Well Spoken Athletes .....

BF89905BF89905 Posts: 1,335
edited February 2011 in All Encompassing Trip
While listening to the NY Knicks press conference tonight.... a thought arose : it's great to see that society is comfortable with paying some athletes tens of millions of dollars to play a sport when they have yet to grasp the conventions of proper English.

As a teacher, it's getting increasingly difficult to motivate many students to push towards a post-secondary education - let alone put forth an honest/good effort on a daily basis - when every where they look there are millionaires / "successful people" that obviously lack basic articulation skills.

Karl Marx theorized that capitalism is cyclical (highs / lows) and will inevitably destroy itself ex. a stock market crash. With the current disparities between the haves and the have-nots in NYC, this place is ripe for a revolution. Perhaps we should take a cue from those brave people in the mid-east ?

Just sounding off ....
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • eddieceddiec Posts: 3,832
    I know what your saying but Hendrix couldn't read music.
  • maj4emaj4e Posts: 605
    What exactly are we revolting against? Sports? Money? Education? Government? Waiting list for Ipad2?
  • BF89905 wrote:
    t's great to see that society is comfortable with paying some athletes tens of millions of dollars to play a sport when they have yet to grasp the conventions of proper English.

    They get paid tens of millions of dollars because they bring in tens of millions of dollars. You don't have to "grasp the conventions of proper English" to do your job as a NBA basketball player. Personally, I'm more worried about well-spoken people than people who speak Ebonics. Crooked politicians, James Bond villains, Ted Bundy....all well-spoken.
    2000: Camden 1, 2003: Philly, State College, Camden 1, MSG 2, Hershey, 2004: Reading, 2005: Philly, 2006: Camden 1, 2, East Rutherford 1, 2007: Lollapalooza, 2008: Camden 1, Washington D.C., MSG 1, 2, 2009: Philly 1, 2, 3, 4, 2010: Bristol, MSG 2, 2011: PJ20 1, 2, 2012: Made In America, 2013: Brooklyn 2, Philly 2, 2014: Denver, 2015: Global Citizen Festival, 2016: Philly 2, Fenway 1, 2018: Fenway 1, 2, 2021: Sea. Hear. Now. 2022: Camden

    Pearl Jam bootlegs:
    http://wegotshit.blogspot.com
  • While it is quite refreshing to hear an athlete that has an educated aura about them, I have to say I pretty much agree with every subsequent post after the OP. I scored a 720 on the vocabulary portion of my SAT, but run the 100 yard dash in 11.5 seconds. It's all about filling your niche, and the New York Knicks is neither my niche or yours. It's easy to criticize others for their insufficiency from afar. The difference is, the person you're criticizing has reached their economic potential, slang or no slang.
    If hope can grow from dirt like me ...
  • BF89905BF89905 Posts: 1,335
    'Revolution' was an extreme/poor choice of words. In my opinion western capitalist society is in need of a significant change/shift in values.
    Living in NYC for almost a decade now has made me take notice of an increasing trend: a significant percentage of people seem to care more about reality tv, pop culture, and making as much money as possible no matter the side effects, instead of being a kind, honest, and hard working individual. It just seems that on a weekly basis, I'm brought face-to-face with an example of: the hard and honest working individual is the sucker now-a-days.

    Athletes certainly do get paid based on their athletic ability and not their English/elementary school level skills. Very true. I guess my gripe is with the money these sporting events bring in. I love professional basketball, hockey, and soccer to name a few sports. But it makes you wonder how much of an impact the masses could have if they refused to attend any major sporting event until the prices to attend dropped significantly. Ultimately this would decrease owner, television, and sponsorship profits; thus concurrently decreasing player salaries. There's talk of possible owners'/players' union lockouts .... wouldn't it be something if society at large locked major sporting events out ? It probably wouldn't even last more than a few weeks before prices would be dropped. I have no problem with the owners,players, and many others making money off the games - it's the outrageous money these people are making that makes me question society's current values.

    Responding to another person's reply .... not sure how you inferred that I was calling for a 'revolt against money' ? It would be quite challenging to live a life dependent upon barter trade now-a-days ....unless you were born and raised in an extremely remote location ? Maybe I'm not in the know ?

