NBA Commissioner David Stern lays bare a team’s income statement, some we already know but a big part of it in today’s fake internet media age is vulnerable to bots and fake ratings. Half to player salaries (we know that), 50% of the rest to advertising and promotion (which is a crap shoot), and the rest to organization salaries and expenses.

Joshua Malik Childress also opens the books how players are paid, “(born June 20, 1983) is an American professional basketball player for the San-en NeoPhoenix of the Japanese B.League. An All-EuroLeague Second Team member in 2010, he has played with the Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix Suns, Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans of the NBA, and Olympiacos Piraeus of the Greek Basket League and EuroLeague.” (Wikipedia)

Finally, it is an arena sport, so that anything off arena property costs the organization money to advertise.