It's not the money per se, but the money produces the cache. The Tournament has grown on me, in part because of how serious the player are taking it. It's kind of like back when the All Star Game was taken seriously. It is now a complete joke.
And all these dudes are just hyper-competitive. They wouldn't be in the NBA without that drive of just wanting to win and be the best; they added something new to go win so they want to be the best at it and go win.