Brooklyn Nets rookie sharing NJ apartment with 2 roommates because NYC prices are “ridiculous”

Brooklyn Nets rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson at the 2015 NBA Draft at Barclays Center
Brooklyn Nets rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson at the 2015 NBA Draft at Barclays Center

Despite earning the highest paycheck of his life this year, Brooklyn Nets rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is managing his money wisely.

In a profile from The Wall Street Journal’s Alex Raskin about Hollis-Jefferson’s transition to the NBA, Hollis-Jefferson discusses how, even with a $1.3 million salary this year, money can still be tight.

Enough so that Hollis-Jefferson lives in a North Jersey apartment with his brother and a friend and makes the drive into the Nets’ Brooklyn facility or to their practice facility in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Hollis-Jefferson said, “You can live in a nice, three-bedroom condo with all that in Dallas for, like, 2,000 bucks. Three-bedroom, three-bathroom in New York, you’re paying eight grand. It’s ridiculous.”

Hollis-Jefferson also told Raskin that he was surprised by how much was missing from his first paycheck: “When I saw the check, I saw half of the money was gone. And being in New York, more than half was gone. I was like, ‘Who do I call here? What’s going on?'”

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Still, Hollis-Jefferson said he may eventually consider moving into Brooklyn to cut down on the commute to the Nets facility, noting that there’s always traffic going in and out of New York.

Hollis-Jefferson certainly wouldn’t be the first athlete to compromise typical luxuries over money concerns.

Chicago White Sox pitcher Jeff Samardzija spent his tenure with the Oakland Athletics renting hotels because he said the rent in San Francisco was too expensive.

In a somewhat similar sense of saving, the Baltimore Ravens’ 308-pound guard, John Urschel, drives a $9,000 used Nissan Versa because it’s good on gas and spacious.