With the start of a fresh, albeit slightly different, NBA season I wanted to take a brief look at how much the Larry O'Brien trophy costs. Every season there are myriad Woj and Shams bombs about the latest deals, extensions or trades, but rarely do we look back and ask "What did it cost?". And, perhaps more importantly, rarely do we reflect on whether or not a team's outcome was worth what the owner paid.

In order to examine this question we will only consider the sum of player salaries, their payroll, as reported by basketball-reference.com from the 1985-2021 seasons without considering any possible luxury tax penalties (which began in the 2002-03 season). Note this also ignores the cost of arena staff, team personnel and any other random expense the owner may incur over the course of the NBA season.

While data from 1985-1990 is included below, this is done primarily to cover the entire time period following the return of the NBA's soft salary cap. Since much of the salary data from those seasons is missing (for example, basketball-reference only has salaries listed for Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars on the 1990 champion Detroit Pistons) we will ignore the 1985-1990 seasons beyond our initial graphic.

Let's check out the total player salaries since 1985. Hover over any point you want more information for, and feel free to subselect points based on playoff success.

Since the cap changes from season to season it may be useful to examine team payroll relative to the salary cap. Instead of just repeating the prior graphic on a different scale, we'll present average ratios for various levels of playoff success.

The Best Deal in Town

Relative to the cap the $10,040,00 the 1991 Chicago Bulls spent was the single best deal on the Larry O'Brien trophy of the past 30 years. Let's take a closer look at the individual player salaries.

One reason GM Jerry Krause was able to pull off such a steal was his coupling of a young core with his single superstar. Seven of the team's twelve players had been in the NBA for fewer than four seasons, meaning a majority of the team were likely on their rookie deals.

Moreover, the Chicago Bulls are also the owners of the second cheapest championship relative to the cap following the return of MJ for year one of the second three-peat in 1996. However, this great deal was followed by the most expensive Larry O'Briens (relative to the cap) on record. This huge hike was driven by two historic paydays for Jordan, the second of which wasn't broken until the 2017 salaries for Lebron James and Stephen Curry.

Also notable for their relatively cheap trophies, are the San Antonio Spurs. During their twenty-five years of relevance under Gregg Popovich they have won the last game five times, and have come the closest to winning a championship at the cap level since Da '96 Bulls (while simultaneously dissecting the much higher payroll of the 13-14 Heat starring James, Wade and Bosh).

The Worst Payroll in the History of Salary Cap Payrolls

It is also interesting to ask which owner grossly overpaid for their team's level of success. The most obvious way to investigate is to see which nonplayoff team had the highest payroll, an (dis)honor that belongs to the 2006 New York Knicks.

The 2006 New York Knicks paid over 2.5 times the salary cap and more than double the luxury tax limit. That's a steep payroll for a team that didn't make the playoffs, and an absurd amount of money to pay for only 23 wins. This team was truly the pinnacle of Isiah Thomas's terrible stint as Knicks GM.

In the Lap of Luxury

Since the introduction of the luxury tax in the 2002-03 season championship payrolls have, for the most part, hovered between 1.1 and 1.4 times the salary cap. Which makes sense given that the luxury tax is typically 1.2-1.25 times the cap, and is quite punative, especially for repeat offenders.

However, in the 17 seasons there has been a luxury tax, 11 champions have crossed the luxury tax limit (as well as 22 of 34 finals teams). Not only does this indicate how costly it is to be one of the last teams standing, it also highlights how insanely expensive new basketball dynasties will be (just ask Joe Lacob or Dan Gilbert). While this was done in the name of fairness for small-market teams, it is interesting to contrast public opinion of dynasties like the the '80s Lakers and Celtics, '90s Bulls or the 2010s Warriors to the NBA in the 2000s which probably had the most parity in the salary cap era.

COVID Impacts

For the past few years many NBA front offices have worked under the assumption that the cap will go up and up and up. However, between China's response to Daryl Morrey's Hong Hong tweet and the ongoing global pandemic that may not be the case.

The 2020-21 season will have a stagnant cap, and the cap will reportedly increase by at least 2% in the next few seasons. The former point has likely guaranteed that this season's champion will have a team salary above the luxury cap level (given that the Lakers, Clippers, Bucks, Nets and Sixers are currently in the luxury tax). But it will be intriguing to see the effect of lower than previously expected caps on future champions. The lack of in arena revenue coupled with huge blows to many owners' primary cashflows could greatly impact their willingness to shell out the cash even to add another trophy to their team's case.

Want to Explore More?

If you are interested in exploring individual team payrolls with charts like the ones above for the '91 Bulls and the '06 Knicks check out this accompanying team payroll plotter. There you can see the detailed payroll according to basketball-reference for any team in any season from 1991 - 2021.