The group stage of the NBA Cup will wrap up later this week, with teams playing their final round robin matchups on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. By the time Friday’s games are complete, seven teams will have joined the Raptors in advancing to the knockout round of the league’s in-season tournament.
The prize money for the players whose teams make the NBA Cup quarterfinals has once again increased in the third year of the event. According to Colin Salao of Front Office Sports, the bonuses for 2025 are as follows:
- Players on the team that wins the NBA Cup: $530,933 apiece
- Players on the team that loses the NBA Cup final: $212,373 apiece
- Players on the two teams that lose in the NBA Cup semifinals: $106,187 apiece
- Players on the four teams that lose in the NBA Cup quarterfinals: $53,093 apiece
When the Lakers won the inaugural in-season tournament in 2023, those figures were $500K, $200K, $100K, and $50K, respectively. The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement calls for the prize money to increase annually at the same rate that the league’s basketball-related income (BRI) grows. That growth rate was about 3.1% this past year.
A player on a standard contract whose team makes the knockout round of the NBA Cup will earn a full bonus share, while a player on a two-way deal receives a half share. That means the two-way players on this year’s in-season tournament champion will claim bonuses worth $265,467 each.
While these bonuses are a drop in the bucket for the league’s highest-paid players, they represent a significant raise for players earning the minimum or close to it. Last season, when Milwaukee won the NBA Cup, there were 12 Bucks players (including two-ways) whose total earnings for the year increased by more than 17% as a result of the prize money.
The nba cup is a joke… do any fans care about this at all?