Going into game four of the 2018 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors lead the Cleveland Cavaliers 3-0. If the Warriors take home another win on Friday, they clinch the championship — the team’s third in four years.
That victory comes not only with glory but with a nice bonus as well.
The NBA puts up a “players’ pool,” which is divided among the teams that make it to the playoffs and finals. This year, the pool is $20 million, and the National Basketball Players Association helps decide how its gets divvied up — and although the NBPA confirmed to CNBC Make It that the pool is indeed $20 million, it declined to provide further details.
Luckily, SB Nation did the math, providing its best estimate of how much each player will receive. In 2016, when the pool was $15 million, the winning team took home around $2.6 million, which amounted to about $177,000 per player for a 15-person roster.
Therefore, “if the winners’ share grows by 25 percent, in step with the players’ pool’s overall increase, the 2018 NBA champs will get $3,320,527 to divide among themselves,” SB Nation calculates. That means a payout of around $221,268 per player for a 15-person roster.
For some players, $221,000 is just a fraction of their regular salary. That includes Steph Curry, who earned $34.6 million for 2017-2018 season, and Kevin Durant, who brought in $25 million.
It’s still a lot compared to other sports. Each member of the Philadelphia Eagles got a bonus check of just $112,000 after winning the Super Bowl earlier this year and Mike Smith, the jockey of Kentucky Derby-winning horse Justify, earned $124,000 for his race.
Only baseball players earn more for a championship win. Last year, the average player on the Houston Astros got more than $438,000 for winning the World Series, a record-breaking amount.
However, at least for Curry, it’s never been about the money. Although Curry is currently the highest-paid player in the NBA, he was bringing in millions less than his peers just last year as he finished up the $44 million contract he signed with the Warriors in 2012.
Although he spent the early years of career earning far less than other top players, he chose to focus on the advice his father, former NBA player Dell Curry, once gave him: Don’t worry about how much other people have.
“One thing my pops always told me is you never count another man’s money,” Curry said in an interview with Tim Kawakami of The Mercury News. “It’s what you’ve got and how you take care of it. And if I’m complaining about $44 million over four years, then I’ve got other issues in my life.”
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