gsw510 wrote:i will gladly take 35,000 to play basketball for a living.
No you wouldn't.
First of all unless you are single with no kids, no property and no lifestyle $35,000 doesn't keep the lights on in most major cities. So this decision would probably mean living with your parents, grandparents or roomates pretty much for ever.
Which is fine, materialism and independence aren't for everyone. You might find that part well worth the satisfaction of not having to put on a tie or answer to "the man."
But then there's the actual work. Do you realized how much work it would take to develop your basketball abilities to the minimum point where someone would even CONSIDER writing you a paycheck for it? let alone in the minor league system that funnels players to the big time and multi-million dollar paydays? We're talking a superhuman level of effort, dedication and physical blood sweat and tears just to be good enough for what amounts basicaly to a paid internship (excluding the guys over 6'8" they can slide by on genetic gifts.)
But overall, people are totally misinformed about just how difficult and labor intensive pursuing an career in professional athletics really is. It's a totally different world than punching a timeclock, or riding a desk posting on message boards all day.
To be a D leaguer, you're still in the 90th percentile of people who play vasity HS basketball. You have to be better at what you do than 90% of the people who even consider pursuing the career. That takes an astronomical level of work, in any field.
When you say you would "play ball" for $35K a year, what you really mean is that you would happily play 5 or so utterly inept minutes in the games until they found out you were totally unprepared. I would too, but then after getting fired because we suck and aren't willing or equipped to get our game to the level where we deserved that measly $35K paychek, we'd just go get another job where they pay mediocrities better than in athletics.
