The NBA’s first in-season tournament is being celebrated as a success on every level, and the league will consider changes to make it even better, writes Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Television ratings have been sharply higher than what NBA games typically get in November and early December, as players and coaches have embraced the idea of having another prize to compete for.
“It’s been incredibly positive,” said Evan Wasch, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics. “It’s gone better than we possibly could have hoped or expected, in large part because of the player and team buy-in. We’ve always known that the success of this would ultimately be driven by how much players and teams care about this, and I think the verdict is in and they care about it.
“Between the quality of the competition on the court, the way they’ve talked about it on social media and in their post-game press conferences, it’s clear that there was just a lot of energy and excitement across the board. Even from players who admitted that they were skeptics before the tournament are now bought in. And so that was just really exciting to see and couldn’t have been known until it happened.”
While the NBA will conduct a review of the tournament to see how it could be improved, Wasch said any changes are unlikely to be related to the playoffs. There have been suggestions that the winner should get some benefit involving postseason positioning or the play-in tournament, but Wasch indicated that the league wants to keep those things separate.
“We felt pretty strongly about as we were designing this tournament: if you’re trying to create this new championship, this new tentpole, that the way to build it with the most potential is to make sure that it sits separate and stands on its own in terms of the value,” he said. “We already have a play-in tournament that takes place in April. If you gave the winner of this tournament a guaranteed playoff seat or a guaranteed spot or some sort of benefit, you’ve essentially created another play-in tournament that just happens to take place in November and December.
“We thought that puts an artificial ceiling on what this tournament could become in terms of the value to players. We won’t rule out tying it into the season in some way, but we think that we’ve created enough meaning behind it in this first iteration without any of those tie-ins. We don’t necessarily think that’s necessary, but absolutely open to the feedback and we’ll have that discussion with our players.”
There’s more on the tournament:
- The event could wind up being longer in the future, sources tell Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports. It’s possible the knockout round may be expanded to include more than eight teams, Fischer adds, because that’s the feature that most differentiates it from normal regular season play.
- The tournament’s ratings success puts the NBA in an even better position as it prepares to negotiate its next media rights deal, observes Bryan Toporek of Forbes. According to the league, viewership increased by 26% during the group play stage and even more once the knockout round began.
- ESPN’s Brian Windhorst sees the Lakers‘ run to the tournament title as proof that having star players is as important as ever, which is why teams go to such great lengths to get them. Tournament MVP LeBron James was brilliant through the competition, and Anthony Davis dominated the title game with 41 points and 20 rebounds.
I watched a lot less, the courts made it unwatchable to me, like a Boise St. football game but worse. Only watched the Celtics game in “knock out” round cause I always watch them and it wasn’t easy with that cartoon court the Pacers had. Also watched less games on the other nights than usual, I’m a hoops junkie and only watch basketball but hearing about this made up thing over and over turned me right off.
Love how the video quality was so bad on the terrible court that they switched to side shot for the whole game almost so you wouldnt have distortion of the picture around every player
If you’re really a basketball junkie, like you say, not watching because the court was a little odd or different sounds like you’ve kicked you’re basketball addiction and are ready to move on to croquet or curling. Perhaps your enthusiasm was dampened by the fact that the Celtics got knocked out early and the Lakers were the eventual champions. Have you ever heard of sour grapes?
Me personally I just like watching good quality video of these “important games”, so I would just you know talk to at least one person who has white balanced a camera about good colors to have behind the people. You can still do cool looking courts that dont ruin the picture quality…
“Between the quality of the competition on the court, the way they’ve talked about it on social media and in their post-game press conferences,”
Well when you control what they say on social media and in press conferences, of course it’s going to do good.
Now is the part where they celebrate the “wild success” …. And how to expand …. And generate more revenue … For Regular Season games the players still don’t care about.
There is a reason why the Pacers, who are not expected to make the playoffs, and the Lakers, who are not a serious contender, made the finals. The other squads saw an opportunity to get several extra days off. It is a greater benefit to get the downtime than to keep playing.
Gamblers on the apps, who are the only people who care about Regular Season games, are the ones who got screwed. Instead of a full weekend of NBA action …. You got 1 game … Lakers/Pacers …. During the “semifinals” …. You got 2 games to bet instead of a full schedule.
Pacers aren’t expected to make the playoffs? Sitting in 5th place in the east sure seems like in playoff position so far
We are 20 games in. Cleveland, Miami and New York who are behind them will change that. So will Atlanta. Toronto and Chicago have not been what was expected. They might stay in front of them. They were not expected to make the Playoffs!
Only way Toronto, Chicago, Cleveland and Atlanta pass Indiana is injuries. Miami and New York I think are good enough where it is possible but far from a sure thing.
I can understand the argument that Indiana aren’t going anywhere in the playoffs when teams dial in defensively. But night to night in the regular season they are doing just fine.
Yes, we know already, you don’t like basketball
I like good basketball. Not overly concerned what you think of my basketball views. Crunch Man
Your whole comment was a bunch of phoney baloney. Your saying the other teams didn’t even try because they wanted to lose so they could have a few extra days off. BS. And the gamblers got screwed? Now that is a new one. They lost a chance to lose more money because there was only one game on Saturday. Oh dear, I feel so sorry for the gamblers. The Lakers may not be favorites to win it all but to say there not a serious contender is horseshit. They went to the Western Con. finals last year, and they are a better team this year, and then just won the inaugural in season tournment. I’d say most NBA analysts would consider LA as a serious contender. Once again, they made the final four last year, and are a better team this year. More sour grapes Barry.
