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- Spencer Dinwiddie doesn’t exactly have the kind of financial incentive many NBA players do when it comes to winning a title
- The Mavericks guard will receive one of the tiniest contract bonuses imaginable if Dallas wins a championship this year
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When the NBA playoffs kicked off in April, the Phoenix Suns sat near the top of the list of the favorites to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy—and for good reason.
The team finished the regular season firmly atop the Western Conference by finishing eight games ahead of the second-place Grizzlies thanks to their 64-18 record (an NBA-best) and were widely viewed as the top championship contender over the course of that campaign.
However, that all came crashing down after Phoenix was eliminated from the playoffs thanks to a truly embarrassing Game 7 loss to the Mavericks on Sunday, as Dallas earned the right to take on the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals thanks to their 123-90 dismantling of the Suns.
Golden State is currently a heavy favorite to advance to the Finals ahead of Wednesday night’s tipoff, and there’s little doubt the Mavs’ success will largely hinge on the absurd skills of Luka Doncic as the franchise continues on its quest to add a second piece of hardware to a trophy case that’s currently home to the lone title Dirk Nowitzki helped secure back in 2011.
Doncic obviously can’t do everything, but part of the reason Dallas has made it this far is that he’s surrounded by a pretty solid roster of players. That includes Spencer Dinwiddie, who is in search of his first championship since kicking off his NBA career in 2014.
The guard has done pretty well for himself during this year’s playoffs in a couple of ways. The 30 points he posted in the deciding game against Phoenix certainly made life a bit easier for Dallas, but he also made life a bit easier for himself by securing a contract bonus worth a cool $571,427 for helping the team advance to the conference finals.
✅Games played: $1.5M
✅Second rd: $100,000
✅Conference Finals: $571,427 https://t.co/tMxmHzrITT— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) May 16, 2022
Dinwiddie will also take home a $400,000 bag if the Mavs manage to make it to the Finals, and while it’s easy to assume he’ll have another six-figure payday coming his way if they win it all, that is decidedly not the case.
Based on the clause he agreed to when he signed his contract in 2021 shortly after joining the Wizards, Dinwiddie will take home a whopping total of $1 (yes, one, single, American dollar) if the Mavericks end the season as NBA champions.
Sources: Spencer Dinwiddie’s three-year, $62 million contract with the Wizards has several bonuses each season, @hoopshype has learned.
$1.5 million if he plays 50+ games
$571K if team makes ECF
$400K if team makes NBA Finals
$100K if team makes 2nd round
$1 if team wins title— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) August 9, 2021
It’s not entirely clear why that minuscule sum was included in the deal. However, when you consider Dinwiddie has previously said he’d like to receive the payment in the form of 100 pennies, I can only assume he’s going to channel his inner Eric Cartman and dump it into a kiddie pool so he can bathe in his vast riches.