never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Dikembe Mutombo - Opportunity Cost

There are millions of people who go to school to become doctors but there are only a handful of people who are 22 feet tall and wag their fingers when they block a shot. in one year of nba salary, dikembe could (and maybe did) have given a scholarship to 5 people from his hometown to become doctors. the odds are that atleast one of them would become a doctor as good or better than he could have been. now, he has fulfilled his doctor quota and can use the rest of his time to make tons of money and give it back to africa.

"On August 14, 2006, Dikembe donated $15 million to the completion of the now named Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, named for his mother. When it opens in February 2007, the $29 million facility will become the first modern medical facility to be built in that area in nearly 40 years."

Are you telling me not playing basketball and becoming a doctor is better than making/giving 15 million dollars to build an entire fucking hosptial? Its not always about the 'benjins' but in this case he can have his cake and eat it too.

Besides all that, 'Who Wants to Sex Mutombo' would never have come to light if he had become a doctor in the Congo.

4 comments:

alm said...

i had this as 'omar post' at sentence two.

Moacir said...

Omar, I generally agree. My issue is that he went to G'Town to be a doc, and, from Bush's words, was on a scholarship to do that. Then he bailed and became a baller. He also was lucky in that he did get to make millions of dollaz--probably the last hoya to do so other than AI. But just cause it worked out in his case doesn't mean it's a good model. I mean, I know you love Bush and all, but come on.

Also, you haven't read the Blind Side.

Omar said...

this has nothing to do with bush and his inability to turn a phrase.

many people study to become doctors and dont end up going to med school (me). many people study to become doctors and then actually go onto med school WHILE playing ncaa sports (see craig krenzel). he didn't have to choose one or the other and the one that he did choose ended up with him making over 100 million dollars (its crazy, i know) and with the congo getting its first state of the art hospital.

the model is - do what you can do to give africans healthcare. for 99.9999% of people it isn't shot blocking but for the ones it is, you will get in the state of the union speech.

and i dont love bush. i never loved him. i knew he was going to win the first election because he knew how to raise ass-loads of money and i knew he was going to win the second one because kerry was a douchebag and because iraq wasn't full-blown quagmire yet.

my presidential candidate for 10 years has been alan keyes. hes awesome. and he was in borat as an original chocolateface. borat was great.

Moacir said...

omar, the problem is you focus on results, and i focus on obligation/responsibility. That's because I'm a Christian, and you're a devil.