Nepotism can be seen as when people get ahead mainly because of who they know, like having family connections rather than just their own skills. Bronny James can be seen as a perfect example of a "nepo" baby — his dad, LeBron James, is a major NBA star, so it's been a hot topic that Bronny’s getting a lot of attention and opportunities thanks to his star-studded dad.
On average, NBA nepo babies such as the names of Jaren Jackson Jr., Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard have an average career earnings of $83,938,695.09, which is about 7x more than MLB nepo babies, such as Daz Cameron, who have an average career earning of $11,222,629.74. And it's not just MLB — NBA nepo babies also out-earn NFL, NHL, and MLB nepo babies across the board.
NFL nepo babies such as Joey Bosa, come in second with average career earnings of $39,794,299.45, which is nearly 3x more than NHL nepo babies, like Nick Bjugstad and Ryan Suter who average $14,483,229.95 in career earnings.
When you look at NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB nepo babies together, their average career earnings hit $28,641,233.52.
NBA Dominates Nepo Baby Earnings: $2.77 Billion
The total career earnings of nepo babies across the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB amount to $6,272,430,140.00. The NBA leads with the highest share, accounting for 44.16% of the total, with career earnings of $2,769,976,938.00.
The NFL follows with the second-highest earnings, totaling $1,512,183,379.00, which represents approximately 24% of the total career earnings of nepo babies NHL nepo babies are third, with total career earnings of $1,462,806,225.00, surpassing MLB nepo babies, who have the lowest earnings at $527,463,598.00.
NHL Nepo Babies Outnumber NFL, MLB, NBA
Surprisingly, NHL nepo babies outnumber NBA nepo babies by nearly threefold, with 97 NHL nepo babies compared to just 36 NBA nepo babies.
In general, the NHL has the highest percentage of nepo babies among the leagues, with 6.08% of its players being nepo babies — 97 out of 1,594 NHL players.
The NBA follows with the second-highest percentage, at 5.94%. There are 36 nepo babies out of 606 NBA players.
MLB ranks third, with nepo babies accounting for 3.77% of its players — 30 out of 795 MLB players.
The NFL has the lowest percentage, with only 1.24% of its players being nepo babies — 37 out of 2,983 NFL players.
Methodology
This project analyzed the prevalence of nepo babies in the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB. We calculated the percentage of nepo babies in each league by comparing their numbers to the total active roster, using data from Wikipedia and ESPN. Nepo babies were ranked by career earnings and net worth, with data sourced from Capology, Spotrac, and Wikipedia.
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The link to the full dataset can be found here.
