The recently and mercifully passed “6-7 weekend” celebrated a sequence that’s open to interpretation and much adult ridicule.
Not so with NBA games on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Association slate of Dec. 9–10 (nine-tennn!) brings the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup, where counting higher assuredly means $omething.
Advancing to the knockout stage already has added $53,093 to the coffers of players on standard contracts for the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors.
Getting to the semifinals grows the bonus money to $106,187 while a berth in the final round boosts the payout to $212,373 per player.
A purse of $530,933 awaits each member of the NBA Cup champion team, a winner to be decided Dec. 16 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The venue also hosts the semifinals on Saturday, following a pattern that’s starting to become familiar to NBA faithful.
NBA Communications announced Monday that television ratings for group play increased by 90% from 2024 and marked the highest yet in Year 3 of Cup existence.
“Competition is at an all-time high. It’s emerging vs. established,” said James Jones, NBA executive vice president and head of basketball operations. “Coming out of the Cup, there will be teams – similar to Indiana two years ago – that will use the Cup experience as a springboard to give them the confidence to compete against the best teams and make a run to the Finals. That’s the opportunity the Cup presents.”
James is a league representative who made those remarks during a Cup conference call. In other words, he was paid to say what you read above.
But sure as the Indiana Pacers went from Cup runners-up in 2023–24 to second in the NBA one season later, the incentive system under which league commissioner Adam Silver concocted the event is paying off.
Asked whether he was pondering the potential of fattening his piggy bank as his team prepared for Tuesday’s quarterfinal against Orlando, Miami guard Dru Smith responded, “How can you not?”
“I think that’s why they did it, for us to just buy into it a little bit more.”
And, hey, all the better if you play for the Magic or Heat and live that Florida life sans individual income tax.
Still, Smith added that bringing the win-or-go-home playoff element to the middle of December also could benefit the club’s ideal bottom line of banking playoff victories in April, May and June — not simply players’ individual bottom lines.
Teammate Pelle Larsson agrees.
“I feel like every year that they do it, it’s going to increase, and people might take it more and more serious,” he said. “I feel like the first year, maybe it wasn’t like a big deal. And it’s just become bigger.”
It likely is sheer coincidence that San Antonio welcomed Stephon Castle back to the lineup for a Cup tuneup Monday after he missed nine games with a left hip flexor strain.
The Spurs have been without Victor Wembanyama (calf strain) for about the same duration, but if he faces the Lakers on Wednesday, it will mean his body is ready. Nothing more.
“We won’t treat that game, medically speaking, any different,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said.
Even the biggest Cup advocate shouldn’t argue with that rationale, which doesn’t make the event’s progression any less measurable.
Come for the quirky courts, stay for the competition.
It’s reached unprecedented levels, you might have heard.
