If you make 14.50 an hour, and work full time, you pull in about $116 a day before taxes which ends up being ~$500 a week. I shook my head a little as I got to the lmfao (which, if you remember what this acronym means, indicates he is laughing his f-ing a$$ off at a wage that is larger than many Americans).
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t02.htm (this is median American salaries for union and non-union workers for 2009-2010)
I understand this is essentially nothing compared to their salaries, but that is the whole point. I don’t ask that they make the same as the average American worker, but if they want to appeal to the fans of the NBA for support they need to realize that people who DO live off this type of salary use significant portions of it to fund the NBA. A little empathy for those of us who have to spend 40 hours a week to make this laughable amount would be nice I suppose.

All right, I guess that’s fair. Even so, that mildly tactless line is harmless at worst.

If it’s available, then take it.

So what? It’s not Shawn Marion’s place to regard them.

Also, Shawn Marion hasn’t directly put anybody out of work.

Before the lockout, Marion sure wasn’t writing those arena workers’ checks.

Does it suck that many arena workers are currently out of a job? Yeah, it sucks for them. That isn’t on Marion, though, nor is it on any other NBA employee. Heck, it’s not even on NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Shoot, I don’t even blame the owners.

I mean, look, I’ll sum it up in two points:

1. Nobody’s at fault that those arena workers are now out of work. It’s just a matter of circumstance.

2. It’s not Marion’s fault he’s eligible to collect unemployment. That’s on the gov’t for not capping the program.

Before the quote, let me say that I have no idea how much if any Marion has changed as a person in the 5 years since the book was written,

There is also a charming naiveté about Marion. He chows down on Hamburger Helper and doesn’t care who knows about it. He’s an avid cartoon watcher. He’s a little, well, thrifty. He favors Holiday Inn Express when traveling on his own dime. One day we were having a conversation about the advantages of having kids close together and Marion pointed to what he considered the key factor — the savings on baby clothes. During his annual pilgrimage to Friedman’s, the Atlanta shoe store that caters to large-footed jocks, Marion spent thousands of dollars, then complained about the $17 it cost to mail them. One day last year, one of the trainers was thumbing through a luxury car magazine and musing about making a six-figure auto purchase.

“Why don’t you just buy it?” asked Marion.

“Shawn, how much money you think I make?”

“I don’t know,” said Marion. “Two, three hundred thousand?”

(That is reminiscent of the comment made by Darius Miles, a young player for the Portland Trail Blazers, after he heard that a player had been fined $300,000. “My mother would have to work over a year to make that kind of money,” said Miles.)

it depends on the jurisdiction. I remember when my dad was getting UE, he had to meet with someone, and actually talk to a counselor on the phone, etc. But still it’s not exactly the hardest thing to satisfy.

Whatever drove him to do something simple and grounded like that, it’s a great thing. More guys like him and somebody in the NBPA paying attention, and they might be doing a bit better in the PR fight.