NHL Teams Lose a Combined $273 Mill

[The Brain]

The question concerning the lottery was sarcasm.

The true question being posed was this one:

let's say you were both making the salaries you listed above. Now, if another team wanted to pay $3 million (or more) for your services, you would turn them down out of the goodness of your hearts, and out of sense for team loyalty, right?

With a lottery, obvious the winnings are a one-shot deal. But when you're earning a salary, for doing something you enjoy (or even something you don't enjoy, but happen to be quite skilled/good at), neither of you ever think "Gee, I wish I were earning <i>more</i>?" Or perhaps you take note of someone else doing the exact same job, but making a little bit more than you, and think, "Well, I'm better at this job than he is; I should be earning more than he does."

Would someone making $50,000 a year declare that he will cap his own potential salary at $100,000... so that someone offering to triple or quadruple his salary will be automatically turned down? Of course not, unless that person is nuts.

Then why is it that when someone makes $5 million a year, they are suddenly no longer within their rights to take an offer to receive triple or quadruple that salary, if someone is in fact willing to pay that much for their services?