On Lebron and Athlete Compensation

I was having a discussion about supply & demand and athlete pay & sports were repeatedly called a "kid's game" by my interlocutor.

When discussing athlete compensation, people tend to have a narrow, simplistic view of what athletes do that they don’t have when it comes to other things. If you apply that logic, then the richest man in the world makes all that money because he sells books. Warren Buffet is rich because he’s a good gambler.

If instead of viewing say Lebron as someone who plays a game, you view him instead as:

1. The executioner of an investment by tax payers into city arenas
2. The executioner of an investment by thousands of shareholders into a company (NIKE)
3. A larger than life teacher (Kids look up to him)
4. A guy responsible for keeping the lights on for organizations made of hundreds of employees (the Lakers)
5. A huge cultural ambassador (and cultural imperialism is the most effective type of imperialism) for his country,

then you realize than damn, this man may be underpaid