The much-talked-about hypothetical in-season NBA tournament will soon become a reality.
Among the amendments made to the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement with the NBA Players Association is the addition of an in-season tournament, something commissioner Adam Silver has been keen on adding to spice up the regular season since at least 2019.
The tournament will likely follow a format similar to Olympic basketball and World Cup soccer with a group stage of games followed by a single-elimination tournament.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the plan is for the tournament to begin with “games baked into the regular-season schedule starting in November” and “could arrive as soon as the 2023-24 season.”
After group play, the top eight teams will play in the single-elimination tournament in December, presumably at the home court of the higher-seeded team, before a Final Four is held at a neutral site. Wojnarowski reported Las Vegas is viewed as a front-runner for the event.
Some have scoffed at the idea of the league manufacturing higher stakes during the regular season with an in-season tournament, but with the number of people who complain about load management, anything that incentivizes players to suit up during the regular season is worth trying.
Wojnarowski notes coaches and players can earn prize money by winning the tournament, with Shams Charania reporting for The Athletic last September that an initial figure was $1 million per player.
ESPN’s report points out that the games will also count toward the regular-season standings, but it’s unclear how that would affect the finalists, who will play 83 regular-season games as a result of making the finals.
What if, for example, the losing team finishes the regular season 49-34. If another team goes 49-33, would the team that reached the in-season tournament finals be penalized with a worse seed?
All questions should be answered when the full details are finalized, but we’ll have to wait a little longer to see if the tournament has the effect on the league that Silver intends for it to have.
