Denver Nuggets' Rocky makes 10 times more than the average NBA mascot / News - Basketnews.com

Rocky, the Denver Nuggets' mascot, earns a $625,000 salary that allows him to trump all other NBA mascots.

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The Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat are set to face off in this year's NBA Finals. The high-stakes seven-game series will crown the league’s best team of this season and decide which franchise gets to take home the coveted Larry O’Brien championship trophy.

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A report by Boardroom last October revealed that the Denver Nuggets mascot, Rocky the Mountain Lion, is the NBA’s highest-paid mascot, taking home $625,000 a year, almost 10 times that of the average $60,000 salary for a league mascot. Rocky will be tasked with his toughest test yet as he looks to fire up the crowd in Denver at the Nuggets’ first-ever NBA Finals appearance.

A recent report from Sports Business Journal indicates that the list’s next highest earner is the Hawks’ mascot, Harry the Hawk. The bright red hawk gets paid a handsome $600,000 each year, just ahead of the third-highest earner, Chicago’s Benny the Bull, who collects $400,000 annually.

No. 4 on the list of highest-paid mascots is Go the Gorilla, mascot of the Suns. He reportedly is paid $200,000 per year, double that of the Hornets’ mascot, Hugo the Hornet, who ranks fifth on the list at $100,000.

Rocky doesn’t just get the money for clapping hands and hyping the crowd up, but also because of its over-the-top stunts that it pulls off during the games.

The Nuggets’ fearless animal leader was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2006, solidifying its legacy and justifying the paycheck. There were certainly some conversations and salary negotiations after the person within the Rocky costume passed out when being rappelled from the rafters onto the court back in 2013.

Raptor, the Toronto Raptors mascot, ruptured his Achilles tendon during a game. Bango The Buck, the Milwaukee Bucks deer, had to undergo surgery three times: two knee ligament injuries and one serious ankle injury. The accumulation of physical problems forced the person behind the animal costume (Kevin Vandervolk) to retire in 2014, at the age of 36.

To reach those above-average salaries, let alone the highest of the best pets, mascots need to be media-ready. In a survey among fans of all the pavilions, Rocky was the most popular mascot with 3.90 points on a scale of 1-5. He narrowly beat Benny The Bull (3.86) and Grizz (3.81), the grizzly bear for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Normally, mascots start off on a base salary of about $25,000 for home games (41 regular season games guaranteed) and amounts per hour in events and appearances outside the arena and on game days.

For instance, Harry The Hawk charges $500 per hour. Hugo The Hornet, the wasp of Charlotte Hornets, receives $1,500 per appearance and earns a total of more than $100,000 a year. Rumble The Bison of the Oklahoma City Thunder rounds out a salary of more than $100,000 a year thanks to $650 for every hour outside of games and $400 for private visits between 30 and 45 minutes.

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