Jaylen Brown and Michael Jordan (Credit- X)
Jaylen Brown has helped the Boston Celtics reach the Eastern Conference for three seasons over the last four seasons. Not only that, the shooting guard/small forward even helped the franchise make an appearance at the 2022 NBA finals. The C’s are riding on a three-game winning streak after the franchise swept the game against the New York Knicks on December 8, 2023.
Brown faced his first career ejection in the game. However, the player can defend and assist the team with rebounding. This might be one of the reasons why the Boston Celtics offered Brown a super-max contract extension in July 2023. The Celtics have signed “JB” on a five-year, $304,000,000 contract, deeming it to be the richest deal in NBA history. Per the contract, the player will have a net worth of $60.8 million by the 2026–2027 season.
However, the hefty tax cuts, owing to various intricacies, narrowed down his net income to only $24.5 million. Andrew Petcash gave a detailed salary breakdown on how the 5-year contract money isn’t actually what the player will receive. What’s astonishing to note here is that, along with federal tax, NBA Escrow, agent fee, and other taxes, ‘Jock Tax’ is taking up a major chunk of his salary.
Jaylen Brown just signed the richest deal in NBA history (5 years $304 million).
Here's how much he will actually earn: 😲
$60.8M: Salary
–
$22.5M: Federal Tax
$6M: NBA Escrow
$1.8M: Agent Fee
$1.4M: FICA/Medicare
$1.8M: Jock Tax
$2.7M: Massachusetts Tax
=
$24.5M: Net Income pic.twitter.com/1aPQy6dg0s— Andrew Petcash (@AndrewPetcash) July 25, 2023
The ‘Old Man’ will face approximately $36.3 million in cuts from his heavy paycheck, despite his unparalleled NBA contract. Owing a very big thanks to Michael Jordan, not only Brown but many other top stars have to pay thousands of dollars in multiple US states as per the Jock tax.
Why was the jock tax introduced?
The six-time champion, Michael Jordan, seems to be the cornerstone for the emergence of this tax. Back in 1991, when Jordan’s Chicago Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals, the state of California taxed the player.
Although the tax was levied on each of the Bulls’ players, the Illinois state wasn’t happy with the fact that their superstar was penalized for winning the championship. In response, every US state made it a tradition to tax other players. This tax was initially termed “Michael Jordan tax” and later changed to the term ‘Jock Tax’.
2) This wasn't necessarily a new rule, but no one knew about it before.
So Illinois got mad that LA was being petty and passed a new law known as "Michael Jordan's Revenge."
This required athletes from California to pay income tax in Illinois.
And the rest is history. pic.twitter.com/g9qqMzO8O6
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) April 17, 2023
In today’s times, except for five total states, every other state in the US finds comfort in taxing the players with millions of dollars. While it’s hard to categorize whether the base and bonus income fall under the taxable category or not, the calculation formula is susceptible to change regarding different sports.
