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Amid all the criticism of the Emirates NBA Cup, one thing seems certain: Players want to win the prize money.
LeBron James, who was the MVP of last year’s in-season tournament, admitted during group play that his team was gunning for the $500,000 prize each player on the championship team received—even though he has the highest career earnings of any NBA player in history at nearly $500 million.
NBA legend and four-time champion Horace Grant, who earned about $68 million throughout his 17-year career from 1987 to 2003, told Front Office Sports that even if the prize were significantly smaller, he would have gone all out for the money.
“If it was $25,000, we’re going for that. We’re going to try to take somebody’s head off,” Grant said.
This year’s prize money has slightly increased from the inaugural tournament.
2024 NBA Cup Prize Money
Champions: $514,970 per player (2023: $500,000)
Runners-up: $205,988 per player (2023: $200,000)
Losing semifinalists: $102,994 per player (2023: $100,000)
Losing quarterfinalists: $51,497 per player (2023: $50,000)
The increases are due to a stipulation written in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. The prize money increases in conjunction with a growth factor calculated based on the league’s basketball-related income. With the NBA’s new media-rights deal—which pays the league nearly three times as much annually as its current deal—set to kick in next season, expect the prize money to shoot up in the coming years.
Biggest Beneficiaries
The top prize is a lot of money for anyone—even tournament-contending players making max money like Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is signed to a five-year, $228 million contract.
“The rich get richer,” Antetokounmpo joked after defeating the Magic to advance to the semifinals in Las Vegas.
Those who will benefit the most are minimum-salary players on standard contracts, and from the four teams left (Thunder, Rockets, Hawks, and Bucks), one player in particular stands to benefit the most.
Branden Carlson of the Thunder signed a standard, one-year deal with the Thunder in November. Because he signed in the middle of the season, he received a prorated rookie-scale minimum deal worth $990,895—less than the $1.16 million full-year minimum.
If the Thunder, the tournament favorites, go on to win the tournament, Carlson would see about a 52% increase in his yearly salary from the prize money.
Players signed to two-way contracts—deals that allow them to shuffle back and forth between the NBA and G League—can also win prize money, but the CBA did include a caveat for those players. Their prize would be a fraction of the original number and will also depend on the number of NBA Cup knockout-round games on the team’s active roster. A two-way player on the championship team who was on the team’s active roster for all games of the knockout rounds would receive half of the grand prize.
