Dolla dolla bills y'all

More than ever in my life I've been enjoying professional basketball. It started with following the Cavs this season and has continued through to The Finals. During tonight's game, an announcer noted a particular player's contract--in this case: $22 million over five years. C went to the computer and found--to no one's surprise--Lebron James makes an estimated $14mil/year on the court plus $13mil/year off of the court (source: unsubstantiated internet site). Re-donk-u-lous.

Of course this conversation is old. I guess as a newcomer to pro sports normality, I'm not yet numb to the scale of those numbers. Really, I can't even imagine the fullness of that amount of money. But sadly, I occasionally yearn for a slice of pie so big. It's hard to not.

It's part Nature: to gather, hoard, provide, and succeed (in the Darwinian sense); it's part Nurture: to compete, excel, and work our way up the social ladder in a society that historically measures success and happiness in money earned and spent. Providing for your family and friends is a good feeling, so it's obvious we would want a lot of resources so we can share with the people we love. Selfish and un-selfish at the same time.

But how much is too much? We currently have so much more than MOST people in the world will ever have. That's pretty dumb-founding and heart-breaking too.
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Update:
My dad sent me a link to this article about the top-paid athletes. I didn't even want to read it but couldn't avoid seeing this number: $110mil/year for Tiger Wood ::barf::
Article here (copy to browser): http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ys-forbestopearners061809&prov=yhoo&type=lgns