Welcome back to BasketballWeather. I love you.
You’ve probably never heard the name Charles Bassey before. Have you? Why would you? He was a bench player on the San Antonio Spurs in the 2023 NBA year, the year of the rabbit, and here were his averages: 5.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists. He also had the honor of making the lowest salary in the league. Keep that salary in mind as we jump into today’s topic.
One of things that I hate most, that I feel is most depraved, that genuinely sucks the lifeblood out of me as much as almost anything is: The judgements of people who work a normal job. To make a long story short, my normy friend and I were discussing finances.
I was explaining some things that were coming up in my life financially speaking, and this other person was explaining some things that was were coming up for him— trips, vacations, and oh yeah vacations. As we spoke I started to get the feeling that I was being judged for not working as many hours as him. That if I wanted to take more vacations, I should stop working when I felt like it, and work a twelve month around the clock calendar schedule like they were.
It felt to me like like they thought if I just worked more days out of the year, all life concerns: hunger, oil/gas prices, endangered blue whale populations, would be solved like kaboom-pow-pow, and order in the world would be restored.
Now this is probably an argument that has happened between friends, couples, and families throughout time, but it annoyed the living shit out of me that my friend was judging me for not working a 9-5 Job or a “full calendar year” like the good citizens of Mmmerica were supposed to do if they wanted to complain about money.
To state the obvious, I am abnormal. I value time to think, some air to breathe, and walks to take with my dog on my own damn time. As a working artist I do all of these things, and take care of my family, which includes my three year old son. I am fortunate to have a partner who also works, and this gives our family more flexibility than many. That said, life is expensive, as I’m sure #28 Charles Bassey of the San Antonio Spurs can tell you.
First, the assertion that someone should even need to work to afford more vacations. I don’t get involved in your business, I pay my bills on time, afford a non-violent lifestyle, have tons of freedom and flexibility, and most importantly have the ability to work on my creative endeavors, which are worth far more in the long term, spiritually, and financially, than the extra whatever I would make by putting “my projects” to the side and working a year-round 9-5 schedule.
You know who else works as they please?
Kawhi Leonard.
You know what one big difference between you and Kawhi is, other than the fact that it’s always been a dream of yours to slam dunk, and the only time you have actually done so was when you were at a trampoline park. Kawhi makes a few more dollars than you do. But I wanted to ask my friend what he thought.
Me: Would you speak that way to Kawhi?
Friend in Aspen: Kawhi is a multi-millionaire.
Me: Charles Bassey, bitch!
Friend on vacation in Hawaii: Who?
As the summer of labor strikes has shown, money problems are universal. Unless you’re Elon Musk or Oprah, you’re going to think about money a lot. The more money you have, the bigger things you buy, and the cycle continues. There’s a reason why Jay Z has 99 problems.
We all have to make choices for our lifestyle, and my question to my friend about my budget had nothing to do with reorganizing the priorities of my work schedule or changing my life to afford more vacations. It was about getting his advice on whether I should buy a pair of sunglasses or a new backpack.
But somehow this opened the door to judgement. Because he makes more money than I do, he felt like he could punk me.
People who make more money than you are mean. Often they think they’re smarter than you. Even if they’re dumb as doornails they act like Stephen Hawking because they can afford a more expensive car than you and think they can “teach you something.” This is particularly true for people who come from money or are nepo babies.
Okay, but please don’t push your agenda onto me and get in the way of my freedom, when my schedule, and the way I structure my work life works the way an NBA player’s does.
I mean, I’m not Kawhi (yet) or make nowhere near what most NBA players make (yet), but I’m living life on my terms, and that counts for a lot. At least it does in the book of life written by this son of Ukrainian immigrants.
I think it boils down to freedom. When people don’t have freedom, deep down, they know they don’t have it. And when they’re faced with someone who does, it’s like they just looked straight into the eye of the sun.
When I ask someone for money advice or tips on how to budget I’m not looking for a lecture about vacations. I’m looking for one thing and one thing only, someone who is better at math than I am to help me work with numb4ers. So, yeah, next time, if this situation comes up again, I’ll be ready.
Maybe pop a picture of #28 Charles Bassey out of my overalls. I’ll try my best to steer the conversation into the light, not to make it about the money, but if they force me to have that conversation, my backup will be to take them to a basketball court at the JCC and slam dunk (backwards) over their head with my legs spread out in the fart position. ⬇️
James Harden meme 🏀🥲