Charities, who needs them?

As you all know I have had Charitable Donations on my On Notice List for awhile now. The reason I question them is because of me receiving constant mail about donating money to schools I have attended throughout the years. I have also questioned throughout the years how much money that you give to charities actually go to the cause and how much goes to paying for their pamplets and their "volunteers." However, I do not think charities are useless and should not be supported. Jay Bilas of ESPN thinks otherwise.

I was watching Sports Center this morning while sobering up and they were having a piece on today's NCAA basketball games. They were talking about USC's O.J. Mayo (is that a real name?) and how he is not going to be suspended for taking free tickets to the Lakers-Nuggets games from Carmelo Anthony. O.J. Mayo was however made to donate the $480 to a charity. Then it came to Jay Bilas' turn to give his two cents. What he said was "O.J. Mayo shouldn't be forced to give this money to a charity, he should give the money to the Lakers, they are the ones who lost the money on the comped tickets." What? Why does Jay Bilas hate charity and want O.J. Mayo to give his money to the Lakers, who I am pretty sure are not missing that $480. (I think Kobe Bryant makes that amount 2 seconds into the game.

I think it is a perfectly fine punishment to make someone give money to charity, but maybe Carmelo Anthony, he's the one making millions in the NBA. It's probably not the worst idea for athletes and celebrities to give more money to charity, it could give them all a better image. In fact if the NBA forced its players to give money to charity, it may no longer be dead to me.