The NBA In-Season Tournament is progressing towards its knockout stages and has fans and players excited before the holidays. The tournament offers a lucrative prize pool for each team progressing past the various stages of the knockouts. The longer a team stays in the tournament, the more money they win. The players of the eventual winners of the tournament are guaranteed a cash prize of $500,000 each.
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While every team is contending for the final half-a-million cash prize, prize money is guaranteed following each stage after the group stage from a pool of $18 million. In fact, each player on the other finalist team will receive $200,000. And that’s not all; the losing players of the semifinals teams will earn $100,000 each, and the losing players of the quarterfinals will receive $50,000 each.
This cash prize is even more exciting because these payouts also extend to the team’s coaching staff. As reported by Sporting News, the head coaches will receive the same amount as the players do, and the assistant coaches will receive payouts from an additional prize pool, equaling almost 75% of the head coachs’ payout.
Currently, the teams are battling for a spot in the knockout stages in the group stage. The Los Angeles Lakers and the Indiana Pacers are the only teams from the West and the East to qualify for the quarterfinals. The other teams in the Eastern and the Western conferences are still contending for their knockout spot, scheduled to commence on December 4.
NBA players are very excited about winning from the In-Season Tournament’s prize pool
The lucrative prize pool of the In-Season tournament has attracted the attention of many NBA players who are vying to win the $500,000 cash prize. Be it Spencer Dinwiddie, LeBron James, or Zion Williamson, all the top players of their respective teams have explicitly spoken of their desire to contend for the inaugural NBA Cup.
Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie said, “Who don’t like money? Aye listen, half a million dollars, that could pay for my Rolls-Royce.”
Spencer Dinwiddie on possiblity of advancing to the quarterfinals of the in-season tournament:
“Who don’t like money? Aye listen, half a million dollars, that could pay for my Rolls-Royce.” pic.twitter.com/OcyMmaY2ze
— Erik Slater (@erikslater_) November 27, 2023
While Dinwiddie has already planned on his spending if he wins the tournament, LeBron James and Zion Williamson are motivating their teammates with the $500,000 on the line. After a winning game against the Phoenix Suns, James said in a post-game interview, “Y’all heard that there’s $500,000 on the line, so we’re going for that.”
On the other hand, to motivate an emerging Pelicans team, Zion also went on record to say, “500 bands. Come on, man. Not everybody makes a lot of… great amount of money. I mean, everybody makes money, but when you got $500,000 on the line, I mean, that’s something that you can give to family members or whatever you plan on doing. I think that’s a good motivation.”
Given players’ immense motivation and excitement for the tournament, the knockouts would be worth a treat for all NBA fans looking to watch some serious, competitive basketball.
