The Buck Stops Here

So a lot of space on my blog has been reserved for cheap athletes, and today's entry will be no different, but with a twist.

Chris Webber is the newest Philadelphia Sixer (basketball).  He is the highest paid athlete in Philadelphia.  He made $17 million this year (and played less than a third of the season).  Next year he will be the first Philadelphia athlete to make over $20 million in one year.  He took a private jet the other day, he made the skycab guy carry eight heavy bags and his dirty sneakers on to the plane, and then tipped him one dollar.

ONE DOLLAR!!!!  That's one out of 17 million he made for playing less than a third of a season of basketball.

Now, while I think this is absolutly ridiculous and atrocious and he should be publicly stoned, I don't think that we should expect all celebrities to always be generous tippers.  You hear stories all the time about a waiter who had a famous person at the table and got tipped $200 or something, but think about this, if a celebrity tipped every waiter or waitress $200 after every meal, that person would become broke in a heartbeat.  If the service is phenominal and the person doesn't make a big deal about a celebrity being in front of them, maybe they deserve a little extra tip, but otherwise why can't a celebrity give the typical 20%?  If the president of McDonald's walked into your restaurant would you expect a huge tip?  Probably not.  Probably because you would have no idea it was the president of McDonald's.  So why should these celebrities be punished because their salaries are made public?  That doesn't seem very fair.