That's exactly what happens, thank you for the indulgence.
It's not "feeling bad for them", it's just looking at the actual quantifiable characteristics of the situation... as well as understanding the sad truth of many professional athletes ending up broke and struggling due to a lack of marketable skills outside of their profession, a poor understanding of fundamental financial principles, and surrounding themselves with the wrong people.
I see basically no sources that suggest that even the highest earners lose that kind of money to taxes, fees and whatnot. Please provide a source for that.
The source I have is in the tweet below, which suggests McDavid was one of the highest losers at about 62%, but that included an 11.5% escrow.
Add on agent fees and you're at most at 65% or so. And that's for the absolute most, and a guy making $2 million is going to be getting taxed much less than a guy at $15 million.
Just because I saw Kopitar's number there, someone with a $10 million salary is getting taxed at about a 51.5% rate in LA, while someone with a $2 million salary is getting taxed at about 46.5% tax rate.
Laugh all you want at the "1%" who are the 1% in the moment of their importance, however, $80k/yr is not a sizable salary by any means, especially with children or other dependents to support.
$80k a year in net income is not the same as $80k a year salary. $80k a year in net income is more like $120k a year in salary, depending on where you live. And that number is a conservative number using the rule of 4%, when you can very likely still be fine on a 5% ($100k) or 6% ($120k) withdrawal rate as well.
Anyone who can have $2 million in their bank accounts after working for 2 years at an average salary in the league doesn't get any sympathy from me when it comes to money. Sorry, I'm not going to feel bad for the 1% of the world because they have to live the equivalent to a $120k-$160k life to be able to retire after 2 years in their 20s.