What are incentives in player contracts?

Incentives in player contracts are payments that are contingent upon a player achieving specific performance-related milestones. These can include statistics such as points scored, games played, or awards won during the season. The intention behind incentives is to encourage players to elevate their performance, as reaching these goals usually results in an additional financial reward.

This structure aligns the interests of the player with that of the team, as players are motivated to perform at their highest level to earn these bonuses. The other options do not accurately capture the nature of incentives: guaranteed payments refer to compensation that players receive regardless of performance, penalties for underperformance suggest a punitive measure which is not a standard feature of incentive clauses, and non-monetary rewards, while valuable, do not adequately define the financial aspect tied to a player's performance.