In the United States of America, we rely on the most talented and highly skilled professionals to help save lives, fight injustice, educate our youth and protect our citizens. Without doctors, teachers, police, and our armed services, our nation's structure and systems would collapse. Despite the fact that their jobs are of the utmost importance to society, their income does not represent this. When the average salaries of doctors, teachers, police, and service men are compared to that of professional basketball players, the result is astounding.  According to the Payscale, as of 2015, the average starting yearly salary for a doctor is almost $200,000; a teacher, just short of $50,000, the police, nearly $60,000, and for someone who will fight and die for our country, a mere $100,000. However, in the NBA, the number one overall draft pick for 2016 is set to make $4.5 million in his first year, and nearly $7 million after being in the league for five years according to ESPN analytics. This radical difference in earnings is clearly irrational and a blatant sign of disrespect towards the people who work to better our citizens and society. In order to more fairly represent the value of individual contributions, this pay structure must be more balanced by lowering the income of athletes, and increasing the pay for those who work to sustain our society.

In addition, the high stake salaries of these players have changed the game from those who play with passion and enthusiasm, to those who play for the paycheck. It is no longer about team camaraderie and success, but more so personal gains and monetary value. Reggie Miller, one of the all time greats in the NBA was once quoted saying "I don't do it for the money, I do it for the love of the game"(Miller). This powerful message no longer reigns true, as professional stars end up wherever they are promised the most money. As shown by ESPN, the income of professional basketball players has become grossly inflated because salary caps have reached an all time high, endorsement deals have increased dramatically, and media rights have skyrocketed over the past 20 years 

The world of professional sports allows a small amount of people to make colossal amounts of money while playing the game they love. In an ideal world, the joy of pursuing the athletic career of one's dreams would be enough reward in it of itself. But, because profits are a necessary evil in our society, professional sports are ultimately doomed to revolve around money. According to David Friedman on 20secondtimeout, an internet blog fixed around the NBA, professional basketball salaries did not begin to skyrocket until the 1970's. Friedman states, "the average player salary rose from $35,000 in 1970 to $180,000 a decade later and franchise values went up more than 600% in the same period" (Friedman). This drastic increase was due to the competition between the NBA and the ABA (American Basketball Association) eventually leading to their merger in 1976 to become one league, the NBA. Once established as the only professional basketball league, the NBA grew exponentially to the powerhouse industry it is today. 

Also guilty for the dramatic rise in pay for basketball players are the stars themselves, specifically all time great Michael Jordan. In the 1983-84 season the year before Jordan entered the league, average salary for a player was $275,000; Upon Jordan's departure of the league in 1998, the league average salary had risen to a mind boggling $2.64 million, as affirmed by Tim Feldman of the Huffington Post. This demonstrates how the popularity of the league began to expand as star players made watching basketball a household necessity for sports enthusiasts and families. Though, according to Income, the average professional basketball player was making forty times more than the average American household income before the year 2000. This clearly raises red flags in regards to our nations priorities as basketball players are being valued 40 times an average doctor or teacher. 

 William Anderson, a professor of economics at Frostburg State University, puts it best when quoted saying "Americans have their priorities wrong. If they truly valued education more than professional sports, teachers would be paid more than professional athletes"(Anderson). Anderson discusses his public school teaching experience, saying "I found that almost all teachers believed they were underpaid and underappreciated" (Anderson). This inside view of the emotions behind our nations teachers opened my eyes to see the truth behind the bright lights of the NBA, and how it affects the economic food chain. It is clear that teachers, doctors, and police work for the betterment of society, but as we know the world revolves around money, and no matter how well you teach, how safe you keep the streets, or how perfectly you replace a kidney, the harsh reality is they are not generating any revenue. On the other hand, professional basketball players generate billions of dollars in profit for the ownership, resulting in their overinflated salaries. This is where we find the problem Anderson was referencing; Americans value sports over any other profession. The consumer drives the market, and the more money they are willing to spend, the more money players will make. To level the balance of justice the people must speak out and change how the system works, throwing less money at sporting events and focusing attention to the departments involved in the health, education and protection of our citizens.

