By
William A. Gralnick

When the mind wonders, like the roulette wheel, there’s no telling where it will land. Speaking personally, the number of subjects my mind bumps into on its wanderings is vast and varied. In global matters it explores Israel as a nation and democracy, it tries to solve the wars in the Middle East, and it worries about whether or not our country can trust the Saudis, the Egyptians, and the Emirates. And of course, Iran.
Then there is Europe, the rising anti-Semitism, the war in Ukraine, and the growing lurch to the political right that many places in many countries are taking. Moving across the map, I don’t trust Pakistan, India makes me crazy, and I have sorrow for the people of Afghanistan. Russia doesn’t scare me, Putin does.
I think often of the bumbling stupidity of long-time American policy towards South America as a region and our policies towards its countries. Most of them wouldn’t give a taco’s worth of a damn if the US had a crippling disaster. At least I don’t think so. Our policy, be there one other than military, towards Africa is no better. It’s hard to delve deeply into that because like so many Americans, I know so little about it other than the soul-searing starvations, the mind-numbing political wars, and my beloved wild animals so many being reduced to near extinction by poachers and policies that don’t do nearly enough to protect them.
Climate change is a fear. It has worried me deeply long before Helene and Milton but maybe not before Andrew. I used to worry about the kind of world my generation is going to leave our grandchildren. Now I worry if we’ll be leaving them a livable planet.
But the place my mind lands most often, certainly enhanced by this coming election, is the state of affairs in these United States of America. How do we bring back civility, right the ship of society, and function like a nation made stronger by differing ideas? I’ve lately been wondering if professional athletes couldn’t save the nation. While you are scratching your heads, read on. Money doesn’t solve all the problems, but without it, there are no solutions to the big ones. And professional athletes have the money.
I’ve compiled a list of the top earners in the NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball. I’ve left out international soccer because those players don’t have much of a stake in America. While I expected the sums to be high, I found them to be staggering, especially since when I was a kid my heroes in these sports all had off-season jobs because what they made as athletes barely paid the bills. What follows is a lot of numbers but they’ll give you my point quickly and then you can go to my solution.
This is a list of the highest-paid athletes in the world as ranked by Forbes magazine. I’ve only included those who either are American and/or live here as permanent residents. The figures are a total of salary and endorsement earnings.
Lebron James: $128.2 million
Steph Curry: $102 Million
Lamar Jackson: $100.5 million

Highest career earners in the NBA compiled by Wikipedia are:
Rank | Player | Start | End | Salary |
1 | LeBron James | 2003-04 | Present | $390,511,590 |
2 | Chris Paul | 2005-06 | Present | $362,107,923 |
3 | Kevin Durant | 2007-08 | Present | $351,505,713 |
4 | Kevin Garnett | 1995-96 | 2015-16 | $334,304,240 |
5 | Kobe Bryant | 1996-97 | 2015-16 | $323,312,307 |
6 | Stephen Curry | 2009-10 | Present | $305,929,066 |
7 | James Harden | 2009-10 | Present | $304,996,502 |
8 | Russell Westbrook | 2008-09 | Present | $291,796,692 |
Next, we have baseball. Again, these are total figures, but remember they are annual figures!
The Highest-Paid MLB Players in 2023

Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Angels): $70 million. …
Max Scherzer (New York Mets): $60.3 million. …
Justin Verlander (New York Mets): $44.3 million. …
Aaron Judge (New York Yankees): $44 million. …
Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels): $40.5 million. …
Anthony Rendon (Los Angeles Angels): $38.3 million.
Let’s take a look at the NFL. These figures were posted by ESPN from the 2024-25 contract season.
1. Joe Burrow, $61.3 million
Signed: September 2023 (contract ends in 2030)
2. Dak Prescott (DAL), $60 million 3. Jordan Love (GB), $58.3 million 3. Trevor Lawrence (JAX), $56.9 million 4. Jared Goff (DET), $55.4 million 5. Tua Tagovailoa (MIA), $54.3 million 6. Justin Herbert (LAC), $53.3 million
Total guaranteed money:
1.Dak Prescott $231 million
2. Deshaun Watson (CLE), $230 million 3. Joe Burrow (CIN), $219.01 million 3. Patrick Mahomes (KC), $208.1 million 4. Trevor Lawrence (JAX), $200 million 5. Justin Herbert (LAC), $193.7 million 6. Kyler Murray (ARI), $189.5 million

The team salary cap is $88 million. No player can earn more than $17.6 million.
And finally, we have the NHL. These are Wikipedia-compiled figures. Here I had to give the inclusion of Canadians the benefit of the doubt. While so many hockey players are Canadian and live in Canada, I suspect that the health and welfare of the American cities they play in could be made to be important to them if it were brought into their consciences and is the health and welfare of America because in many ways Canada and America are connected by more than a long border.

Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) $16.7 million
Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) $16.5 million
Elias Pettersson (Vancouver Canucks) $14.5 million
William Nylander (Toronto Maple Leafs) $13.5 million
Jake Guentzel (Tampa Bay Lightning) $13.26 million
The team salary cap is $88 million. No player can earn more than $17.6 million.
I’m not going to do the addition, I’m just going to point out that in the three major professional sports the top earners total annual take is roughly five billion dollars—again, a year! And that’s the crème de la crème. Even rookies earn a minimum that is well above what the average American wage earner makes and most can afford to throw a few bucks into a pot to benefit those that come out and root for them.
For the ice cream on the cake, know that the Leagues themselves have foundations as do all the teams. The total number of teams in the NHL, NBA, and in MLB is: 92. Folks, that represents a staggering pool of money.

Now to the proposal. Let’s assume Donald Trump is wrong and that Detroit is not like a third-world country. However, we can say with certainty that every one of the cities in which a major league sports franchise has great and diverse needs. Their public schools are unequal in what they bring to their students, their public health services are under-funded and understaffed, there are housing needs both in construction and rehabilitation, there is no city in the land that couldn’t use more parks and the people to run programs in them and the same goes for community centers. Every child in school should have a computer. No child in school should go to school hungry. Nor is there a city where there are too many programs that teach kids how to appreciate their differences and get along with one another. I could go on, but the point is made.
Another point is that to many children and adults, athletes are showered with hero worship. That gives them a special ability to reach out to the members of society and be listened to. What could to done that would have a monumental impact on this country would be to do what politicians have done to raise money. They have created PACs and Super PACs. American athletics should create a super foundation, a 501c3 that would be up there along with the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie Foundations, a foundation that can hire the best and the brightest to do research on and implement programs in the policy areas governments aren’t reaching. They such a foundation would also be able to throw its weight around to move governments and those running for office to face up to and work on filling the gaps in our society.

The athletes of America could go a long way towards fulfilling our Founders’ dream of one nation under G-d with liberty and justice for all.
The active mind of a blogger is at work here. For more, varied, and lighter offerings, Bill suggests going to http://www.williamgralnickauthor.com
Enjoy and thanks for reading!
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