How Does the NBA Cup Work? Format, Prize Money and Winners

What Is the NBA Cup?

Understanding how the NBA Cup works starts with its two phases: group games inside each conference, followed by a knockout bracket that ends with a December title game. Group results feed the regular-season standings at the same time as the tournament table, and every player on the winning roster collects a cash payout. The event debuted in the 2023–24 season under the name In-Season Tournament.

League officials had discussed the concept for 15 years or longer before launching it, motivated in part by a push for attention in November and December, when NFL games overlap with the basketball calendar. The NBA confirmed the competition on July 6, 2023, then revealed the format and group assignments on July 8. That first edition ran November 3–December 9.

Group Stage Format

Each conference is split into three groups of five clubs, for six groups across the league. To set them, the three teams with the best records from the season before are drawn at random into different groups within a conference, the next three follow the same process, and the pattern continues down the standings.

Group play runs as a round robin: each club faces its four group rivals once, twice at home and twice away. Those four results pull double duty, counting in the tournament table and in the regular-season standings.

The first-place team in each group moves on, and the best second-place club in each conference joins as a wild card. That sends four teams per conference, eight in all, into the knockout rounds.

Knockout Rounds and the NBA Cup Final

The quarterfinals take place at the home arenas of the two clubs with the strongest group records in each conference, and the top group performer draws the wild card. Ties for hosting spots are settled by the tiebreaker list below. From the quarterfinals on, a single defeat eliminates a team.

The 2023 through 2025 editions closed with semifinals and a championship at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Change arrives in 2026: semifinals move to the home floor of each conference's better seed, while the title game remains on a neutral court under a league plan built around storied basketball venues. That 2026 event is scheduled for October 30–December 11, with the final at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Group-stage results count toward the regular season, so those games matter twice. The championship game stands apart, applying only to the tournament and leaving regular-season records untouched.

Tiebreakers and the Wild Card

Group deadlocks are settled in order: results between the tied clubs first, then scoring margin, then total points produced, then the prior season's record, and finally a random drawing if teams remain level. A wild-card tie follows the same sequence, except the step comparing the tied clubs against one another is skipped.

The margin-based steps have drawn pushback. The players' union said in 2023 that many members objected to them, and one report found the setup encouraged clubs to keep scoring in games already decided, against the sport's unwritten code. Fixes proposed by players, coaches and league staff include capping how much any single game's margin can count and rewarding clubs for quarters won.

Prize Money and the Trophy

Players on clubs that reach the knockout phase receive prize money, with payouts growing as a team advances. Every player on the championship roster also receives a cash award, and the dollar amounts have changed from one edition to the next.

The trophy, designed by Victor Solomon and made by Tiffany & Co., weighs 35 pounds (16 kg) and rises 23 inches (58 cm), a height nodding to the year the tournament was born. Vermeil and sterling silver form the structure, finished in black ceramic and 24 karat gold, with eight golden prongs cradling the cup in honor of the eight knockout qualifiers. Its base, modeled on the trophies given to conference champions, carries 30 net-shaped openings for the league's 30 teams.

Uniforms and Courts

Cup games look different from ordinary nights. Home teams wore their City edition uniforms in 2023, with fully painted maple floors, a contrasting strip through the middle, trophy art at midcourt and trophy silhouettes along the lanes. From the 2024 event on, hosts have worn Statement uniforms and visitors Association uniforms, with courts built around three nested rings; the 2025 floors added personal touches tied to each club's identity, including title-year markings on the Lakers' and Bucks' courts.

The themed courts have not always cooperated. Dallas played its two 2023 home games on traditional courts because of manufacturing problems, and in 2025 the Lakers used their usual floor for a November 28 game against Dallas and a quarterfinal against San Antonio over slickness concerns. Orlando did the same for its quarterfinal against Miami after its Cup court was damaged in storage.

Reactions have split as well. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban disliked the look but conceded it was smart marketing, players including Jaylen Brown and Luka Dončić complained about slippery surfaces, and some fans found the courts too vivid. The 2023 Las Vegas rounds used a blue court with a red center strip, and both the Lakers and the Pacers were made to change uniforms for their semifinal because of how the floor clashed with their kits.

Past NBA Cup Winners

The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural 2023 Cup by beating the Indiana Pacers in the title game. LeBron James was named tournament MVP.

The Milwaukee Bucks claimed the 2024 championship over the Oklahoma City Thunder in an event held November 12–December 17. Las Vegas staged the final two rounds for the second straight year.

The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs for the 2025 Cup, which ran October 31–December 16. The Knicks then defeated the same Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals, the first Finals to pair the two Cup finalists, and it made New York the first franchise to win the Cup and the league title in the same year.