If You're A Mid Tier Athlete: Is it Still Beneficial To Play In The Largest Markets?

[steph_harden]

Heard Jeff Teague say the biggest reason why turned down Free Agent Money and then a Trade to the Lakers was because the money just doesn't go as far in Cali.

The same house he lives in Atlanta costs twice as much out in LA. And with the State Taxes it's absolute murder

I wonder if all of the mid tier athletes are thinking like this?

With the Superstars....even Allstars it makes sense because the endsorsement money is just way more out in a big market like LA or NY. But mid-tier guys aren't getting those endorsements...they aren't getting movie roles. But they are getting taxed hard as fukk. So what's even the incentive?

At least back in the day the mid level guys in big markets were able to become household names because their teams were the ones primarily on National TV and as a result you had your John Starks and Derek Fishers all up in the Sitcoms, the music vids and even movies. You could see the benefit back then

Now...aint no more Sitcoms. No more BET to make the Music Vids king and none of them role players are getting into any movie roles now.

Can't help but wonder how is a dude like Derrick Jones Jr who left Texas with no state taxes and goes to Cali with 3 different state taxes makes out. What's he getting out there besides the weather? The chance to fukk a Kardashian?

He'd undoubtedly be making much more in any other city with his contract

So why are these Mid level guys choosing Major Markets in 2025?

 

[MoshpitMazi]

Because you're making great money to live in a great city.

 

[RedBull]

All players don’t play for the same reasons. Some just want to stack money and not be in the limelight. Some want the limelight and all the money.

Mid level players IMO may have the least amount of stress but at the same time they might desire what a bigger market has to offer, and the noteriety on court. Mid level players can be a gift or curse depending what you desire out of your career. You’ll never be the man, but you definitely want respect as a baller at the same time. Which is what guys like Teague and Brandon Jennings deal with.

 

[SchoolboyC]

Every player's motivations are different

There definitely are players that factor in things like state taxes and COL when they pick cities. There's some that just want to play in the flashy markets with a lot going on off the court like LA, Miami, NYC, etc. and don't care about taxes. Some that will live anywhere and don't really care about the extracurricular either.

 

[Primetime]

Every player's motivations are different

There definitely are players that factor in things like state taxes and COL when they pick cities. There's some that just want to play in the flashy markets with a lot going on off the court like LA, Miami, NYC, etc. and don't care about taxes. Some that will live anywhere and don't really care about the extracurricular either.

I went down a rabbit hole so bear with me, but recall that the 2007 Finals bombed ratings wise; it was the 3rd lowest of the past 25 years. This was peak athletic LeBron, #3 in jersey sales, coming off one of the greatest performances/upsets in NBA history vs Detroit, and on the verge of bringing Cleveland's 1st title in decades... going up against the GOAT pf who was one win away from tying Shaq with 4 rings. And nobody cared.

What's interesting, was the next time they faced off in 2013. This was the report on the ratings

Spoiler

2013 NBA Finals Hits 3-Year High, Third-Most Watched on ABC

The NBA Finals was on pace to hit a four-year low in ratings and viewership, but a sixth and seventh game lifted the numbers to a three-year high. The

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Overall, the series ranks as the third-highest rated and third-most viewed NBA Finals on ABC since the network resumed airing games in the 2002-03 season, trailing only Lakers/Celtics in ’10 and Pistons/Lakers in 2004 (11.5, 17.9M).

Heat/Spurs also ranks as the most-viewed NBA Finals to ever involve the Spurs, topping the previous high of 16.0M for Spurs/Knicks in 1999. The 1999 series still averaged a higher rating (11.3). The Spurs’ three other appearances in the NBA Finals each averaged less than an 8.5 rating and 13 million viewers.

Now for context, the 2013 Finals was saved ratings wise by games 6 and 7, as it was on pace to hit a 4-year low through the first 5-games, but ended up doing slightly better than the 2012 Heat/Thunder Finals (but still much better than '07 Cavs/Spurs). I bring all this up because when you look at the ratings trend for LeBron, particularly his East run as a "megastar", the general public only cared when he was on a bigger market team playing another bigger market team.

So when people say LeBron and Steph are ratings magnets and have to be on for Christmas, that's not wrong but there's also the reality that strategically hopping to Los Angeles helped with that (and simply being drafted by Golden State, instead of Indiana). Or that if you gave the Knicks the exact same roster OKC has, and Shai would probably be #1 in jersey sales and Knicks/whoever in the Finals does monster ratings.

 

[Harry B]

Dude is from Indiana, anything is an upgrade.
If you come from Cali, you might wanna pay a premium to live in Cali.

Everyone likes different things, some people might want to live in the woods with a f150 for all we know like some NFL big men seem to do.

At the end of the day they are very rich, we're talking like the reason who made 100m is if he pays 2 % in property tax here or 6 % in state tax there. If you are doing this type of tax optimization, you probably handle your finances good enough for it to not really matter

 

[ikbm]

something thats omitted, they can list their home outside of the state they play in as their place of residence, take a lump sum of their salary(half of it) and have the rest taxed by the city/state they play in.
lots of players in the major market/heavily taxed cities list their residence in texas/florida or whever else is income tax-free

 

[TL15]

something thats omitted, they can list their home outside of the state they play in as their place of residence, take a lump sum of their salary(half of it) and have the rest taxed by the city/state they play in.
lots of players in the major market/heavily taxed cities list their residence in texas/florida or whever else is income tax-free

And they should also be listing their home in the state they play in as a business expense

 

[KnickstapeCity]

something thats omitted, they can list their home outside of the state they play in as their place of residence, take a lump sum of their salary(half of it) and have the rest taxed by the city/state they play in.
lots of players in the major market/heavily taxed cities list their residence in texas/florida or whever else is income tax-free

This breh got a big dikk