Are NBA Players Slaves?

Bryant Gumbel made some of the dumbest comments of the year on a recent "Real Sports" show on HBO, check them out:

“Finally tonight, if the NBA lockout is going to be resolved any time soon, it seems likely to be done in spite of David Stern, not because of him. I say that because the NBA’s infamously egocentric commissioner seems more hell-bent lately on demeaning the players than resolving his game’s labor impasse.

How else to explain Stern’s rants in recent days? To any and everyone who’d listen, he has alternately knocked union leader Billy Hunter, said the players were getting inaccurate information, and started sounding chicken-little claims about what games might be lost if the players didn’t soon see things his way.

Stern’s version of what’s been going on behind closed doors has, of course, been disputed. But his efforts were typical of a commissioner, who has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer treating NBA men as if they were his boys. It’s part of Stern’s M.O. Like his past self-serving edicts on dress code or the questioning of officials, his moves are intended to do little more than show how he’s the one keeping the hired hands in their place."

Perhaps someone should inform him that the average NBA salary is now $5.15 million, that's the highest of any of the 4 major sports.  Perhaps he should also be informed that the U.S. unemployment rate sits at 9.1%.  Or that the U.S. household income has fallen to it's lowest level in more than a decade.  Or that the poverty rate is at a 17 year high.  Invite me to that plantation anytime Bryant Gumbel.   This comes close to Latrell Sprewell's "I have a family to feed" quote of several years back.  These out of touch idiots need to start thinking twice before speaking.