    Worrying about the actions of well-spoken people is also a very good point as someone else brought up. There are way too many examples of elected and appointed officials who go onto lead corrupt and self-enriching lives instead of really fulfilling their true obligations.

    Naturally, my original post concerning a person's millionaire status being compared to their grammatical abilities is a slippery topic. There certainly are plenty of people who do a lot of good in this world after having received or earned little to no education. Furthermore, one of the great things about capitalism is it thrives on competition, thus in turn inspiring people to work hard if they want to be successful.

    All in all .... life isn't all that simple, and less and less things seem to be black and white now-a-days.
  • BF89905 wrote:

    All in all .... life isn't all that simple, and less and less things seem to be black and white now-a-days.

    It's always been this way. The majority of people are much more well versed compared to 100 or 200 years ago. And before movie and tv stars people were in awe over radio shows and before radio there's always been royalty and business tycoons to flaunt over.
    350x700px-LL-d2f49cb4_vinyl-needle-scu-e1356666258495.jpeg
  • pjhawkspjhawks Posts: 12,171
    BF89905 wrote:
    'Revolution' was an extreme/poor choice of words. In my opinion western capitalist society is in need of a significant change/shift in values.
    Living in NYC for almost a decade now has made me take notice of an increasing trend: a significant percentage of people seem to care more about reality tv, pop culture, and making as much money as possible no matter the side effects, instead of being a kind, honest, and hard working individual. It just seems that on a weekly basis, I'm brought face-to-face with an example of: the hard and honest working individual is the sucker now-a-days.

    Athletes certainly do get paid based on their athletic ability and not their English/elementary school level skills. Very true. I guess my gripe is with the money these sporting events bring in. I love professional basketball, hockey, and soccer to name a few sports. But it makes you wonder how much of an impact the masses could have if they refused to attend any major sporting event until the prices to attend dropped significantly. Ultimately this would decrease owner, television, and sponsorship profits; thus concurrently decreasing player salaries. There's talk of possible owners'/players' union lockouts .... wouldn't it be something if society at large locked major sporting events out ? It probably wouldn't even last more than a few weeks before prices would be dropped. I have no problem with the owners,players, and many others making money off the games - it's the outrageous money these people are making that makes me question society's current values.

    Responding to another person's reply .... not sure how you inferred that I was calling for a 'revolt against money' ? It would be quite challenging to live a life dependent upon barter trade now-a-days ....unless you were born and raised in an extremely remote location ? Maybe I'm not in the know ?

    Worrying about the actions of well-spoken people is also a very good point as someone else brought up. There are way too many examples of elected and appointed officials who go onto lead corrupt and self-enriching lives instead of really fulfilling their true obligations.

    Naturally, my original post concerning a person's millionaire status being compared to their grammatical abilities is a slippery topic. There certainly are plenty of people who do a lot of good in this world after having received or earned little to no education. Furthermore, one of the great things about capitalism is it thrives on competition, thus in turn inspiring people to work hard if they want to be successful.

    All in all .... life isn't all that simple, and less and less things seem to be black and white now-a-days.

    i love when people pick on what sports players and owners make but never seem to complain when actors and entertainers make ridiculous sums. charlie sheen a drunkard whore-monger gets $2 million for every 20 minute episode of a tv show and lady gaga generated over $100 million last year alone. sport stars are nowhere near the most overpaid people in the world. see wall street, bankers, ceo's etc. as for their speech, we don't watch to hear them speak. if i wanted to hear speeches i'd go back to college.

    and right or wrong sports is the one thing that brings the most people in the city together. nothing else can generate 20-40 thousand people a night almost every night of the year together in a city.
  • JonnyPistachioJonnyPistachio Florida Posts: 10,211
    BF89905 wrote:
    While listening to the NY Knicks press conference tonight.... a thought arose : it's great to see that society is comfortable with paying some athletes tens of millions of dollars to play a sport when they have yet to grasp the conventions of proper English.

    As a teacher, it's getting increasingly difficult to motivate many students to push towards a post-secondary education - let alone put forth an honest/good effort on a daily basis - when every where they look there are millionaires / "successful people" that obviously lack basic articulation skills.

