Study of NBA finds that pay inequity among top performers erodes cooperation
news.wsu.eduYou notice the increased cooperation in EuroBasket, that is almost often far more interesting to watch than the NBA. The game is more physical, more tactical, and more demanding mentally. As Kobe Bryant often said, European basketball is tougher in many ways because it forces players to think, move, and execute as a unit.
I wonder if NBA has higher % of players (employees) who directly work with each other where the difference is pay can be substitutional than regular businesses.
I wonder whether other sports require more teamwork to be successful - as the "stars" must be successful to collect serious coin. In the NFL/CFL, if you lose the support of your offensive line, your life as the big-ticket quarterback will be "nasty, brutish and short". Similarly, if you don't work with the pass-catchers, you'll fail to get the stats.
Footy and baseball aren't amenable to teams winning single-handedly. The NBA seems a bit more amenable, as a hot hand can score 50+ points on their own. Hockey in its various forms, lets say, has an adjustment mechanism that teaches cooperation :-).