Live To Fight Another Day??

Hey again

This time I want to talk about a little about the professional side of things in a career of a basketball player. Unlike the NBA, overseas things are done a little different. First of all, once you sign a contract in the NBA, your money is guaranteed no matter what, even if you get traded you continue with the same salary in your new team.

Overseas things don't work like that, first of all there are no trades without a players agreement, a team can't come one morning and tell you that you have been traded. In the NBA those things happen on a daily basis, where players rights are moved from one team to another. Over here you need to have the players consent in order to make any moves.

Another thing that happens here unlike the NBA is that a player will be cut from the team in the middle of the season, usually with the team agreeing to pay him part of his future salary in order to get his agreement to part ways. Same places around the globe will sign players for a monthly contract, something that does happen in the NBA, and after that will decide on his future.

Another big difference is that in every league around the globe, or at least 95 percent of it, whether it's South America, Venezuela, China, Europe or Asia there is a limitation on the number of players holding an American passport that are allowed to be on a team.

For example some leagues allow four Americans or five to be a part of a team at one time, that means that if a team wants to make a change in the squad they have to cut one of the American's on the team, unless they haven't signed the maximum number of players allowed.

Since it's something that happens quite often during the season it's never fun to see teammates leave and others replace them, especially when basketball is like life, it's a lot about opportunities and sometimes being in the right place in the right time, and not only about your ability.

Continuing on that notion, a lot of times basketball is a game you have to prove yourself day in and day out, each game starts from zero, it's never fun to play when you know that your job can be on the line, and if not it's not then just your contract next year, the amount of money you make and in which level you play.

If you want to take a look at the game from a different angle try to compare it to other routine jobs. I'm not saying that basketball is more important than any other job, but it's just different. If you happen to be a business man, you have to make a lot of important decisions regarding a lot of different things, that usually mean that a lot of money is depending if you make a good decision or a bad one.

However each time you need to make that kind of decision you can sit with the papers, the reports, your advisers and talk and try to figure out what is the best move, of course it's very pressuring and your are always trying to succeed, the difference in basketball is big.

In basketball each decision is very important to the game, however unlike the office, everything is very dynamic and you have to decide the fate of the "deal" in a split second, if you pass the ball one second late or fall asleep on defense, or you don't release the ball at the right time on your jump shoot the "deal" goes south. It can result in being benched, losing the game, or just hurting your teams chance of wining.

There is a reason they say that basketball is a game of mistakes and the team that makes less mistakes will usually end up winning it. The pressure and the adrenaline of this dynamic game and needing to decide everything in a split second is what makes me and I'm sure a lot of players in love with the game, but the pressure is always there and each decision has a half of second of "reading the files, dealing with papers and talking to advisers" after that half second you are all on your own, and you will find out very fast if your clinched the deal or not.

My song for this post needs no introduction :

I've paid my dues -
Time after time -
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime -
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face -
But I've come through

I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls -
You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it
-I thank you all -
But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise -
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race -
And I ain't gonna lose