The floors were awful…made the games almost unwatchable for me. Please use the normal floors.
Congratulations LA Lakers !!!!!!
1sr In Season Tournament winner !!!!!!
Congratulations LeBron James (oldest player in NBA). 1st In Season Tournament MVP ….
I only watched the Suns games and didn’t even know the “final” was yesterday.
The courts were an eyesore that I’m hoping will never be seen again.
I’m not sure why there’s all the whining on the message boards about the IST. Other than color schemes on some of the courts and stupid run up the score tie breaker my only complaint is that I almost lost in my fantasy league this week because I only had Brook Lopez in the knockout rounds. Luckily I have a 10 game cushion.
Most of the games were more competitive than your usual pre-christmas games and the most of the players seemed to care. Everyone complains that the regular season doesn’t matter anymore, well a few more regular season games did matter this season. They need to work out some kinks and tweak it a bit but overall I thought it was a success.
It must suck if you had AD in your fantasy league to see him go off for 41 pts, 20 reb for it not to count. LOL I always wondered if the Fantasy leagues counted it while the NBA didn’t.
The NBA has been celebrating the success of this idiocy since before the games actually started being played, and doubled down after a barely noticed first round of games. It’s entertainment marketing 101, claim something is great before most people watch it, as after which the claims won’t matter. Stern would be proud.
Truth is that, other than the Final, just based on what was reported (and not reported), the fact that there were tournament consequences to some games was not impactful, other than the eye sores created by the courts.
The Final did give them an excuse for (another) LeBron infomercial. Not that one was needed with the ESPN crew doing so many LAL games during the year.
My favorite part of yesterday was Malika Andrews getting booed at the presentation
Yeah. What was the booing about? AD not getting the trophy? She’s actually one of the least offensive ESPN personalities. Low bar granted. Or maybe I just think she’s cute.
It’s the current “thing to do” a lot of people on Twatter were complaining about her not saying anything about the Giddey situation when she is supposedly quick to jump on allegations about black athletes. Most probably don’t even know why they’re booing her, they’re just doing it because someone else is.
She’s def a cutie but I find her annoying as hell always wedging non basketball stories into her coverage
You gotta remember this game was played in Vegas. God only knows the weird, bizarre thought process going on in the minds of the Vegas crowd attending the game.
Funny how they quoted a reporter that covers the Lakers to call it a success. Most people found it more annoying than anything else.
Not even that; he’s only claiming that they are celebrating it as a success. Which we already know.
They should put all 30 teams in a bracket, March Madness style. Forget conferences,seeding is based on overall standings.
At some point, that will happen with all of the teams that don’t make the playoffs. Non Playoff teams will get their own Playoffs. It’s all about the money, and the money is in Playoffs.
Having a tourney for the #1 pick would be a great idea. Better than an arbitrary lottery. Team that wins gets the pick.
I dunno that could lead to some weird unintended consequences. All of a sudden being 9th has more value than being 8th and actually making the playoffs. If the choice is lose in a lopsided first round series or win the draft tournament I think it opens the door for tanking to miss the playoffs at the end of the year, especially in certain draft years.
Too many games had white jerseys vs yellow jerseys. It was difficult for me at many times to keep track of the game flow during scrambles.
BORING!!! Just an NBA money-grab stunt that means absolutely nothing.
The irony of calling out a money-grab in a league whose primary purpose is to make money. Grow up.
I don’t understand how this is more boring the straight up regular season games. There is zero logic to your take.
How do you feel about freedom?
So many whining voices on here who outright admitted they didn’t watch the games. If you didn’t watch, you have no right to complain. You did it to yourself.
Even more whiners who are only upset about it because LA won. Get over it. Nobody cares about how butthurt you are about LeBron getting an award. They earned each of those wins. Yes, even the Suns game, which L2M reports actually said should have been *more* in the Lakers favor, not less. The refs missed like four calls, according to them, all of which would have gone against the Suns.
If you’re annoyed because your team didn’t advance, I’m right there with you. But how is that different from playoff games? Aside from it being *less* impactful, and thus less annoying?
The courts were ugly as sin, though. That, I’ll give you. They need to go. Maybe make a specific pattern for the tournaments but don’t have them be neon monstrosities.
“It’s rigged!” If you think that, then why are you even watching? Watch college ball or get a EuroLeague subscription. Don’t make excuses because you don’t like the results.
Can you work a double shift on the Ohtani thread at MLBTr please!
$700,000,000-Wow.
I think some of the courts were actually quite good. So maybe just have more of those used and drop the bad ones? The red ones especially caused problems.
From the games I saw the black and gray combos looked the best.
As for the on court product. I thought it was fantastic for November and December. Adding another round makes sense. I think they could have a bye system as well. Say some combo of #1 seeds, last year’s winner and runner up getting a bye?
No one cares about the tournament. The floors made those games unwatchable. This is just another media lie designed to push this garbage into future seasons.
The nba is in a sad state. The league having to create a tournament and throw more money at spoiled brats just to do their jobs. Pathetic!!!
No kidding! Imagine the audacity of NBA management trying to increase interest in their sport and then reward the players for working hard to win. Just terrible! Contact Fox News! OK, the thing is, NBA stars with mega contracts might not need the money, but the guys on the squad who might be making the league minimum or whatever, well I’m sure they would be thrilled to pocket an extra half million. And you can’t bitch about the powers that be in the NBA trying to increase interest and viewership in their product. And I think they will probably make some changes next year if they feel it is necessary.
Rigged garbage. NBA fans equal WWE fans
You must be MTG in disguise.