The “Prize Money” or the actual earnings for the team that won the championship is based on the number of games they played in that they won in the playoff.
NBA finals 2019 just came to a conclusion with Toronto Raptors finally defeating Golden State Warriors to win their first trophy. The sixth match in the finals turned out to be the last, with a 4-2 win for Raptors. Along with the winning team, every other detail is also out. NBA prize money was also distributed, which is a bit different from other games.
How much money did the winners and runners up get? Here are all the details about the distribution of prize money for NBA 2019 finals.
Teams do not get paid directly for winning an NBA Championship. They do however get the $13,500 Larry O’Brien Trophy, which would easily sell for more than its cost if a team wanted to sell it (but they wouldn’t). Indirectly, they can get paid through sponsors that sign with the NBA Champions who want to align themselves with the winning team.
The proceeds of the earnings are based on the pool of money NBA collected from all of the games played, then it transfers to the NBA Players Association, who would divvy it up among the players of the winning team. The Toronto Raptors maintained their lead of 3-1 and finally defeated the Durant-less Warriors to win their first-ever NBA trophy. NBA prize money is put into a pool, and every team receives a part of it based on their performance. Last year, the total money in the pot was 20 million, which has been increased to $22 million this year.
Every team participating gets a share from it as payout and the bonus is divided equally into all team members. As per the calculations, the total pool money of Raptors after winning the finals has become $5.1 million. It has made each individual player get an equal share of $366,666 to take home.
That’s just a fraction of the star players’ salaries. Steph Curry, the Warriors’ star point guard, for example, earned a base of $37.4 million for the 2017-2018 season, according to sports-data site Spotrac. Kyle Lowry, the Raptors’ point guard, brought in $31 million.
