[papabrown]

If having Jack Nicholson in your movie guarantees at least $20 million more in box office revenue than someone nobody has ever heard of, they're creating value.

Likewise, a professional athlete plays on a sports team. That sports team generates millions of dollars a year in television contracts. Hundreds of people are employed both at the stadiums at which they play as well as at the television stations that air the games. Millions more are made from merchandising, jerseys, hats, etc from the sports team. Hundreds more are employed making and selling those products.

And yes, they also become marketing machines. Yet that marketing machine sells products and people are employed at those companies that make and sell those products.

The ripple-on effect of a super-star professional athlete like Michael Jordon or LeBron James generates wealth for tens of thousands of people.