Jazz center John Amaechi feels indebted to the game of basketball for offering him the chance to earn millions of dollars, but he doesn't confuse that with a love for the game.

In the May 13 issue of ESPN The Magazine, Amaechi pontificates on writer Dan Le Batard's premise that many fans care far more about sports than the athletes playing the games.

"Let's not romanticize this," Amaechi says in the magazine. "Players don't play for little Johnny in the fourth row. A lot of guys who tell you they love this game wouldn"t love it if you didn"t pay them $8 million a year. . . .