The NBA All-Star Game, which promises fans much fervor and excitement with several of its contests, is less than a week away. The All-Star weekend usually features a Slam Dunk contest, a three-point shoot-out contest, an All-Star celebrity game, and the much anticipated All-Star game featuring the best of NBA talents. It is obvious that with many big names of the league coming together for the game, it garners handsome money for the league and also the players.
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This season’s All-Star weekend has generated more excitement, given the hype around the exclusive three-pointer contest between the Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry and WNBA veteran Sabrina Ionescu.
The All-Star weekend offers the participating players with a guaranteed cash amount for participating in the existing game. Furthermore, there are existing cash prizes for the Dunk and 3-point contests, which let players win additional money apart from the All-Star game. The All-Star Game participants used to earn $50,000 per player until 2017 the CBA changed the cash prize to make the game more competitive.
Since 2018, the winning team players earn $100,000 each, while players from the losing team only get $25,000 each. This $75,000 gap in earnings was introduced to make players treat the game as an actual contest rather than an exhibition game. Winning the All-Star game and the All-Star MVP award is an incredible honor for the NBA players, further boosting their credibility and level of achievement going forward in the league.
Earnings from the Slam Dunk Contest
The NBA Slam Dunk Contest, also known as the AT&T Slam Dunk, has been a regular feature for the All-Star weekend since the ABA-NBA merger during the 1976-77 season. The contest has adopted several formats over the years and had included fan-voting via text message to determine the winner of the final until 2014.
This year, the contest field includes Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown, Miami Heaat’s Jaime Jacquez Jr., defending champion Mac McClung, and New York Knicks’ Jacob Toppin, as per Shams Charania.
The slam-dunk contest winner takes home $100,000, while the second and third-place winners get $50,000 each. This year, the Slam Dunk contest is scheduled for Saturday, February 17.
Three-point contest
The Three-Point Contest during the All-Star weekend was introduced during the 1985-86 All-Star Game and has been continued for all subsequent All-Star weekends since then. The contest involves players making as many three-point field goals from five positions behind the three-point line in one minute.
The participants usually vary, with most All-Star shows selecting eight participants for each season’s shootout. However, the 2019 iteration of the contest involved ten participants. This season, we have eight participants, with stars such as Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Trae Young participating.
The contest winner takes home $50,000 in cash prizes, while the first and second runners-up win $35,000 and $25,000 each. The next three finishes are also rewarded with $10,000 each. However, the 7th and 8th place players win nothing and leave empty-handed from the contest.
