Just a Business

The other day I took my grandchild on a school field trip. Now my grandchild attends a middle school that is located in a lower middle class neighborhood. Its a good school and the children that attend the school are nice children. They have all the normal problems any school has in this day and age. This particular field trip involved the students working on a community project. In this case they had volunteered to stuff envelops for the community orchestra. I sat down at a table near where the children were doing the stuffing and started listening to their conversation.

I found it interesting, but soon the boys turned toward sports. The conversation centered around the current basketball season. They argued over who was the better player. Bryant or James. What team would make the playoffs and what was the best team in the NBA.

Soon I began to realize that these children really were arguing over only the professional teams. There wasn't one word said about the collages or any other level of sports. I turned toward them and asked what collage team they were for in the NCAA's tournament. They really had no answer for me. Then I asked them what was their favorite collage team. They couldn't really name one. Out of frustration I told them that what they were admiring was no more than a business and that the Lakers and Kobe Bryant had no thoughts of them except how much can you spend on their merchandise and clothing. That if they could make more money by moving to another city they would and that the players care less about the people who are fans. They move from city to city to make as much money they can make. Labron James just said he wants to have the first billion dollar business of any sportsman. The truth is The Lakers, the Cavileers, the Celtics, are in sports they are nothing more than businesses.