Of course, everybody knows that people watch transformers because of Megan Fox and big robots

I don't know.  Is it? 

Sad comment on your part. 

I'm sure a bunch of teenage girls would disagree with this comment.    And there are some of us who just don't watch Transformers at all.  Now stop derailing my thread, Falcon!

No, there are undiscovered people all over the world. To say otherwise is just silly.

In my mind there are two significant reasons which cause the aggregate of skill/talent for professionals to be higher than amatuers.

The average pool of talent is the same whether you're talking about an amatuer sport or a professional one, but the difference is that a profession sport can attract and retain a lot more of the talent beyond the sheer love of the game and against other considerations like education and financial obligations.  This doesn't mean that the best talent is unavailable to amatuer competitions and it doesn't mean that all the best talent is available to professional competitions, but what it does mean is that a wider pool of people are willing and able to play and the top flight sports people are selected from that larger, richer group of talent. One example is Cricket, Shane Bond is a truely awesome bowler and he retains to this day one of the best records of any bowler throughout history. Had Cricket not been a professional sport he would still be a policeman.

The second major reason is that more resources can be devoted to developing talent in professional competitions. The time and effort required to lift the performance of a major sportsperson by just 1% is staggering. Not only can the sportsperson devote more time to developing his natural talents but also more resources can be devoted to coaching and other personal development. I'll go back to Shane Bond again. When Shane Bond suffered from repeated back injuries, had he been an amatuer he would have likely quit the sport, whilst as a professional he was able to get the right coaching and medical care to allow him to return to the sport. So whilst hes no longer the best bowler in the world hes still one of the best and that talent would have been lost in an amatuer competition.

Now that i think about it.. *cough* *cough* MOH2 league *cough* *cough* .. nevermind..

Stop derailing the thread saying what you think of yourself! Bolero can be a mean dominican (from Dominicana) hermaphrodite..

I don't derail threads.  All of my comments always pertain to the OP.

On topic.  People that cheat get paid top dollar also.  Look at Mark McGuire, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, and all of the other steroid users that have played baseball.

Wouldn't that suggest however that those in the very top are infact the best at what they do?  Afterall the other people couldn't even bother to be promoted to where they would suck, because based on that theory they already suck there.

The difference between college and proffesional basketball isn't really the same as the difference between being an employee and movign to management or a different kind of management.  The kind of player who sucks at the NBA game or other sports games don't really stick around that long honestly.

Now when you get to Players being promoted to the front office... there i think the Peter principle holds merit.  People like Mike Dunleavy and Michael Jordan suck at their current jobs.

For other jobs this may hold more true... but even then i believe that's why there is limited growth in most jobs. 

What make you so sure that they disagree with me, you could have a surprise one of this days

Hey! You invite me so you have to deal with me now!.. Besides.. Bond started it so i blame him!

Hmm...I think there's been some miscommunication.  I wasn't solely referring to those involved in the sport/job.  My question is if the highest paid people in any field are the best at it out of the entire human population.  This includes the athletes that play professionally, the farmers in Kenya and the fishermen in Alaska etc.  Is it possible that other people around the planet possess similar or better skills than those getting paid for it?  

In the Shane Bond example you mention "the right coaching and medical care".  Do you believe that if others had the same resources, then they may be able to develop their talent and rise to become one of the greatest as he did?

@Kasz: Can't they simply be the best at what they do that we know of?