Should NBA stars be paid to compete at the Olympics? Yes, if you take the Boston Celtics' Ray Allen and Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade's words for it.
The two recently called for U.S. NBA stars to receive some type of compensation for being the biggest stars at the Olympic Games, suggesting that it come by way of jersey sales.
Athletes are typically not paid to compete at the Olympics, which relies more on an individual's pride to represent a country on the biggest athletic stage. Beyond the prize money athletes get from winning a medal or breaking a record, some countries, like my native country Nigeria, gift their medal winners with cash upon a ceremonial return home. The U.S. hasn't typically done that, but most athletes receive some sort of sponsorship or promotional endorsement (think Wheaties and Coca-Cola ads featuring Olympic champions).
Basically, most get paid one way or the other for climbing the medal podium; some more than others.
It is no secret that NBA players draw the biggest fans at the Games for a number of reasons. The NBA brand ranks among the top globally recognized sports leagues. Unlike track & field, the biggest competitive attraction (more specifically the sprints) among Olympic events, NBA players are ubiquitously chased after and hounded by media and fans. Very few people outside of T&F core fans recognize superstars not named Usain Bolt, Sanya Richards or Allyson Felix. Tyson Gay could walk through Times Square and go unnoticed. Ditto that for the current fastest woman in the world Carmelita Jeter. And we're not even talking field athletes or even other sports. Michael Phelps gets the rock star treatment after his incredible feat at the Beijing Olympics, but swimming as a sport is hardly relevant outside of Olympic years, and very few can name two or three other swimmers who would likely make the roster for the London Games.
But you would be hard-pressed to find one person who isn't familiar with the entire roster on the U.S. basketball team. And their Olympic jerseys are as in demand as their NBA gear. So I can understand inquiring about compensation for jersey sales. However, these guys already command salaries well into the tens of millions of dollars. They don't need the money. To publicly declare that they should be paid for being patriotic is as unpatriotic as it gets. Worse, they come off looking greedy. Which is no wonder Wade backed off his statement less than 24 hours after initially making it, saying emphatically that he did not want to be paid to represent the U.S.
What Allen and Wade could do is suggest that the proceeds be channeled into the development or training of athletes in other sports not as profitable as theirs, which I suspect is already the case. Fencing, canoeing/kayaking, archery and equestrian may not be popular enough to generate significant endorsement deals, but these sports can be fairly expensive to train for. Even track & field athletes earn considerably low prize winnings compared to the level of training and travel they have to put in. If you're not among the upper echelon of athletes who earn appearance fees, which are sometimes higher than the prize money, traveling to compete could actually be financially bankrupting. They could do with the help.
I don't think Allen or Wade would balk at the chance to represent the U.S. for nothing, if asked to do so. It could just have been a concern about not having any input into the profiting off of their names. But there's a more patriotic way to get involved, and it doesn't involve them pocketing any money. It involves helping others achieve their dreams of representing the U.S. at the Olympic Games.
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