Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Dwyane Wade, the Miami Heat star who made a reported $26.2 million in salary and endorsements last year, thinks NBA stars should be paid for playing in the Olympics.
He told ESPN.com's Michael Wallace:
"It's a lot of things you do for the Olympics -- a lot of jerseys you sell. We play the whole summer. I do think guys should be compensated. [...] Unfortunately, it's not there.
"The biggest thing is now you get no rest. So you go to the end of the season, (Team USA) training camp is two weeks later. You're giving up a lot to do it. It's something you want to do. But it's taxing on your body. You're not playing for the dollar. But it would be nice if you would get compensated."
The comments will draw a firestorm, especially from the "you play for the love of country" contingent. Some will point out that gold-medal winners from the US already get $25,000. Others will ask where the line would be drawn: If Wade got paid, what about Michael Phelps? Gymnasts? Weightlifters? He'll be asked about the comments all summer and will likely slightly retreat from his position in the face of international media scrutiny. There are issues on which to be firm and hold your ground. This won't be one of them.
To focus on those issues misses the bigger point: In essence, he is getting paid to play in the Olympics. Nike pays Wade a reported $12 million per year in endorsements. Nike also sponsors USA Basketball. Those jerseys Wade wants a cut from? They're made by Nike. You do the math.
Unlike American baseball and football players, basketball players are a global brand. The Olympics are their biggest platform. When Nike signs Wade to that contract, it's not just because he's an NBA star. It's because he'll be wearing that Nike swoosh while playing in a gold-medal game in front of hundreds of millions of viewers.
At least one of Wade's teammates disagrees. His Miami Heat and USA Basketball backcourt mate, LeBron James, a player nobody will ever accuse of public-relations prudence, said getting paid "doesn't matter" and that he's happy to be playing for his country.
Ray Allen said the same thing a while back. Obviously, what Wade is saying is stupid.
I say we should go back to the days when the Olympics were actually interesting. That was when amateurs competed... and before NBC became the Olympic coverage network.
NBC ruined the Olympics when they decided 22 hours of "Up Close and Personal" interviews per day were more important that covering the events. Get rid of NBC!
As for professionals playing in the Olympics? They had their chance before they went pro. It is time to get them out and go back to making the games interesting. Give us competitors that we can get behind and care about, not someone making thirty million a year to play a game and then whining because they aren't being paid for two weeks during the Olympics.
Immie
I say we should go back to the days when the Olympics were actually interesting. That was when amateurs competed... and before NBC became the Olympic coverage network.
NBC ruined the Olympics when they decided 22 hours of "Up Close and Personal" interviews per day were more important that covering the events. Get rid of NBC!
As for professionals playing in the Olympics? They had their chance before they went pro. It is time to get them out and go back to making the games interesting. Give us competitors that we can get behind and care about, not someone making thirty million a year to play a game and then whining because they aren't being paid for two weeks during the Olympics.
Immie
The thing is the article says they do get paid during the Olympics though, they get all kinds of endorsement deals and not all the players agree with Wade, even Lebron James disagreed with him on this.
Ray Allen said the same thing a while back. Obviously, what Wade is saying is stupid.
Wade saying this is one thing but Ray Allen saying it surprises the hell out of me.
I say we should go back to the days when the Olympics were actually interesting. That was when amateurs competed... and before NBC became the Olympic coverage network.
NBC ruined the Olympics when they decided 22 hours of "Up Close and Personal" interviews per day were more important that covering the events. Get rid of NBC!
As for professionals playing in the Olympics? They had their chance before they went pro. It is time to get them out and go back to making the games interesting. Give us competitors that we can get behind and care about, not someone making thirty million a year to play a game and then whining because they aren't being paid for two weeks during the Olympics.
Immie
The thing is the article says they do get paid during the Olympics though, they get all kinds of endorsement deals and not all the players agree with Wade, even Lebron James disagreed with him on this.
It doesn't matter... they don't belong in the Olympics. It is against the Olympic spirit for professionals to participate and truthfully, I don't care what the communist countries did. Give us back the games as they were meant to be played.
Immie
Ray Allen said the same thing a while back. Obviously, what Wade is saying is stupid.
Wade saying this is one thing but Ray Allen saying it surprises the hell out of me.
Youi would think he has more sense. A lot of these guy's think because they play ball they're God's gift to the world.
Wade saying this is one thing but Ray Allen saying it surprises the hell out of me.
Youi would think he has more sense. A lot of these guy's think because they play ball they're God's gift to the world.
From what I understand about Ray he's not like that, he's one of the more down to earth guys in the league, most recently he offered to come off the bench, and he has been a starter since 1996, most players would shit their pants if you even suggested they come off the bench.
That was easy. here it is HG.
Ray Allen thinks guys should be paid to play in Olympics | ProBasketballTalk
The way i see it, once you go pro your Olympic days are over.
The way i see it, once you go pro your Olympic days are over.
used to be that way, until the 94' dream team.
The way i see it, once you go pro your Olympic days are over.
used to be that way, until the 94' dream team.
The way i see it, once you go pro your Olympic days are over.
used to be that way, until the 94' dream team.
92 dream team homie.
