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Published: Sep 29, 2016 2 min read
Cleveland Cavaliers fans
Cleveland Cavaliers fans celebrate as the team arrives home to a welcome party in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., June 20, 2016.
© Aaron Josefczyk / Reuters

Lebron James' cool $22.97 million salary may be the highest in the NBA, but he's not the only Cleveland Cavalier profiting from the team's winning season.

Cav's owner Dan Gilbert and his partners are giving more than 1,000 full and part-time employees throughout the team's franchise a custom 2016 NBA championship ring, Cleveland.com reports. That includes all the people that work behind the scenes at the Quicken Loans Arena, as well as employees for Aramark, the contractor that supplies the food for every home game. The rings will run the Cavalier's at least $1 million, and could cost a lot more.

The announcement follows a similar move by the Lake Erie Monsters, a Cleveland-based professional hockey team that shares a building with the Cavaliers — and that Gilbert also owns. After the Monsters won the American Hockey Leagues's (AHL) Calder Cup this summer, Gilbert awarded every employee involved with the team's operations with rings —including some who work for National Hockey League (NHL) affiliate the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Cavaliers employees currently being sized for custom rings include:

  • Ticket takers
  • Janitors
  • Seat ushers
  • Security guards
  • Police officers
  • Food vendors
  • Cashiers

The paper notes however, that "of course, not every team employee will get the same, diamond crusted ring that's going to rest on the fingers of James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and other players from last season."