<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It takes a special breed of human being to properly sympathize with the plight of the underpaid NBA player -- the type of person who can stare a $1 million contract offer in the face and boldly cry out, "This money is not fair compensation, and this injustice will not stand!" Such a person is called an agent. And while these agents regularly concern themselves (and with the assistance of the media, manage to concern much of the free world) with the tribulations of their woefully underpaid clients, there's another group of players who don't enjoy the same luxury of over-representation. Their monetary compensation aside, these individuals have a larger basketball-related problem. Manu GinobiliRich Pedroncelli/APHow could one of the NBA's premier guards still regularly come off the bench? Just ask Manu Ginobili. For whatever reason -- be it a conflict with a coach, a misunderstanding with a coach or a coach's overwhelming incompetence -- these players can't get minutes commensurate with their considerable talent. We're speaking not of the underpaid, but rather, the underplayed. And it's not just that they can't get enough minutes -- these players also lack a spokesperson to truly advocate for their cause. Because let's face it -- agents are concerned first and foremost with copious sums of U.S. currency. Minutes are a relevant but ultimately secondary priority. So while the agents of the world swim blissfully in a sea of green paper, someone must step forward and be the agent for change in a world of misappropriated minutes. Someone must rise up and be the voice of the NBA's tragically underplayed.</div> Source
