You don’t have to flaunt it like Floyd if you want to be a player

DID you see it? Nah, not the fight of the century that never really was which brutally robbed you of your beauty sleep.

It is the picture that’s doing the rounds on social networks that piqued my interest.

The image in question features a man lying on what looks like a single bed.

All alone between the sheets. Actually, he’s not alone.

Onyekachi Okonkwo did a poor imitation of copying an old picture of Floyd Mayweather lying on a double bed, flaunting a stash of his cash in US dollar bills.

So in his warped wisdom the copycat that is Okonkwo fantastically figured that if Mayweather can do it, why can’t I did it, to borrow from the mangled language of the late apartheid apparatchik Patrick Mphephu, who mumbled similar malarkey when he comically justified following in the footsteps of the foolish ways of his fellow bantustan travellers. Oh the stuff of apartheid puppets and muppets.

Anyway, back to the picture. Mayweather has a mountain of US dollar notes on his queensize bed.

On his single bed, my brother from another mother, Okonkwo, has R200 notes that those who bothered to count claim amounts to a paltry R4 000 and something.

Methinks had Okonkwo displayed his dosh in Nigerian nairas it would have looked like a lot of loot. In any case, keep the pictures coming. Comic relief is welcome. Who can forget Katlego Mphela wearing a leopard print bodice? What’s it called these days, bra? Was the photo intended to suggest Bra Kat was a tiger in bed? Grrr! And when some Orlando Pirates players showed naked celebration of their Nedbank Cup triumph. And when others under the sheets were looking too up close and personal.

Look, a man can do with his money as he pleases, any place, any time and no matter who is around. Granted, the R4 000 and some change does not represent Okonkwo’s bank balance.

The man plays for Mpumalanga Black Aces. What did they achieve this season? What did they win? What example is he to the young players in the Aces pack?

Sure, he is not their father. But he is senior. That makes him a leader. Leaders are expected to lead by example.

In nairas, rands or dollars, Okonkwo’s wealth comes nowhere near the $250 000 that the undefeated pugilist splashes out in a Las Vegas nightclub in one night.

I mean Mayweather can pay off the debt of Greece and Portugal and still afford to fund Okonkwo’s home state Aba’s electricity project. Or Soweto’s power cuts for that matter.

No player in South Africa, past or present, local or foreign, has the head-spinning, spinechilling kind of dosh the man who answers to the Money moniker has.

Yet stories abound about how much our soccer stars splash out in a club in one night, sipping on gin and juice and popping pricey bubbly like there’s no tomorrow.

Those stories are in stark contrast to the embarrassing ones that emerge: he’s not paying papgeld, he has three top-of-the-

Had Okonkwo displayed his dosh in Nigerian nairas it would have looked like a lot of loot It is ... the result of a lifestyle of living for today because tomorrow will take care of itself

range cars but no house.

That’s a sure-fire way to hitting the bottom of the financial barrel down the road.

It is a result of thinking no further than one’s nose, the result of a lifestyle of living for today because tomorrow will take care of itself.

The players must play. But watch your pocket and your wallet, dammit. Buy land. Build your house so that when your star dims, the bank won’t come knocking and the tabloids won’t come trashing. Nuff said.