The NBA is introducing a new in-season tournament similar to Europe’s vaunted Champions League and EuroLeague. But NBA fans don’t seem nearly as excited for it as the association is.
On Saturday, the NBA unveiled the format for its new tournament. Structured almost identically to the UEFA Champions League, it featured six groups of five teams in a group stage of four games per team with the top eight from each conference advancing to the knockout round.
The knockout round will be a single elimination tournament, culminating in games in Las Vegas in December.
Players from each team will receive prize money depending on how far they advance in the tournament.
While that may have all of the bells and whistles of the Champions League or the EuroLeague, fans clearly don’t see it that way:
Looks fine but I still don’t think anyone cares about winning an NBA cup.They should make the winner eligible for a greater chance in the lottery as well.Granted, players aren’t playing to draft their replacement, but this also disincentives tanking as a good team will draft high
— Sebastian (@seb2sti7nbell) July 9, 2023
Ummm are stars and starters playing? They must hate this, and there’s no chance they’re for this
— DiBen (@MikeDiBen) July 9, 2023
Makes no sense
— The Carlos V Show (@TheCarlosVShow) July 9, 2023
This kinda sucks. It’s a made up award that nobody is going to care about. Nobody is going to be pumped about winning the in season tourney when they lose in the playoffs.
— The Dawgs – A Cleveland Browns Podcast (@thedawgspodcast) July 9, 2023
The NBA can hype it up all it wants, but the tournament is effectively an exhibition tournament and will wind up being treated like one.
For starters, the $500,000 maximum prize a player can get for winning the tournament probably isn’t enough to get the biggest stars out of bed in the morning.
But there’s also the matter of the prestige – or lack thereof. The NBA can’t just manufacture a trophy being meaningful.
Additionally, the total lack of creativity in the name – “The In-Season Tournament” – is a marketing nightmare.
The only way the tournament can have real meaning is if winning it proves something on either a national stage or a global stage.
Maybe if it were an intercontinental tournament featuring the basketball superpowers of Europe like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Olympiacos, Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Fenerbahce, there might be a sense of pride in the accomplishment.
In its current state though, it looks like a glorified exhibition tournament.
Perhaps the product on the court will look better than the one in the advertisement. It’s gonna have to.
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