The NBA’s board of directors (essentially the owners) made two wise moves when they met this week, following the leadership of the league’s competition committee.
They imposed stricter punishment for “take” fouls — Free throws and out of bounds balls — and permanently trapped in a successful play-in tournament.
They also talked about the NBA Commissioner’s Adam Silver Pet Project, a tournament during the season. From the athletic Shams Charania.
The NBA Board today discussed the concept of an in-season tournament where all 30 teams compete and then eight teams participate in a single elimination round to determine the winner. The final four is in a neutral location. 2023-24 season at the earliest.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 13, 2022
Talking to people around the Las Vegas league, we’re gaining momentum towards hosting this tournament. Final.
Silver wants this, and with the success of the Play-in Tournament, we expect owners to approve it on a trial basis at some point. Like the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup, the idea is to use regular season games as the “pool play” part of the tournament, leading to the last eight of the one-off NCAA tournament-style game sets.
I suspect that the American sports world will accept it. Cups and tournaments during the season are not incorporated into the DNA of sports fans here, as in Europe and the rest of the world where football / football is king. But I could be wrong and the owner would at least be willing to try it.
There are still practical questions to answer about NBA tournaments. Does it start with a league that keeps players healthy and discusses rest and recovery on the court, adding games to the season to do this job? Are all teams losing some regular season games if they haven’t added the game?
Also, how much money does the league need to put in the pot to motivate players? Even if a player’s prize is $ 1 million, how much does it motivate the true elite of the game? Many will soon make more than $ 30 million in the season.
There are a lot of questions, but the owners are talking about it and hope that the tournament during the season will become a reality within a few years. At least a couple of years.
