars like Kobe Bryant (Lakers), Tim Duncan (Spurs), Paul Pierce (Celtics) and Dirk Nowitzki (Mavericks) have each spent their entire careers with one team — thus far.

Yes, if you're a good player you tend to receive more "loyalty" from your team than mediocre players.

We must say thus far, because Pierce and Nowitzki have declared themselves free agents this year.
Chances are, though, they'll re-sign with the Celtics and Mavs, respectively.
Because they're among that shrinking group of guys that seem to hold on to that vanishing virtue called loyalty

Or because they're at the end of their careers and people don't want to shell out a bunch of money for beat up players.

— an admirable quality that seems to have gone the way of Stockton's short shorts, and likely won't be coming back any time soon, if at all.

Well thank god for that last part.

Case Closed!