The NBA, in an effort to spice up the action early on in the regular season, introduced the In-Season Tournament that, apart from giving teams bragging rights, would reward the winning team with a cash prize of $500,000. While this may not matter much to the top one percent earners in the NBA, this has clearly proven to be enough motivation for some, including New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson.

Following the game, Williamson expressed just how much the possibility of that monetary gain is inspiring the Pelicans to take the In-Season Tournament games much more seriously, especially when the amount teams are playing for is no joke.

“500 bands, come on man. Not everybody make a lot of great amount of money. Everybody makes money, but you got 500,000 on the line… I mean, that's something you can give to family members or whatever you plan on doing. I think that's a good motivation,” Williamson said in his postgame presser, via Pelicans Film Room on Twitter (X).

After the Pelicans' huge 115-110 win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, Zion Williamson and company are now in a good position to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament heading into their final group stage matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers. So there is at least a puncher's chance that they can be the team that finds itself $500,000 richer come the end of the tournament.

But for the Pelicans, money isn't their sole motivation. For Williamson, this is also a chance for the team to take the next step into proper playoff or even title contention.

“But also for us, we haven't won nothing. So I think that would be a starter step for us trying to go and win that,” Williamson added.

Beating the Nuggets is no joke, especially when the Pelicans are still missing a few key pieces in CJ McCollum and Trey Murphy. Williamson, despite a rough night from the foul line, finished as the team's leading scorer, dropping 26 points, four rebounds and six assists. Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas breached the 20-point mark as well, scoring 21 and 22, respectively.