NBA players have the highest salaries in American professional sports by a wide margin. The same goes for play-off time.
Players on NBA playoff teams will split $33.7 million this season, with each team receiving a share based on how far their teams get. Team payouts range from $452,708 (approximately $30,000 per player based on a 15-player roster) to a possible $12.1 million ($804,000 per player) for the NBA champion.
More from Sportico.com
Teams earn more for each round they reach, and the NBA also takes into account regular-season playoff standings, with an additional bonus for the best record among all 30 teams. The Celtics are No. 1 and finished the season 64-18, so their players will be paid $804,000 if they win the title.
Clubs that finished as the seventh or eighth seeds would receive no bonuses for their regular season records, and players on those teams would earn $698,000 if they made a historic run to hoist the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. The Houston Rockets were the lowest-seeded team to win the NBA Finals as a six seed in 1995.
Teams do not earn anything for the play-in tournament beyond their regular season salaries, which are typically paid over twelve months.
According to DraftKings, the Celtics are the betting favorites at +145. Boston is also trying to break the tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most NBA titles of all time. They’re tied at 17, and the Lakers are a sure bet as the seventh seed in the West at +2000.
The NBA’s playoff pool is up 25% from last year, with the increase the result of the new collective bargaining that went into effect for the 2023-2024 season. The CBA states: “A Player Playoff Pool for each Salary Cap Year in an amount equal to the greater of: (i) $31,014,350 multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is BRI for the Salary Cap Year immediately preceding the then applicable Salary Cap Year and whose denominator is BRI for the 2021-22 Salary Cap Year, and (ii) the amount of the Player Playoff Pool for the immediately preceding Salary Cap Year.”
Playoff bonuses increase between 12% and 17% for each round, except for the NBA champion whose payout was increased by 79% to $8.55 million, up from $4.78 million.
The amount NBA players earn in the playoffs is much higher than that in the NFL, NHL and MLB. The NFL uses a portion of the playoff gate revenue to fund the postseason pool for players. Players earned $45,500 to $50,500 during the first two weeks of this year’s playoffs, according to their CBA. Player salaries increased to $73,000 for the conference championship games. The Super Bowl was worth $164,000 to each player on the winning team and $89,000 to those on the losing side. The most a player could earn during the playoffs was $338,000.
The MLB playoff pool, also drawn from playoff ticket revenue, was $107.8 million last year. The Texas Rangers, who captured their first World Series in franchise history, split $38.8 million among the players, with each receiving $506,000.
The NHL playoff pool is $22 million this season, up 4.8% from last year. The Vegas Golden Knights split $6.07 million in 2023, while the runner-up Florida Panthers got $3.61 million. The remainder of the NHL playoff breakdown included $1.97 million for teams that lost in the conference finals, $820,313 for those out in the semifinals and $410,156 for each team that fell in the first round.
The average NBA salary is over $10 million, led by Stephen Curry at $51.9 million. Forty-two NBA players earned at least $30 million in salaries (without incentives) this season, including Kristaps Porziņģis ($36 million), Jrue Holiday ($35 million) and Jayson Tatum ($32.6 million) with the Celtics. The playoffs serve as pocket change for those guys. But a pair of players on their playoff roster, Jaden Springer and Sam Hauser, made less than $2 million this season. An 18th Celtics title would increase their season salary by more than 40%.
The best of Sportico.com