To understand other ways to solve this vast problem, one must first understand the fundamental concept of a salary cap. According to the Huffington Post, a salary cap is "an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on player salaries." As for the NBA, a salary cap is currently in place, and set at a cool $70 million per team as cited on ESPN. This amount of money is to be spent on the teams twelve-man roster for one year! This results in the astronomical contracts being presented over the past few seasons, such as Carmelo Anthony's five year $124.1 million contract, and Anthony Davis's five year $145 million deal according to "Maximum Available Cap Space". A simple solution to this problem is to substantially lower the salary cap. This would mean players taking substantial pay cuts, though they would still be able to make over a million dollars per year if the cap was lowered over $30 million. If this trend were to take shape, it would cause a snowball effect, lowering television rights fees and endorsement deals; thusly putting money back into the economy opposed to filling the pockets of NBA owners and executives. 

Another step to leveling the playing field between the income of an NBA player and your average doctor, teacher, or policeman is regulating endorsement deals. An endorsement deal is when a company gives someone x amount of dollars to wear, promote, and represent their brand. For example, as exposed in "NBA's Endorsement All Stars,", two of the largest endorsement deals in the NBA as of 2015 are $44 million for Lebron James, courtesy of Nike, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola among other smaller brands, and $35 million for Kevin Durant largely paid by Roc Nation (Badenhausen). These men will be making tens of millions off the court in one year on top of their multi-million dollar contracts. It is understandable for these huge companies to endorse the most popular athletes, and pay them top dollar, but they are adding to the problem. If only they could cut those endorsements in half and use the other half to endorse the best school systems, safest cities, and most prestigious hospitals. If big industry put money where the true value of the citizens hung, they could exponentially increase the low budget industries that these institutions are today.

Setting earnings aside, as an average American citizen, you have probably dreamed of winning the lottery. According to Powerball the latest winner of this sweepstakes pulled in almost $100 million dollars. If you're part of the masses, you would fall on your face with the opportunity to win such money. Now multiply that number by thirty! It's almost not even feasible to think of having so much money, and to imagine that's just the average life for some lucky few. According to Tom Ziller on SB Nation, the NBA as an industry earns some $4.3 billion per year courtesy of the worldwide fan base, thirty times more than the last lottery. This revenue comes in the form of tickets purchased, TV ads viewed, jerseys sold, wildly marked up food and beverages, etc. 

Understanding how the money works is quite simple economics really, it's the fundamental concept of supply and demand. There is a high demand for talent in the world of basketball, so the NBA hires the talent to supply the demand. If this plea dissipated, the supply of it would become less expensive. Though if demand continues to rise, the talent supplied will see its price continually grow, demonstrating basic economics. As a simple solution to tip the scales back into place, people need to stop throwing money at this monopolized industry. The fans are the reason for this profound expansion; accordingly they have the power to take it away. With minimal television audiences, and tickets sales stalling, this industry would see a steady decline, bringing prices back to earth, and putting money back into the pockets of the public. 

As basketball gained popularity, and became more of a household attraction, there was a clear opportunity in broadcasting these games to the mass public. According to "NBA TV Contracts," the first NBA cable television contracts were signed for $1.5 million for three years, from 1979 to 1982. Immediately, with these rights deal's in place, recognition of the sport exponentially grew and the next contract was set at $11 million for two more years of coverage in 1982. As the league continued and stars came and went, popularity did not stop growing, and the money continued to roll in for not only the networks airing the games, but also the NBA as a whole. This exponential process has led us to the most recent contract signed by ESPN and TNT at a whopping $2.66 billion per year, for the next nine years. According to ESPN, NBA commissioner Adam Silver told the press "the new television deal will lead to a substantial increase in team salary caps" meaning players would continue to make more and more money. At this point, If you're doing the math, without revenue from fans increasing, you can conclude that after the next 9 years the NBA will have pulled in over $61 billion. As the general public, and main proponent to feeding the NBA money, we have the power to turn the tides back. With diminished interest, we would see a massive effect throughout the league and all of the absurd facts and figures would gradually decrease, bringing them back to a more regular position.

