The amount of money that the best athletes command and sponsors and teams pay is dizzying. Also, dizzying are the machinations that go into setting up various aspects, and the most important of them is the tax. Depending on these, players sometimes lose thousands of dollars, if not millions, because of changes to the tax regime, an unfortunate situation. And as the NBA season begins, LeBron James is set to lose $2,914,001 in the next season.

All this is thanks to a precedent set by his rival and an NBA legend, Michael Jordan because of a deduction colloquially known as the ‘jock tax’. The colloquial-named tax has its roots in none other than one of the biggest talents that have ever set foot on a basketball court, Michael Jordan.

‘Jock Tax’ began in ’60s-’70s, thanks to Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan was at his competitive best and beating opponents all over the country. When Jordan beat the Los Angeles Lakers for the Chicago Bulls, he attracted a tax for playing in another state. Subsequently, Illinois started taxing out-of-state athletes who played within the Illinois area.? Like a good thing going viral, most states started adopting this rule, and thereby more and more athletes had to pay taxes for playing in a different state.

LeBron James has Michael Jordan to thank for the $2,914,001 deduction this year

LeBron James is raking in the moolah at this point of his career, and rightfully so. He will make more than $141, 000,000 in the next two years. Thanks to the Jock tax, he will see a deduction of $2,914,001 from that amount. He is making eight percent more than the previous season. LeBron also makes the 4th-highest amount of money.

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Will the deduction hurt? That’s a question that only LeBron can answer.? And of course, being financially prudent is one of the benchmarks of being a successful person, athlete or not. Shaquille O’Neal once revealed that his mother didn’t allow him to get into the NBA draft, because he couldn’t do the one task she asked him to – balance a checkbook. And what’s true for one person is true for everyone.

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