Playoff payouts

Professional athletes are paid in proportion to their popularity, talent and importance to their teams.  They get massive contracts that include bonuses on individual achievements as well as deep season runs.

The regular season ends and the post season comes with additional bonuses to playoff teams.  US pro sports have a pool of bonus money for the post season.  The NBA has this for playoff teams, which, according to reports, have increased by 3% this year.

For the 2025-2026 season, the top six teams in the Western and Eastern Conferences earn bonuses based on regular season records.  The 16 playoff teams get bonus money from the playoff pool.  The amount increases for teams with each series win.  Bonus money will be divided among the 15-man roster of each team.   Usually, players share their bonuses with team staff who are not part of the bonus schemes.

Teams eliminated from the play-in don’t get playoff bonus money.  Here’s the breakdown:

Regular season achievements –

•Best NBA record – Oklahoma City Thunder, $896,000

•Number 1 seeds – Detroit Pistons (EC), OKC (WC), $784,000 per team

•Number 2 seeds - Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs, $628,000 per team

•Number 3 seeds – New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets, $471,000 per team

•Number 4 seeds – Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Lakers, $348,000 per team

•Number 5 seeds – Portland Trailblazers, Houston Rockets, $297,000 per team

•Number 6 seeds – Atlanta Hawks, Minnesota Timberwolves, $210,000 per team

Post season achievements –

•All playoff teams receive $481,000 each

•Eight teams reaching the conference semi-finals get $586,000 each

•Four teams reaching the conference finals get $980,000 each

•Finals runner-up get $3.921 million

•NBA champs get $9.078 million

Based on the above breakdown, a team making a deep playoff run will cash in on more than of the bonuses listed above.

Let’s just say the NY Knicks (my team in the EC) win the title, their bonus money, including their bonuses as the 3rd seed, making the playoff first round, the semis, the conference finals and winning the NBA championship, will have a total playoff bonus payout of $11.596 million.