I remember reading an article in the sixties about Jerry Lucas then one of the top players in the NBA.
Lucas's big goal was to become a millionaire. At the time only a few top athletes in the NBA, like Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, made around one hundred thousand annually.
Today a player of Lucas's stature can make one hundred million dollars on just one contract signing.
Lucas eventually did become a millionaire through shrewd investments and his post-basketball career as a memory expert.
But today's pro athletes have simply no idea how lucky they are to be pro athletes at the top level.
p.s.
Lucas had phenomenal aptitudes in math, memory, and vocabulary tricks.
For instance, while playing in a game, he knew exactly how many points, rebounds, and other stats every player on both teams had throughout the game.
On the Johnny Carson Show after his career was over he demonstrated his ability to instantaneously put words in alphabetical order. Give him a multi-syllabic word, and he could instantly arrange it in alphabetical order. He had numerous other memory/word tricks.