[Stone] Houston has the Smallest Front Office in Sports

The quality of all of Houston's neighborhoods really (or lack thereof). From the perspective of "what makes an urban neighborhood a great place to live or visit" Houston is incredibly lacking. If you just want to live in the kind of generic suburbia you can find anywhere in the country, maybe that doesn't matter as much to you... but you still gotta drive into those ugly, horribly-designed urban neighborhoods when you want to do something fun outside the home, and you gotta do it on Houston freeways packed with Houston drivers. Yuck.

Now, I suppose if you're in a very specific niche like "professional basketball player" there are specific factors in play compared to just an average well-off person. That's a specific age group and subculture, that values a specific type of nightlife much more than most demographics. And maybe Houston performs somewhat well in that area.

ChatGPT dude really

 

For a young black NBA millionaire name me some better alternatives. I'll wait.

 

Disagree on housing in Houston. There are a number of areas that offer nice upper-class housing, especially for the top 10%. It isn't quite on par with Dallas or Miami (depending on what type of housing you like).

The biggest difference between Houston and Chicago is downtown. The suburban living options favor Houston. Chicago has better options in places like Lincoln Park, but most people with money don't want to live in a Brownstone.

I don't live in Houston anymore, and it isn't on par with NYC or LA or Chicago overall - but it is at the top of the group after that. There are differences of opinion obviously.

 

Tilman has a contract with Palantir. They spy on their employees and get rid of the fat.

 

Thats pretty much just a list of the largest US cities lol. 7 are in the top 10, and the other 3 are in the top 15.

Houston does not have good nature access or weather, and has relatively high crime and poverty.

If you can post up in a great neighborhood and vacation to better climate in the summer it can work, but Houston is not a destination city for quality of life, especially if money is no object.

 

I love Houston and all, but man no way should Houston be top 10 for the affluent.

The weather is bad to horrendous for 4-5 months of the year. The fact that wealthy houstonians flock to Colorado speaks to this very issue.

Our access to natural beauty can’t be examined in a vacuum. It is comparative to other top locations, and in comparison it is terrible. Beaches are nowhere in the same league as the west coast or Florida. Our hill country isn’t too bad, but pales in comparison to the Rockies or even California.

We have outstanding quality, breadth and depth of food, and I will fight anyone on that. And we have literally world class medical care.

Yes, people are moving to Texas from everywhere. But that isn’t the operative analysis. It is analyzing Houston as a place for the truly affluent. It just doesnt rate that highly for that cohort.

 

Stone: It's not about size. It's about inputs.
What she said: It's definitely about size!

 

well clearly when you have the world's greatest franchise player, there's less reason for a big front office

 

Worth noting that I believe you still pay state income taxes in the cities you do play so you aren't getting your entire salary without state income tax - you are getting half your salary plus whatever other cities you play in that also have no state income tax(so add 4 games for Dallas/San Antonio at least). I dont know this for sure but I know this is true for business professionals working in other cities temporarily - I would imagine from a tax perspective it's no different from athletes performing their duties in another city/state.

 

I wasn't really talking about the quality of the homes themselves--you can find neighborhoods with fancy houses in any major metro area. That's not really something that sets Houston apart in any way, it's the same as anywhere else in that regard. I'm talking about the neighborhoods as entire entities. For example, to give one example of a pretty good, upscale neighborhood by Houston's standards: I like The Heights just fine, but if you compare it to say, Brooklyn Heights in NYC or the neighborhood you mentioned, Lincoln Park in Chicago, there's just no contest, it's not even remotely close in terms of the overall level of appeal.

A lot of people with money do live in brownstones in NYC or "greystones" in Chicago, by the way. That's why those homes sell for multiple millions up to upwards of ten million dollars (in a good neighborhood).

 

This is correct because I have seen it been noted several times when big FA signs with a team in a state with no income tax by reporters. That said, it's still a huge deal since even half a paycheck that needs to pay state income tax is still a big deal. Especially since NBA players can play for the Rockets and still live in LA to dodge California's income tax and Texas property taxes the way most normal people cannot.

I can't speak for others, but if I were to win a lottery, I would definitely not live in Houston. I would make sure I live in a more temperate climate where my kids can play outside for at least half a year and my A/C isn't on for most of the year. But I'm not rich, so I do prefer Houston's more bang for the buck living expenses compared to most other cities I've been to.

 

While organic innovation is essential for young companies trying to get ahead, I would argue most successful businesses have someone in charge of pipelines for inorganic innovation. I dont think there is as much a competitive advantage to organic innovation in the NBA as there was in the early Morey days because there are a million amateur data scientists who are off doing this for free today just trying to get their foot in the door. If anything, if you have been utilizing AI appropriately in this day and age, the less people crunching the numbers with their own biases the better. At this stage I would hope well functioning organizations looking for competitive advantages have less people staff who are instead more focused on improving models - all that data analysis work is made for the AI age.

Besides - are we not objectively one of the best run franchises in the league in recent memory? Aside from the Silas years, we have been one of the better run teams - why are we trying to compete with org size to other, lesser performing teams?

 

FIFY

 

there can be only one

 

It always surprises me how nice and relatively clean the Chicago downtown area is. Outstanding for such a large city to keep it like that.

 

which one is Amen and which one is Al Pee?

 

In recent memory, would fall under "short-term, quick deciisons". The Rockets were run great during the Silas years whether or not one considers the coach sketchy or not.

On AI, it still takes people to understand it. If running a tight ship, it is harder to devote resources to change such as how to use AI effectively. Maybe all other front offices are bloated, but my guess would be that the trade deadline is incredibly taxing for the Rockets front office.

 

️ City ‍ Billionaires Millionaires Growth (2013–2023)
New York City 60 349,500 48%
Bay Area (SF + SV) 68 305,700 82%
Los Angeles 43 212,100 45%
Chicago 24 120,500 22%
Houston 18 90,900 70%
Dallas 15 68,600 75%
Seattle 11 54,200 72%
Boston 8 42,900 55%
Miami 15 35,300 78%