Adam Silver and the NBA recently announced something largely unseen in the American sports scene: an in-season tournament.
This tournament, which is completely separate from the league's playoffs and finals, takes place in November and December.
It begins with the group stage, which is very similar to that of the FIFA World Cup. Each NBA team is placed in a group of four other teams, and how teams fare in games against their group rivals decides whether they move on to the tournament.
One team from each of the six groups makes the single elimination round, with two wild card spots being given to the best two teams who didn't place first in their respective group.
Then, the tournament proceeds much like March Madness: Single elimination games that bring the pool from eight teams to four.
The semi-final and final games are played in Las Vegas, with the winning team earning the NBA Cup, a new trophy specifically for the tournament, and $500,000 for each of the players.
However, the genius of the tournament lies in what it doesn't bring to the table: extra games. The tournament, with the exception of the championship game, is entirely built in to the 82 game regular season (with the teams participating in the championship playing 83).
This means that players don't have to buy in nearly as much to games that already were built in to their pre-existing schedules, and with $500,000 dollars potentially on the table (which is almost 20% of the NBA's minimum salary), the incentives to play in November and December have never been higher.
The incentive for the fans to watch these games is now at an all-time high. With each round of the tournament being single elimination, teams that would likely wouldn't appear in the post-season now have the opportunity to go on a winning streak and bring home a trophy. Much like March Madness, every decision matters in single elimination games, and upsets aren't just likely, they're certain.
Now, it's largely up to the NBA, it's fans, and the players to determine how much each party buys into the tournament, but with this being its first year after being teased for some time, it's plausible that the NBA will strongly market this event. If it can even bring a fraction of the fanfare seen in the playoffs, the number of eyes on these games will likely increase dramatically.
The NBA sees that as well. They have, for the tournament attempted to combine a few of the practices we have seen before in basketball, as well as other sports. These include the aforementioned World Cup-esque group stage, the March-Madness and NFL style single elimination games, and even the neutral sites for the semi-finals, which is very similar to the idea of the Orlando "bubble" the NBA hosted in 2020.
With this being the first year of the tournament, it's plausible we see it grow in unique ways as the league irons out the kinks.
One possible expansion of the tournament? Foreign teams. Last season, the NBA G-League Ignite played a game against Victor Wembanyama and his French team, Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92. With more and more of the NBA's top talent coming from overseas, it's plausible that Adam Silver and the league's talent evaluators could look to get up-and-comers on the global stage, playing tournament games against the U SA's best and further increasing their name value. Is it possible that we see the next Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, or Wembanyama play against NBA level competition before they're even drafted? I certainly think so.
The possibilities are endless with the tournament, and with the $500,000 bonus, there seems to be a solid baseline. It all comes down to how the fans and pop culture accept or reject this event, but the idea is certainly there, as the most creative league in American sports looks to yet again shake up the landscape of the industry.
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