Definition of a Professional Athlete
The definition of a professional athlete can be broken down into two separate words. The American Heritage Dictionary states the definition of a professional as "of or engaged in a profession; engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood." It also says an athlete is "one who participates especially in competitive sports." There is no doubt that a professional athlete would fit that description, but there is one key word that is significant: competitive. The website, www.websters.com states that competitive can be defined as "liking competition or inclined to compete." There are a number of athletes in professional sports such as the NBA, MLB, or NFL who truly loves the game and competes every day to the best of their ability. Then there is the "other side of the court," meaning the athletes who do not give their all, do not strive for perfection, or sometimes do not even show the slightest bit of interest in the game. Personally, I do not consider those types of players to be professional athletes. Dick Vitale, a famous college basketball reporter, always admits every season that college basketball is the greatest sport to participate in or watch. He simply says it is because of how the kids compete. There are
Professional athletes are indeed different today. If each player only made a couple hundred thousand dollars, everything else would be cheaper such as ticket sales, sports clothing, memorabilia, and other items involved with professional sports. This trend of less competitive, money-hungry professional athletes only growing in numbers in the future unless restriction is placed upon the amount they can make each season. A basketball game last roughly two hours, which would be 105,000 dollars per hour! That is only if he played every minute of every game, which is impossible. It only gets worse each year because of the previous player who received a certain amount of money; the next guy wants to be paid the same or even more. Many only care about money and do not compete hard to win. I also believe a lot of it has to do with the owners that are willing to pay millions of dollars to each player. It is their job to perform and to strive to be the best player possible, not to just make millions of dollars. In prior years, athletes were still paid well, but not to the extent they are now. This is particularly for players just coming into the leagues who are young and immature. no cash bonuses or contracts; every kid wants to be part of a team and plays to win. A good example is Shaquille O'Neal earning 17 million dollars per year! They play 8 games a season, which comes out roughly to 210,000 dollars a game if he played each and every one of them. If teams charged less for all of this, they would not be able to afford to pay the athletes as much. On the other hand is it really the athlete's fault for making so much money? To an extent, yes it is, because of the deliberations and long negotiations that take place while figuring out salaries and contracts.
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