Those of you who know me, know that I struggled with which career path to take once I graduated from high school. As an award winning athlete, I was pulled by the prospect of playing for the NFL, NBA or NHL. But another part of me knew I was more than just rock hard abs, 24″ biceps and nimble coordination; I felt I could make a difference in industry. I decided then, that a consultant’s life was the one for me. For that, I needed an MBA. Looking back, I wonder if I made the correct decision, at least financially speaking. CNN.com recently ran an article which showed MBA graduate pay expectations; they showed these numbers:

Salaries for MBA (males) in 2006:
First job after graduation: $94,710
5 years after graduation: $191,541

On the other hand, the average NBA salary is $4.9 million. In 2007, for the NBA, the team salary cap is $53.135 million, with a per player salary cap of about 9 million (increases with each year of play.)

There are thirty NBA teams (5 teams in each in of the 3 divisions of the 2 conferences), and each team has 14 or 15 players. That makes about 435 NBA players.

For comparison, there are about 1,500 MBA programs in the United States, producing about 120,000 graduates each year.

So… Did I make the right decision?!?