CALCULATING
So much planning is done without counsel and so much planning isn’t done at all. You are now tuned in to two lockouts, one in the NFL and the other in the NBA. Summer time and the living is easy for pro basketball gods because, from what I’m told, they get paid biweekly during the regular season and those checks they get every two weeks are pretty substantial. There are many sides to the calculating life of professional athletes.
Take into consideration this one. Greg Oden, the number 1 overall draft pick by the Portland Trailblazers who was selected above superstar Kevin Durant who is absolutely assailing would-be defenders and destroying barriers for young burgeoning players. Oden has played something on the order of 82 games since his draft date due to an unfortunate series of injuries which have plagued him. He is now poised for free agency with no body of work to speak on his behalf. And while Portland vows to stand by their man and match any offers made for his services by other teams, Oden does well to calculate his options should he find himself unemployed.
But how do you do that? Or has he done that amidst the hope of vanquishing the knee demons that rear their heads every time he sets foot on the court? Calculation requires one of the most unique skills available to human kind – FORESIGHT. It is the ability to not only see looming possibilities (no matter how negative) but also embrace the reality associated with them. For Oden, it might mean understanding that your identity as a basketball player is in jeopardy. It might also mean that calculations need to be made about education, business preparedness and preserving existing wealth. For Greg Oden, at only 23 years old, he’s on the cusp of life and demise and calculation will be difficult because of the voices. These are likely the same voices that convinced him to leave Ohio State University after just one year to jump to the NBA. Oden has never seen a challenge like the one he will face in the next several months but a genuine submission to truth is all that is needed to allow divine wisdom to flood his decision making. All joking aside, let’s hope he acquires seasoned wisdom to go along with his seasoned facial features.
Posted: by Norman Anthony
Category: Character, Skills, Today's Post
Good Read. I just wanted to comment and say that I believe this is the downside to many athletes good fortune and that there is a bad one. As quickly as they earn their millions of dollars from paychecks and endorsements, they easily forget how soon it could all end with an injury or a lockout.
The funny thing to me is that it almost seems that the players think they are above economics; like if they can’t take a pay-cut like the rest of the world. Oh yeah it’s obvious that the owners have created their own “Frankenstein” (Kenny the Jet), and with most of the players coming from environments some would deem “GHETTO”, the players don’t care, their mindset is that of entitlement anyway and I would venture to say they don’t even know any better…It’s almost as if they are one-upping the owners on the “who’s doing who” side of things.
Lebron said it after his Loss in the Finals, “He has his life and they (we or whoever he’s talking about) have ours” I guess?
You’re right though, most are unprepared for life outside of the leather laced ball whatever size it may be, and truth be told some of those guys are pretty smart, but uneducated…Not in school so much as life…
I’m feelin’ you on all you said. The rub of the modern pro athletic construct is that it seems to present this either-or fallacy to guys too young or too impetuous to sort out their real choices upon making the jump from college or wherever to the millions. They feel that either I go get this money or it will evade me and the rainbow with the gold in it will be in another guy’s yard tomorrow. I can’t fault a man trying to better his family or advance himself with his gift but the first rule of ball handling for me was to dribble with your head up. And G. Oden is a classic scenario that most dudes like him have to fear. Shaun Livingston is fortunate to still have a job in the league as is Gilbert Arenas, both one injury away from a grim confrontation with average Joe life. I would hope that the lockout, this time around, features some teachable moments for players. Owners have been business men for years. Players haven’t and it often shows in their naivete. I’m looking forward to an intervention….