Now if you're still not fully convinced these athletes don't deserve all of this money, there's one more thing that should be brought to light. Some argue these players deserve the millions upon millions they acquire because they only really "work" for 5-10 years. This would make sense so they can be financially stable for their lives after their career. Although, According to Bleecher Report, "60 percent of NBA players file for bankruptcy five years after retirement." This huge number represents those who made millions in their time playing ball, only to blow it all upon their departure of the league. This statistic tramples the argument of the money being used to stabilize their lives. Andre Katchaturian, writer for Bleecher Report, informed the public on how these stars blow their stacks, saying "risky investments, misplaced trust, family problems and providing for an athlete's friends are the main reasons why players go broke after retirement"(Katchaturian). It's one thing to spend money, it's quite another to irresponsibly throw stacks around because you have more than you know what to do with.

 As Katchaturian states, Scottie Pippen lost the $120 million he had earned in the NBA through these 'irresponsible' decisions. Pippen once purchased a private jet for $4 million that didn't even work! He threw another $1 million just to repair it. Though, the poster boy for irresponsible decisions, and losing a fortune would be none other than 11 time All Star Allen Iverson. Iverson earned over $200 million in his career, which ended in 2010, through both his salary and endorsement deals. No more than three years after leaving the court, Iverson found himself broke, out of options, and filing for bankruptcy. These statistics all lead to one unavoidable truth, these men do not know how to properly handle money, and there is no need for them to be earning so much, to blow it all five years down the line. The money these players throw away could mean food on the table, heat in the house, and clothes on the backs of hundreds of thousands across the country. Or, this money could go towards improving the resources and services of our society, as discussed earlier. Regardless, it is clear that not only do NBA players not need to earn these massive sums of money, but also it is at the detriment to us all. 

So if you're thinking the clear way to easily becoming a multi millionaire is through basketball, you're going to have to think again. With the outrageous earnings these stars make, nearly every kid in America dreams to be in their shoes. On the surface, basketball seems to be this holy grail to easily making millions and having fun while doing it. Unlike attending medical school, or grinding in the library for days, basketball seems like the easy way out for America's youth. Unfortunately, this is not how it works. According to Andrew Flint in "The Odds of Playing in the NBA" over 545,000 kids play high school basketball, and a whopping 0.03% of these young hopefuls will have the skill and drive to make it to the big time. That means three in every 10,000 kids will succeed in their dream. Because everyone believes they will be one of the three, work is focused on shooting in the gym and running sprints up and down the court. America's youth is more interested in athletic success than anything of educational value. This presents it's own problems because instead of studying diligently to become a doctor, or teacher, which is actually achievable; kids instead work their lives for a dream that most do not reach. Once having failed on chasing their dreams, it's usually too late to educate oneself enough to have a successful job. These rejects of professional ball usually end up with minimum wage jobs, because they did not expect to have to really work for a living. If we glorified those of important positions, such as we do professional basketball players, we can change the way kids are developing. Imagine if your dream as a child was to be a successful teacher, who actually makes enough money to have a comfortable life. Kids would work towards bettering society instead of holding onto unrealistic dreams for their lives.

Everyone has a dream, and whether you chase it or not is up to you; but wouldn't it be great if we lived in a world where people aspired to be the city mayor, or a successful doctor, maybe even the to be the best teacher. This isn't how things are because these positions are underappreciated, underpaid, and undervalued. To make a change for the better in our world would be lowering the glory of an NBA star and shifting the scale to value those positions that better society. There will obviously still be fame in the NBA but with diminished incomes the hierarchy can be changed and value can be placed on positions that truly matter in this world. 

