Just going to remind people that 1 million dollars in taxable income in the state of Oklahoma is always going to be worth LESS than 1 million dollars in taxable income in the state of Texas. Texas has no state income tax.
Wrong. Harden wanted max money and a bigger role. That's all it is, and okc had long made the Westbrook over harden decision. This is coming straight from the llama's anus.
This difference is overstated for athletes. The income is taxed based on the state where the game is played. While it is an advantage, it is never as significant as many wish.
You state a fact (the income is taxed based on the state where the game is played) and then follow up with a really bizarre conclusion. It is literally half their income that goes untaxed in Texas. 41 games are played at home, 41 on the road. If you want to be super technical, it's actually over half their income that goes untaxed, because being a Houston Rocket means that you play two extra road games each against division rivals like San Antonio and Dallas. Half. Their. Income. If you seriously think the state income tax on half of Harden's salary, which will be 7.5 million dollars annually, is chump change, then just give me some money. Right now. I don't mean loan, I mean give. I'll send you a PayPal address and you can send it. Because what your saying is that you have no concept of means you have no concept of what "a lot" of money is and you would never miss it. Let's go, Trump.
Dumbbrook really is a knucklehead. I was certain they would trade him after 2010. Much to my amazement, they locked him up indefinitely with a max extension.
lol, I punched Harden's salary in here and discovered that he saved over half a million dollars of state income tax just by being a Houston Rocket.[/url] But yeah, totally not a significant amount of money. Nope. Not at all.
Per year, by the way. He saves about half a million dollars per year. About $2.5 million over the life of his contract. Yeah, $2.5 million that he gets to keep instead of pay outright in taxes. Insignificant money. And that's even comparing Oklahoma's very low state income tax for top earners (5.25%) to Texas (0%). We see even more savings over the life of the contract when compared to a player getting automatically jacked for income tax in California (10.3%) and New York (8.82%). Such a silly thing to say. Of course it's a lot money. Even to a millionaire, it's a LOT of money.
What would be interesting (in a make Thunder fans puke sort of way) would be if OKC is forced to dump Westbrook because he's toxic, only to see Durant decide to leave through free agency, because he's sick of living in a dust bowl, leaving them without Harden, Westbrook, or Durant. Poof, "dynasty gone", just like that.
It was said that Harden complained about his minutes in the finals. Knowing that, and knowing that Harden had personal aspirations of his own It's not that far fetched to believe that once the idea was presented to him that he would be traded (I also heard that Presti told warned his agent that he'd go to Houston) that once this was all presented to Harden that he didn't mind the alternative if the Thunder didn't meet his demands. Lets not act like we know any ways. The last time people 'Knew' what Harden was thinking well they told me was more than happy about coming off the bench and that he would take the paycut to play in OKC with Durant and WB. That wasn't true.
I agree with that. Harden has no trouble being the number 1 guy on the Rockets so far, so I could conceivably see why he might aspire to be the best guy on another team. I'm merely pointing out the reports. They are the closest there is to another reliable. And in this case, it would appear that Harden was willing to stay if OKC had provided the trade kicker, which they refused. Still, things worked out the best for us, so I'm glad their negotiations fell apart.
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