Last week, former NBA journeyman and current Spanish ACB player Paul Shirley posted a long and biting diatribe on his blog about the plight of the Haitian people. His piece outraged his peers and even cost him his job as contributor for ESPN. Early on he states, “I haven’t donated a cent to the Haitian relief effort. And I probably will not,” and it only gets more interesting from there.

“After the tsunami of 2004, the citizens of the world wailed and donated and volunteered for cleanup, rarely asking the important – and, I think, obvious – question: What were all those people doing there in the first place?”

Paul Shirley plays for a team on the Mediterranean Sea. Why would you live in a city by the sea, knowing full well you are in the path of any water related disaster? Because it’s not statistically likely, just like the tsunami of 2004.

“When I was young, the great humanitarian crisis facing our world – as portrayed by the media, anyway – was the starving masses in Africa. The solution found, of course, was to send bag after bag of food to those people, forgetting the long-understood maxim that giving more food to poor people allows them to create more poor people.”

Wow.

“Dear Haitians –
First of all, kudos on developing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Your commitment to human rights, infrastructure, and birth control should be applauded.”

Honestly, the entire rant is quite a read. Mr Shirley has clearly taken for granted the care and opportunities afforded to him by just being born in the United States. He has lost sight of the fact that being highly paid to play sports for a living is a rarity and a privilege. Total strangers pay his bills.  Maybe it’s time he gives a little bit back.