MOOR VS. MOOR: Are professional athletes overpaid?

WESLEY TSAI
Staff Writer

On behalf of the National Basketball Association, your yearly paycheck is 23 million dollars. The profession of the job is simple — play sports. I believe that athletes such as Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Lebron James are getting paid too much for playing sports. Coming in at rank number seven at highest paying athlete in the nation, Tom Brady from the New England Patriots receives an astounding 31 million dollars as an annual salary, according to *source*. It isn’t right that athletes are being paid millions of dollars to do something they’re passionate about playing for their own benefit and entertainment, not just for the fans. Playing professional basketball is every American teenager’s dream and it should not be for the money, but rather the love of the game.

Now that professional athletes are being paid millions of dollars, the mindset to play professional isn’t because of the passion, but rather the money. This distorts the purpose of playing a sport because money is the only vision they are seeing. I believe that being paid for successful performances ruins the spirit of the game. If professional athletes don’t get paid as much as they do now, we can see who really wants to play professional for the love of the game and not for the money.

ANHAYTE GUAJARDO
Staff Writer

Many professional athletes are criticized for getting paid millions of dollars annually. However, they possess a unique set of skills that not everyone has. Performing in athletic competition is their job and the amount that they are paid is justified because few people meet the qualifications of a professional athlete.

For example, professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez earned $210 million over ten years because he was able to hit a baseball harder than other people can. As a result, both the league and team fills up stadiums, sells merchandise and earns television revenue. With such high demand for multi-million dollar entertainment, athletes like Rodriguez deserve their pay. Most people continue to complain, yet no one complains about musicians and actors.Athletes dedicate their entire life to their sport, putting their body through hours of pain, training everyday and watching their diet. They work hard and deserve to be compensated. We also must look at this situation from a business standpoint, and the only reason why they make so much money is because people pay to watch them perform. Their are millions of fans who buy their favorite teams jerseys or logos, bring in billions of dollars in sales revenue. Professional athletes do their best and in return we pay them what they deserve for our entertainment.