Tianzi Zheng, University of Texas at Arlington, USA

This research examines the relationship between various attributes of NBA players, their social media presence, and how it affects their salaries. Drawing from tournament and human capital theories, our investigation stands out by utilizing a dataset derived from the NBA 2K Sports game. This dataset combines on-court performance with off-court personas. Our analysis goes beyond studies that focused narrowly on specific skill-related variables. Instead, we meticulously evaluate metrics associated with each player to understand the connection between their on-field performance and their digital presence. A key aspect of our exploration is understanding the importance of skill attributes compared to their digital persona in determining salaries.

The findings from our study provide insights for sports managers and industry stakeholders in assessing players and shaping their career paths. Additionally, these insights have implications for resource and leadership management in general. Our research supports the idea of a measurable approach to evaluating individual abilities and their overall impact. This sets a foundation for future studies in this field.

NBA, sports game, human resource, human capital, video game, salary determination, social media, tournament theory, feature engineering, feature importance