Christmas Came Early in LA 🌴🎄

Happy Thursday to all those who celebrate,

At SportsBall HQ, the holiday season is in full swing, and like many of us, you probably haven't started your shopping. However, if you’re the Dodgers, you’ve done enough shopping to give ol’ Kris Kringle a run for his money.

What else?
A new celeb relationship ⭐️
Shohei Ohtani news ⚾️
In-Season Tournament Finale 🏀 
And unfortunately… math. 🤧

Let’s boogie 🕺

THIS PAST WEEK ⏮

All things balanced, as they should be 🏈

First time’s the charm 🏀

After seeing his feature in SportsBall last week, Lebron and the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA in-season tournament and the first-ever NBA cup 🏆.

Maybe equate this to a Nickelodeon Teen’s Choice Award. It’s not an Oscar, but you probably had a little fun… right?

Regardless, in looking back on the inaugural in-season tournament, you could tentatively call it a success. The championship game garnered the most viewers on a “regular season” game outside of Christmas since 2018 and fans ended up loving the ridiculous courts. As we talked about in this issue, the NBA will certainly tout a new, diversified viewership stream in negotiations for a big TV deal. 💰

Draymond Green on the Naughty List 🏀

Unfortunately, this isn’t even close to the first time Draymond has done this; for years now he’s been getting coal in his stocking. Where most NBA players have highlight reel plays, Green has a full highlight reel of inappropriate behavior you can see below.

Who’s the better Connor? 🏒 

You decide what the most exciting matchup of the week was, Selena Gomez/Benny Blanco or Connor Bedard/Connor McDavid. I know who I’m taking…

Bedard scored a highlight reel goal ⬇️ while McDavid notched two points himself in the game. Unfortunately, our gif-making machine couldn’t properly capture just how snappy this shot was.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK 🏆

Shohei Ohtani ⚾️

“Great, so that is just split up into equal parts at $70 million a year right?” No! Let’s walk through how this is the most interesting deal in the history of baseball fit for the most interesting player in the history of baseball in our learning module. ⬇️

LEARNING MODULE 💡 

Ohtani Contract Details

If you haven’t already seen every business, sports, or business sports influencer talk about this yet, it’s our luck day! Let Claire walk you through why this is such an interesting deal 💼

How it works
Shohei and the Dodgers agreed that most of the deal would be “deferred”, meaning the team would only pay a little upfront and kick the can down the road for some unlucky future CFO. The details:

• In the 10 years of the contract, the Dodgers will only pay $2 million per year - a total of $20 million over that period. 🤢

• In the following 10 years, the Dodgers will pay $68 million per year regardless of where Shohei is playing or living (this is important later) until he’s 50 years old. 🤑

The Dodgers x Girl Math
You could listen to some nerdy economist talk about the Net Present Value of Money and how paying a lot later is better than paying a lot now because of inflation, interest, whatever. 🥱

To put it in terms we understand, imagine using Klarna to buy $200 worth of Abercrombie because you don’t want to pay much upfront. Now since you only spent about $17 shopping today, you continue shopping, and your budget is almost untouched—girl math. 🤠

That’s exactly what the Dodgers are doing. By only spending $2 million a year, they can go out and get even more players and focus on winning as many championships as they can with the best roster in baseball. Does this mean they’re screwed in 15 years when the bills start to pile up? That’s a later problem. 💅

Will Shohei be okay with only $2 million a year?
Yes! The deal was not only smart for the team that doesn’t know how to budget but also for our unicorn Mr. Ohtani. Shohei will reportedly make over $50 million a year in endorsement deals so the salary itself is just weekend money.

It also saves a ton down the road. Assuming Shohei leaves California after the 10 years are up, likely somewhere with lower taxes, he will avoid pesky California rates that would take 49% of his total pay. It’s an accountant’s worst nightmare and a financial advisor’s sweetest dream.

THIS NEXT WEEK ⏭

NFL 🏈 

Believe it or not, starting this week there are NFL games on Saturdays as well. While we wait for the College Football playoffs, the league kindly gives us Saturday action. There are quite a few big games this week as we creep closer to the playoffs. Some important ones are:

Steelers vs. Colts: Saturday 1:30 PM PST
I wouldn’t necessarily watch this game if I were you; both teams are extremely boring but they are both battling for a playoff spot in their respective divisions. Exciting on paper, but likely not in reality.

Broncos vs. Lions: Saturday 5:15 PM PST
The Broncos have been surprisingly good this year and if they bring down the Lions they even have the chance to tie the Chiefs in their division 🤯

Bucs vs. Packers: Sunday 10:00 AM PST
Both of these teams technically are in a playoff spot right now and they aim to keep it that way. They have the same record (6-7) so something has to give.

This closes out week 15 of SportsBall, and we are truly grateful you chose to keep us in your inboxes every week. Thank you for reading, and don’t forget to share so that we can send you stickers. 🙂

— Riley and Claire