NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who has been a long-time proponent of an in-season tournament, believes the idea is moving closer to reality, writes Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. He said the tournament won’t be implemented right away, but last year’s shortened season showed that fans are willing to accept fewer than 82 games.
“I think we were moving closer to it,” Silver said. “But I feel we’ve had productive conversations with the Players Association, whose approval, of course, would be required to change the format. And my sense is there’s a fair amount of interest.”
Silver didn’t offer many details about the proposed tournament, but Goodwill states that the league is looking for ways to energize players during the long grind of a regular season. Silver has shown a willingness to break with tradition, Goodwill notes, such as adopting the Elam Ending for the All-Star Game.
Silver envisions a plan that is based on tournaments from European soccer and college basketball. He doesn’t want to create an event that will take away from the uniqueness of an NBA championship, but something that will be a separate goal that players can shoot for. There has been talk of offering a $1MM prize per player for the tournament champions, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Silver wants to keep the NBA calendar relatively stable, starting in mid-October and ending with the Finals in mid- to late June. The tournament would be worked in somewhere, but not exactly at mid-season.
“There’s tournaments [in other sports] along the way where players, I’m sure feel an extra boost of competitiveness around winning a particular trophy,” Silver said. “And that’s what we’re looking at. It’s complicated.”
Just say you (Silver) want another event to market and increase profits. That’s all it is and it’s no big deal to admit yours and the owners’ motivation.
There are 82 games to a season. You’re telling me that you wouldn’t be okay with them possibly cancelling a few of them to instead make a league-wide single game elimination tourney, to (possibly) win a second round pick?
Every owner and commissioner in every sport do things to get more money, get over it. At least this is a fun and creative idea!
I have no problem with it. I only wish they would just say they’re doing it to increase revenue and not this lame excuse to bring excitement for players.
I hope the PA shoots it down or asks for a ton of money to make it happen because this move isn’t aimed at the long time NBA fan but only for the casual young bros wearing jerseys over their hoodies.
And I have no problem with the motivation to bring in new fans either I just don’t like it from a purist perspective, but everything evolves and changes and this is just another case of that. I will still watch the NBA and buy my league pass season after season…
would give the Lakers some relevance
LAL are the most winning franchise in the NBA… so keep on hating, dude!
Really? The “most winning franchise in the NBA?”
They’re one of the worst teams in the league. Gotta look at the standings homie!
He means all time
What would it be like?
8th seed Clippers play 9th seed Lakers?
Lakers super team
Howard
LeBron
Davis
Melo
Westbrook
Why did you type out the Lakers roster? I will never understand the way your brain works or why you feel the need to comment drivel like this on every single article. Go outside, Sillivan.
I think it’s a pretty sh!t idea honestly, I can’t imagine playing for a draft pick that would potentially be used to draft my replacement. Even if you’re offering an extra million per player, what incentive are players gonna have to play in this and risk injury?
love it.
The season is only exciting in the beginning, trading deadline & playoffs. Having less games & a tournament sounds fun & exciting. 35% of the league are tanking their games anyway.
This is actually stupid. So teams will play an uneven number of games? One team will have 78 games and another 82?
Thats the effect of a tournament. For example you could still have 64 regular season games for everyone.
First round of the cup is then maybe 5 groups of 6 teams, playing 10 games for sure.
Best 3 of every group advance: 15 teams plus the best fourth.
With then protected seeds according to ranking: the 1sts and 3 best 2nds are protected.
Best of 16, quarter finals, semi finals and finals. Each can be home/away (with goal differentials added up), best-of-three or best of five. (In total up to 22 games if best of three).
There would then be
4 teams with only 74 games
8 with an extra round of 2 or 3 games
4 eliminated in quarter-finals (total 78-80 games)
2 eliminated in the semis (+2,3 or 5 games)
2 in the finals (+x games)
That is the most stupid idea ever, Mr Silver is trying to kill the NBA with ideas like that, the NBA is at its peak of popularity & in any other way, so why would you wanna change something that works & is at its best, the only way is down, some people are just sooo dense!
I don’t want a ridiculous in season tourney.
Thanks tho.
It wouldn’t draw me in, and probably won’t attract many current fans it’s a ploy to gain interest in new or very casual fans.
Also it’s a new thing to bet on
And the real reason is revealed. Single elimination games draw lots of gamblers and attention.
It’s hilarious MLB is moving away from those types of games. Not sure if MLB or NHL are the worst run leagues at the moment though.
MLB hands down is the worst run professional sports league in America.
I think you just nailed it. There’s no other reason for this tournament. I know I would be ignoring it totally. Just maybe hoping no key players on my team gets injured during it. It’s all for the gamblers.
He needs to go. This needs to go . And let’s help lebron now
As someone who watches Euro soccer, I can tell you that in-season national cup tournaments (i.e. FA Cup, etc) aren’t worth it. Teams often don’t use their best lineups and viewer ratings are also lower than league matches. It’s bad enough that teams have a different uniform for every game just to appeal to casual fans but Silver is really taking the change too far.