Report: Cavs owe $54M in luxury taxes
No price was too high in order to end the 52-year championship drought in the city of Cleveland.
That said, the Cavaliers' title run did come at a significant cost for team owner Dan Gilbert. Cleveland owes $54 million in luxury tax to the league, ESPN's Marc Stein reports.
The Cavs are one of seven teams that must pay the luxury tax.
By no means does this come as a surprise, as the Cavaliers entered the season with a $106-million payroll, which far surpassed the luxury-tax threshold of $84.7 million for 2015-16.
Cleveland's payroll was $10 million more than any other team, and nearly double that of the Portland Trail Blazers' $61-million expenditure, according to salary figures from Basketball-Reference.
Gilbert's bill only figures to grow this summer. His team is capped out, but several key free agents (LeBron James, J.R. Smith, and Richard Jefferson) are up for significant raises. Fortunately, the salary cap has skyrocketed, and so too will the new luxury-tax threshold, which will offset the overall cost of retaining players.
And, of course, it's a mere pittance to pay for a championship.