NBA player Kyle Kuzma weighs in on the growing trend of professional athletes going on podcasts to explain why their $100 million contracts somehow aren’t enough after taxes.

You don’t even need to “live modest” making that much money but the amount of money these people spend on clothes, cars and houses is ridiculous. You don’t need a 13 bedroom mansion and your mom doesn’t either.

God damn kuzma throwing me under the bus. I had to leave ice cream at the store because I was 50 points short of 10$ off.

We went to the same school and this is the same guy who wouldn’t pay his $100 dorm payment left to get his diploma….. after he got signed by the lakers

So this take checks out for him

And this is why I don’t care about rich people’s problems.

Whenever I see stuff like this, I always think of Edge and Christian’s podcast (pro wrestlers) from about a decade or so ago, where they talked about this. For context, Edge was forced to retire for almost a decade due to neck injuries and Christian also missed several years due to concussion issues).

The advice they had for young athletes was to buy your dream house, make it a home, and then live frugally in every other aspect of your life. Buy a less expensive car, don’t go on a lot of trips, don’t try to keep up with the Jones, et cetera. That way, when the tap is shut off, and it will be one day, it’s not too much of a shock, and you still have your home.

And these are guys who aren’t making hundreds of millions.

Good guy Kuz. I really appreciate hearing this from an athlete because the crybaby stuff is absolutely getting old. Doesn’t mean I don’t think players deserve good pay, especially when they’re in leagues that exploit their labor and make team owners richer and richer (I agree that they should own equity in their respective leagues, just like every worker deserves to be in a worker cooperative of some sort), but have a little common sense perspective about your literal millions in this economy.

They ALWAYS get REAAAALL vague when they mention the expenses too. Always like, “and then you know i gotta take care of shit, so thats another 5 million” and its like yea bro spend less lol.

We’re all taxed, I’m a teacher, I bet I feel it far more than these multi-millionaires feel it!

Kuz grew up in Flint so him saying this makes since

It’s always stuck with me that Adele complained about her taxes years ago in a similar way. She was saying it wasn’t fair because she personally could no longer use things like public transport when 1. The principle isn’t that you get the exact value that you pay in, it’s that you should care about society as a whole, including people less fortunate than you who have no choice but to use public transport and 2. She was still vastly better off than the most people even after taxes.

It was shockingly out of touch for someone who came from a low-income working class background and undoubtedly would have benefitted from more wealthy people’s taxes as she was growing up. I think of it every time I see her.

Kyle MF Kuzma