Actually, I think there might be a simple answer to your question (and glad you didn't have anything disparaging to say about my city! lol).

Owner's Ego. And it only had to happen one time.

Owner #1 (who has a crapload of money) wants a player (sport doesn't matter) and Owner #2 (who also has a crapload of money) has an ego that can't handle being outdone, so #2 ups the bid. Now #1 has his jockeys in a bind, so he ups the bid. Back and forth it goes until eventually one of the two owners blinks, and viola, the floor has been set. All future negotiations will use this transaction as a starting point.

Which is also why the "average guy" can't take his kids to a ball game anymore. Seen the price of tickets? .. or the concessions? .. or a souvenir for the kids? Gotten WAY out of hand.

Totally agree Abaco....think it all started with competition NFL teams who built mega stadiums that really were not needed the old way was great.... then let's boost the players salary...it's all a competition who can rip off the consumers who eagerly give up their earnings the most.

It's the Circus part of Bread and Circuses.
Media advertising promotes this rubbish instead of promoting productive activities.
Pro basketball is even more boring than golf for spectators.
JMHO
On the flip-side, major events can bring people together but that isn't the goal.
Perhaps if people were encouraged to find something they do well and enjoy that instead ...
(Heading for my electronics bench to build an prototype integrated amp now.;^)

the problem is that there are so many with such empty minds to waste their lives on such non-sense

i do not understand how people sit and watch this crap
cheering as it they somehow have "ownership" into what some team of over-paid traitors are doing

i do not and never will understand

I think you pretty much got it, nonconformist. It's leverage of the free market. An extremely popular entertainer has a lot of leverage where fans are willing to cough up the bucks to see the performance and buy products attached to the performer in some way. The performer may be absolutely useless in all other endeavors or thoughts, but that's the way it goes nowadays.

Free market at work. (unless of course they are getting paid at least partially from government handouts or there is something else nefarious going on)

The reasoning goes something like this: these people help produce entertainment. Some of them attract more paying customers than others. Hence, there is supply, demand and quality. The business manager hiring them has to make a calculation regarding their salary. I guess they calculated that this particular player is worth that much to them.

People pay for entertainment because it helps them relax and take their mind off things. This increases the productivity of their work time because they had leisure. If they didn't entertain themselves, they may have had depression which would cause them to have less productivity. So, society is winning by having entertainment around.

Teachers don't have much of an impact. They teach a class of 20 or so people per hour. Compare that to the number of people that are affected by an NBA player or a movie actor. Obviously, the latter would have much greater impact and therefore value. Also, the supply of teachers is pretty much infinite but there are only so many popular NBA players and movie actors that people want to see play.

There is no free market for veterans, so, you will need to get rid of the state before those people get paid fairly for their work.

I agree, NBA players and actors should be dirt cheap due to the stupidity of what they do, but for some reason the masses are irrational and decided that they want to have those person in particular entertain them.

How about we let him keep 10M and put the rest towards “reparations”? How about that?

Me too. And that’s “hundreds of millions”.

I can’t wrap my head around it. Does our society think this kid’s contribution is worth 100+ times more than my contribution? WTF? We’re talking 4+ generations of wealth. For dribbling a damn ball?!

agree 100%

It does seem ridiculous but considering how much the team owners are making it is nice the players get reimbursed so generously. My cousin played football for a very long time. He is in the football hall of fame. He ended his career with the Dallas Cowboys. Then he went into real estate. nb

I agree. Playing a game for a living is worth millions of dollars? I don't get it.

But the same goes for those who pretend to be someone else in movies or on tv. Does this really contribute any productivity to our society?

Meanwhile our schoolteachers and veterans are barely scraping by. The things our society values really leave me scratching my head.

been saying this for years

the priorities of our society are really, really f-ed up