Charles Barkley has never held back, and he didn’t bother trying when he ripped into the NBA Cup this week. While the New York Knicks celebrated their first trophy of any kind in 52 years, Barkley went the other direction and called the whole thing an embarrassing attempt to throw money at a problem the league created.
Speaking on The Tom Tolbert Show, Barkley said exactly what a lot of fans already believe but rarely hear from someone with his platform.
“I think the cup thing is somewhat embarrassing. I’m disappointed that we have to make an in-season tournament to make these guys more money so they won’t do load management… But to have to pay these guys extra money to make them play other games – they should play basketball because they’re well-compensated to play basketball. To do an in-season tournament to make them extra money, come on, man. That’s a little bit ridiculous.”
It sounds harsh, but in many ways, Barkley is touching the core issue. The NBA Cup hasn’t become part of the basketball culture. It hasn’t created real stakes. And it hasn’t earned the type of national focus the league hoped for. Even with the bright courts, custom uniforms, and Amazon pumping money and production value into the broadcasts, the Cup still feels like something the NBA is trying to convince fans to care about rather than something fans choose to care about.
Look at how this year played out. The Knicks won it, but they still have 57 regular-season games left. A mid-December trophy doesn’t land the way the league would like. The Lakers won in 2024, and the Bucks won it in 2025. Both teams hung a banner for winning the Cup, then got bounced in the first round of the playoffs and had to listen to their own fans mock the idea of celebrating a tournament no one asked for.
Attendance didn’t help either. Vegas has hosted all three years, but even the league knows the atmosphere isn’t matching the marketing. That’s why the semifinals are moving to home arenas next year. And sources inside the league are already admitting the championship game might be next to go.
A big part of the debate is the prize money:
The winning team earns $530,933 per player, while the losing team still walks away with $212,373 per player.
The payouts don’t stop there. Every team that made it out of the group stage already cashed in. The Thunder and Magic, who lost in the semifinals, earned $106,187 per player. The quarterfinal teams, which included the Lakers, Suns, Heat, and Raptors, received $53,093 per player. Coaches receive the same payouts as players, assistant coaches get 75 percent of that figure, and two-way players earn half.
The league still believes the Cup can grow. But after three years, the noise Barkley made this week is impossible to ignore. The Cup isn’t landing. Fans aren’t rallying. And if the NBA wants this tournament to matter, simply adding dollars won’t fix the emptiness around it.
For now, Barkley’s critique hits the truth many see, but few say out loud: the NBA Cup feels like a money grab first and a basketball event second. Until that changes, expect the skepticism to stay louder than the celebration.
