Bucks guard Jrue Holiday secured a $1MM bonus on Tuesday night when his team won the 2021 NBA championship, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter).
Holiday’s contract includes a series of incentives that he can earn on top of his base salary, and he has reached many of the necessary benchmarks in 2020/21. As Marks detailed earlier this year, the 31-year-old received three separate $255K bonuses for meeting criteria related to games, minutes played, and rebounds per game. He also earned $100K for making the All-Defensive First Team and $200K when the Bucks made the NBA Finals.
The Bucks, whose team salary had been right up against the luxury tax line at the end of the regular season, have now crossed that line and will officially be a taxpayer for the 2020/21 league year, according to Marks.
As Marks observes, Milwaukee’s tax bill will be modest and it’s a price team ownership will happily pay in exchange for the franchise’s first championship in 50 years. Still, it’s a detail worth noting, since teams face increased tax penalties when they become “repeat” taxpayers, having paid the tax in three of the previous four seasons.
The Bucks haven’t been a taxpayer since 2003, so the repeater tax won’t apply this year. But with lucrative long-term deals on the books for Holiday, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Khris Middleton, the Bucks may well find themselves in tax territory again in future seasons and are now more likely to face repeater penalties down the road.
Who cares! Champions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Says the fan the day after.)
He deserves it.
Pretty sure the money the Bucks make for winning will more than compensate for the tax hit
I’m sure the Bucks won’t mind paying a small luxury tax bill this season after winning a championship, but it will become problematic if they remain above the tax line over the next few seasons and those bills get much larger.
thanks for literally paraphrasing this article in your comment.
Still cant believe Giannis is a champ lol feels unreal.
I was just under six months old when the Bucks won their first championship. Lots of teams I’ve rooted for since. Very special times!
The money I spent on swag last night will help pay it off lol
They had to overpay the guy but in the end it was worth it. No way they win the championship with Eric Bledsoe at the point.
The way Giannis was playing last night they would have won with Drew Bledsoe
I’m sure every FO would like contracts that put them into the luxury tax via bonuses for winning the championship. Holiday had to play a little out of his comfort zone offensively without DiV, but they don’t win without his defense.
Beast mode
They should have traded Kurucs at the deadline, included a 2nd or cash to dump him. Oh well, doubt anyone is complaining tho
Nice to win a ring and a million dollars.
I just remember people saying they overpaid for Holiday. Giannis was the MVP. But they needed everyone for this title run. Holiday was a great pickup. Bucks deserve it, they earned it.
Why isn’t that bonus in everyone’s contract. It really would make the league more competitive
probably used as a way to lure bigger names to smaller, fringe contender cities. also, I assume this was built into his previous contract, even though it would make sense to assume that the bucks added this as incentive to accept the trade