    Karl Marx theorized that capitalism is cyclical (highs / lows) and will inevitably destroy itself ex. a stock market crash. With the current disparities between the haves and the have-nots in NYC, this place is ripe for a revolution. Perhaps we should take a cue from those brave people in the mid-east ?

    Just sounding off ....

    I agree with you.
    Whether we like it or not, these guys/gals are role models to some of our youth.
    Sometimes it is sad to see these guys making millions, when you know it will be all blown out in a few years... then suddenly they are 35 years old trying to figure out how to maintain the lifestyle.

    Btw, I used to get so upset about how much athletes were paid, but if you consider for example there are 300 million peopl ein the US and there are maybe 400 guys in the NBA. Then there are maybe 1-2 stars on each team... that makes for about 50 guys that make the big bucks to FILL UP auditoriums on a regular basis. Thats a very tiny percentage of the population. Dont get me wrong, I wont waste my money going to games, I cant afford it, but I do underastand why they get what they get (and it no longer bothers me)
    Pick up my debut novel here on amazon: Jonny Bails Floatin (in paperback) (also available on Kindle for $2.99)
  • eddieceddiec Posts: 3,832
  • what i have a problem with is those that brag about being from the hood and thank jesus for every pass they catch yet they don't give nearly enough back to their neighborhoods or live "christian" lives... its not everone, but it certainly seems to be the majority... and for all i know they are just making silent contributions (as if celebrities are capable of that :roll: )... just seems to me that any life of excess if excessive given where you've come from

    the language thing is less their fault and more a problem with the system... and you could make it into a racial thing but hell, the manning boys are dumber than anyone

    now if we're talking about the influence of jersey shore on students you have a point... that shit glorifies dumb asses and bad life decisions like no other!
    "Senza speme vivemo in disio"

    http://seanbriceart.com/
  • what i have a problem with is those that brag about being from the hood and thank jesus for every pass they catch yet they don't give nearly enough back to their neighborhoods or live "christian" lives... its not everone, but it certainly seems to be the majority... and for all i know they are just making silent contributions (as if celebrities are capable of that :roll: )... just seems to me that any life of excess if excessive given where you've come from

    the ones who give back to the hood, and still hang out with the boys are the idiots. those are the one's who get into trouble.
  • g under pg under p Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,120
    what i have a problem with is those that brag about being from the hood and thank jesus for every pass they catch yet they don't give nearly enough back to their neighborhoods or live "christian" lives... its not everone, but it certainly seems to be the majority... and for all i know they are just making silent contributions (as if celebrities are capable of that :roll: )... just seems to me that any life of excess if excessive given where you've come from

    the language thing is less their fault and more a problem with the system... and you could make it into a racial thing but hell, the manning boys are dumber than anyone

    now if we're talking about the influence of jersey shore on students you have a point... that shit glorifies dumb asses and bad life decisions like no other!

    Jersey Shore is one of or the dumbest show on the Tube. :evil:

    Peace
    *We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti

    *MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
    .....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti

    *The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)


  • dcfaithfuldcfaithful Posts: 13,076
    g under p wrote:
    what i have a problem with is those that brag about being from the hood and thank jesus for every pass they catch yet they don't give nearly enough back to their neighborhoods or live "christian" lives... its not everone, but it certainly seems to be the majority... and for all i know they are just making silent contributions (as if celebrities are capable of that :roll: )... just seems to me that any life of excess if excessive given where you've come from

    the language thing is less their fault and more a problem with the system... and you could make it into a racial thing but hell, the manning boys are dumber than anyone

    now if we're talking about the influence of jersey shore on students you have a point... that shit glorifies dumb asses and bad life decisions like no other!

    Jersey Shore is one of or the dumbest show on the Tube. :evil:

    Peace

    It's a perfect example of how the public really doesn't need anything stimulating and just want mindless garbage for entertainment.
    7/2/06 - Denver, CO
    6/12/08 - Tampa, FL
    8/23/09 - Chicago, IL
    9/28/09 - Salt Lake City, UT (11 years too long!!!)
    9/03/11 - East Troy, WI - PJ20 - Night 1
    9/04/11 - East Troy, WI - PJ20 - Night 2
Sign In or Register to comment.