These Modern Day Athletes--All They Care About Is Money

Angry oldtimers of every era have complained that current players are motivated by money. Never has that charge seemed more appropo than now, when your average major professional league player salaries are well over $1 million.

But players in major professional sports don't care about money as much as you think. If they cared about money as much as you think, stories like the Storm's Barbara Turner's would be the norm in the NFL and NBA.

Turner played the winter with Fenerbahce of the Turkish League, which made the best-of-seven championship series. But after the team failed to close out their championship run in Game Six, Turner left the team on the eve of the deciding game to fly back to America to try to make the Storm. "It was a very tough decision to not play in the final game," Turner told the Times' Jayda Evans. "The reason why I stayed in Turkey so long was I had a commitment. I was under contract and when you're a professional, you have to be a professional whether you're playing overseas or in the WNBA. After we lost Game 6, it came down to me deciding how much of an opportunity I wanted to make this team. I decided to come back to give myself a couple of extra days and trust that if I give myself enough window of opportunity, I should be fine."

WNBA players don't make much--the league maximum is $90,000, which is why 90% of them play overseas in the offseason. Turner's decision to break her Turkish league contract is understandable--she cares about the money because she needs it. The less money a person makes, the more they care about it--that should be obvious, but the oldtimers never seem to get it.

As it turned out, Fenerbahce ended up winning the championship without her. And if the Storm win a title this year, they'll do it without Turner too. After a couple of days of practice with the team, the Storm cut Turner, their 2006 first-round pick. Free agent Shyra Ely made the team instead.

Bummer for Turner, who'll now do whatever it is incredibly talented but not quite incredibly talented women's basketball players do when they don't make a professional team. We're thinking it won't be as cushy a summer off as this guy's having.