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Posted: 11/5/03 Worth the wait?Every sport has them, players who hold out wanting more money. New York Islanders center Alexei Yashin sat out an entire season saying he deserved more money, Wild scoring leader Marian Gaborick just ended his holdout this week. The list of pro athletes who have held out as they waited for more money is long, and the list of those athletes who got what they want is just as long. If you or I told our employer that we enjoyed working for them, but we weren't going to come back to work until they gave a substantial raise as well as incentives for doing our job right, well, we'd be fired on the spot and they would find someone else to do the job. Once the deal is struck between the player and ownership they hold a big press conference to glorify the player and praise him for how good he is. The player then gives some kind of cliche quote about how he just wants to play, how he loves the city and wants to remain there for his whole career, he can't wait to be with his teammates again, or something cheesy like that. If this were true, the player would have made sure he settled things long before the season started or at least during the preseason. Some years ago, there was no such thing as a holdout. The player either signed before the season, or they didn't play. Then the agent came along. Now agents are a good thing because they understand the law end of contracts and can help players from being connived out of money. The problem with agents is that they have given players this idea that they are worth more than they really are. When players think they are worth all that money, they demand it and the owners give it to them. Ok, fine, the players get the money they want from the owners, fans get to keep their star and all is good ? Right? All is good until the next season when the owners claim they are forced to raise ticket prices a few bucks to cover the huge salary they agreed to pay the player who held out the previous season. In a season a player holds out, how successful are they? Whenís the last time you heard of a player who held out for more money, then put up career number that same year? How many holdout players have led their teams to a championship in the same year? It used to be that a player would play his entire career with one team unless he was traded, but today there are only a handful of players who will retire as a member of the team they debuted with. Michael Jordan looked as though he would fall into this category, but then he came back, as a Washington Wizards for a few more seasons. As a fan I would like to be selfish sometimes and hold out until the teams I cheer for field a competitive team, but if I didn't go to the games or buy their merchandise, they wouldn't have the money to pay the high priced salaries that even the average players make these days. Maybe the NFL has it right when they try marketing the team, or uniform as they say on ESPN Radio, because then you donít grow too attached to a big name player who will most likely be gone in a few years. |
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