Your Experience May Not be Tip-ical
Q: I work at a high-end restaurant on Walnut Street and often times professional athletes dine at my place and never tip! What gives?! We are hard working responsible individuals who care very deeply about our craft. Some pros tip,but NBA players in particular never tip. Could you please help my staff and I understand that one? Thank you for your time. - Disgusted over ignorance
A: Money can buy some degree of happiness. Money can buy fancy meals and good times. But money can't buy brains. I'm not making excuses for professional athletes in general and NBA players in particular, but I find it hard to believe that your experiences can say for certain that a specific class of athletes never tips. I doubt that. But for those that don't tip I definitely don't condone that. You have to understand that the upbringing of many of these athletes never included fine dining or having to pay for a check. There could be an underlying ignorance of the concept of a gratuity or what the amount should be. Sometimes it's not out of line for a fine restaurant to tell the party before ordering that a reasonable gratuity will be added to the check. Hopefully that might help your NBA customers from dropping the ball.
Q: My son had a pretty hard collision with an opponent on the basketball court and the other kid hit the floor. My son walked away. When I asked him why he didn't offer to help the kid up he said it would make him look soft. I was furious. He's only 14. Wouldn't that just be good sportsmanship? -Hard Line on Being Soft
A: That's a hard call. If your son didn't intentionally try to hurt another player, then he's just playing the game as a hard-nosed player.
Most coaches love and encourage that. When I played basketball I wasn't on the court to make friends. I always played to win. Sometimes you have to scramble for loose balls or box out for rebounds. You have 10 players running in all different directions, so the possibility of a collision is always there. In your son's case, the boy on the floor had four teammates to help him up. Hard to understand why they didn't offer.
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