The Goat Pen

hedge wrote:"While the new cap is crazy, it just look's like capitalism, to me."

Actually, modern pro sports are the near apotheosis of Marxism. The workers get nearly the maximum compensation for their labor while the owners (compared to other industries) get far less. The only way it could be more Marxist than it is is if the active players actually took over the ownership of the teams and got it all. But they're doing pretty well for themselves. Of course, it's only doable b/c the entire work force is just a few hundred guys whose labor is not really commodifiable so they can form a true union, i.e., a union solidly unified in goals and desires with very little worry about anybody else coming in and doing their jobs for them...

in the words of Chris Rock

Shaq ain't rich. The guy that writes the check to Shaq is rich

I suspect there is some clause in the rules of all the professional sports that won't allow active players to also be owners. Otherwise, some enterprising group of players could buy a team and pay all the players their cut of the ownership profits, which wouldn't be part of the salary cap. I'm not sure what the breakdown is in how much of the profits go to the players and how much to ownership, but ownership certainly gets a nice share. If all that money went to the players instead, everybody would want to play for that team. Even though the salary cap would still apply to their base pay as players, they would effectively be making a ton more (as part owners) than players on other teams who were just getting a salary solely for their play (large as that is)...

Actually, Shaq is pretty damn rich. You get 12 guys together who have a total net worth close to a billion dollars, I doubt they'd have much problem finding financing to buy a team...

I hope these contracts burn the NBA to the ground and the next lockout / strike will be the final death nail. Fuck them and everything they stand for.

hedge wrote:Actually, Shaq is pretty damn rich. You get 12 guys together who have a total net worth close to a billion dollars, I doubt they'd have much problem finding financing to buy a team...

except they all bought restaurants that went bankrupt in 6 years

Restaurants, record labels, production companies, car washes, low tier real estate and local private equity deals that have no chance of making any money in the long term is what you will find in all these broke athletes' portfolios. The story is common. Part of the problem is all athletes have solely aligned themselves with individuals who only take, never give. By the time they leave sports, many have never learned how to build anything, only write checks or give POA.

And that is what capitalism is really about.

Heh...valid.

At a bar. Pudgy, 50-something CPA looking guy with a Great Clips trainee's haircut just told a 50-something guy in a sweater vest, "we're gonna throw hands if you bump into me again."

He was totally serious, and I laughed so hard he is now mad at me. Shit is getting REAL. Heh.

Sweater vest never gets respect

50 is about when pudgy guys get their irrational confidence.

They're realizing that it's pretty much all over and long for one more chance to bow up, even if they've never done it before in their lives. And actually, most probably if they've never done it before in their lives...

lol@everyone's comment. All true...

What I found funny was this middle management looking guy at an upscale, older-crowd bar saying "throw hands" like he was a hard, young buck at the infield of Talladega.

Bklyn wrote:50 is about when pudgy guys get their irrational confidence.

just the opposite for me

I'm realizing I better watch my mouth because some 30 year old will fuck me up

Hell I get winded walking up stairs, throwing hands would result in an EMT yelling "CLEAR!" 10 minutes later.

I'm pretty tough. I do kickboxing three days a week AND practice my karate on the beach every chance I get.

/Yes, I still miss Crow.

about 4 months ago a windstorm came thru and knocked off a 13 foot long branch off of our cedar tree ( I measured it because I thought a straight piece of cedar might be worth something - its not)

at any rate, thinking it might be worth something, I got the chainsaw out and cleaned it up and asked my son to take all the branches away to our brushpile. So he thinks that means the 13 foot long piece. So he and his friend - a portly boy that's never met a donut he didn't like attempted to pick it up and carried it about 10 feet before dropping it and deciding it was too heavy to carry.

I didn't know this - but I was irritated they moved it into the middle of the yard where I mowed, so I went out there later, picked it up and hoisted it onto my shoulder , carried it to another tree and put it up against the tree.

My son was blown away the old man could do that.

That may have bought me a couple of years mileage of him not smarting off to me. We had a " if your feeling froggy , jump" moment about a year ago when I took his cell phone away from him. I had to put on a brave face because I was pretty sure he'd whip my ass just on endurance alone, but that limb moving moment took him down a few notches....at least until I fall and break my hip or something.

I remember making fun of guys who would feel tired after walking 18.


I have my own cart now with my name on it and everything.

if I can just convince my wife that I'm capable of having sex twice in an hour but I just don't want to, then my manhood would be fully intact

AlabamAlum wrote:I remember making fun of guys who would feel tired after walking 18.


I have my own cart now with my name on it and everything.

18 what? Miles?

Heh. 18 holes.