NBA in-season tournament prizes: Money, awards, explained

Here’s the total purse breakdown for the NBA in-season tournament.

Dec 8, 2023, 7:00 PM UTC

NBAE via Getty Images

Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.

The NBA in-season tournament has been a certified success in its first year. The tournament featured multiple phases, starting with group play games baked into the regular season, then quarterfinals matchups hosted at the higher seeds’ home arena, and concluding with the final four teams going to Las Vegas for the semifinals and championship.

There’s not just grabbing rights on the line as the in-season tournament reaches its conclusion: there’s also money up for grabs. Players and coaches are competing for cash prizes based on how far their teams make it in the tournament. The NBA is also naming an MVP, and giving out First-Team All-Tournament honors.

The league wanted to incentivize teams to avoid resting players during the tournament with the prizes. Load management has been a hot topic around the NBA for a decade at this point, but the in-season tournament saw increased competitiveness from the very start with all 30 teams eligible to win it. Before the championship game between the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, here’s a breakdown of the purse.

NBA in-tournament prize money

Every player on the roster for the champion of the in-season tournament will receive a $500K bonus. Reach the champion game and lose? That’s a $200K bonus. Players get $100K for reaching for the semifinals, and $50K for reaching the quarterfinals. The only exception is for two-way players, who receive half as much as players on the main roster.

The head coach will also receive the same bonuses as the players, according to ESPN. Assistant coaches will split a pool that’s 75 percent of the coach’s total.