$$$ BALL AND PROTESTS

Some people in America still hold protests. Sadly though it seems they are professional basketball fans trying to get their favorite players to resign with their team.

In the case of the most sought after player, LeBron James, his home state team (Cleveland Cavaliers) are trying to bring him home as he mounts a nationwide spectacle during his current free agency. James is expected to announce tonight in a nationally televised peep-show which team he has chosen. He is expected to sign a contract worth $20 million per year (likely 5-6 years) and that doesn't count the shoe contracts and other commercial money he will pull in.

Today is the first day free agent contracts can be signed, at least eight players are expected to ink deals totaling around $800 million. That is obscene. But the team owners deserve as much, if not more, of the blame for this run-a-way freight train.

It's getting so that fans can't afford to attend the games. By the time you pay for parking, the expensive seat, and a snack you are likely out nearly $100.

It's really hard to remain a professional sports fan as it all has become so corporatized.

The Washington Post reports today:

Twenty-five of the 30 NBA teams lost money last season, according to two people with access to the league's accounting, and NBA Commissioner David Stern has publicly claimed the league would sustain $380 million to $400 million in losses in 2009-10. Stern declined to comment for this story.

The NBA Players Association disputes those figures and contends the league is in far better shape than its accounting indicates. But even the union acknowledges that more than a half-dozen franchises are in financial trouble. They "concede the point," an individual with knowledge of the union's thinking said, "that seven, eight, nine teams need help."

The fans should begin to protest the corporatization of sports and call for the massive reduction of money players and owners are making.

Let's get real, we have serious problems in this world and basketball players don't need to be millionaires. Enough already!