The NBA In-Season Tournament is Flawed, but Redeemable
If the title of this article makes you say to yourself, “there’s an in-season tournament for the NBA?”, don’t feel bad. It’s as new as this article you’re reading. There have been plenty of mixed reviews on the whole thing ranging from “why is there even a tournament?”, to “what’s the point?”, and even “I don’t want to have something even remotely resembling a European soccer/football tournament.” With all of that in mind, I would like to say at the forefront that I am a fan of in-season tournaments in general, and with my love of basketball and the NBA, I believe that I have a few ideas that could make this tournament better.
First things first, how does the current tournament work? It isn’t as complicated as many people would want you to believe. Essentially, it goes like this:
- Every single team in the NBA participates
- All 30 teams are broken down into six 5-team groups based on the teams standings last year
- Each team in their group will play the other teams in said group once
- Once group play is finished, eight teams will advance to the knockouts rounds, the six who won their groups, and two wildcard teams
- After that, the teams will play a March Madness style tournament to determine the winner
- Every player on the winning team will win $500,000.
Now that you’re caught up, it isn’t amazing, is it? I mean, don’t get me wrong, $500,000 is more money than I’ll ever see at one time, but a lot of these players already make more than that. Take the Oklahoma City Thunder for example. They’re one of the youngest teams in the league, and every single player on that team makes at least triple the prize money on a yearly basis. So, how do we fix it? How do we prove to the viewers, and the NBA players who do not care, that this is a worthy idea to invest in?
- A simple name change
To put a little footy talk into this basketball space, the Europeans have it down pat when it comes to this tournament stuff. They play for their league championships, and at any given time are also competing for two or three other trophies to add to their collection. I’ll spare you all the details, but you can trust me when I say that they aren’t calling it “In-Season Tournament 1” and “In-Season Tournament 2.” All of England’s football clubs compete for the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup which is important for our example because a) the FA in FA Cup stands for Football Association, and b) the Carabao is the presenting sponsor for the whole tournament.
With that in mind, a nice change to a “League’s Cup” or “Commissioner’s Cup” would do the trick. It’s cleaner, it’s a lot easier to say and broadcast, and it just sounds, overall, less corny. Maybe this is just my own heart speaking here, but if you really want to make the players care and make them feel like these aren’t just some regular games, you change the name of the tournament to “The Kobe Cup,” or the “Mamba Cup.” Every single player in the league still has so much admiration for Kobe and what he did for the game, and if his name is on the newest shiny trophy, players will go all out to win it.
If you want to avoid any of that, you could go the other route, and have a sponsor for the tournament. Just using some of the NBA’s current sponsors. How about the Coca-Cola Cup, or the Toyota Tournament? It’s not anywhere close to as meaningful as The Kobe Cup, and it’ll seem more of a sell-out move than “The League’s Cup,” but the NBA has done plenty of brand integration, and even at it’s worse, any sponsored tournament still sounds better than “The In-Season Tournament.”
2. More incentive for the winning team
Again, $500,000 is oodles of money, but everyone in the league has oodles of money, at least compared to you and I. Per reports, the NBA made around $10 Billion last year, so this half a million is just a drop in the bucket for them, which I’m sure they can find someway to make it a tax write-off. You want these players to play their asses off? How about $5 million for each player and coach, and I mean all of the coaches, maybe even the water boy. That is probably too rich for the leagues blood when you consider how many coaches and other staff these teams have, but it certainly would get the players motivated to win.
On the management side, award the winners of the tournament another first round pick: the 31st pick in the draft. It could prove to be valuable in either adding a solid role-player to an already established core of players, or that same pick could be used in acquiring another player from a different team. Say the Philadelphia 76ers win the tournament because they have the reigning MVP in Joel Embiid, and a young supernova in Tyrese Maxey. They could use that new pick to sweeten a deal to the Chicago Bulls in acquiring Zach LaVine who’s reportedly open to the idea of being traded. It’s good for the league because of the media buzz it would create, and it would all be thanks to a sweeter deal than what they have now.
3. Move the date range of the tournament
This is a personal gripe, I will admit. There are certain “Tournament Nights” where teams will have designated group play games. They still count towards your regular season standings, but they also count as tournament games. Those games, unfortunately, start within the first couple of weeks on the NBA season. Personally, I’m already excited that the NBA is back after 133 long days. I do not need any motivation in watching the games. Where I do need it sometimes, is right after the new year. The Christmas Day games are over, and the Super Bowl is right around the corner, so sometimes the post-Christmas games kind of feel like a slog until the playoffs start. So just move the tournament to the new year. Starting 1/1, we kick this tournament off and devote the whole month of January, or most of it at least, to crowning a new In-Season Tournament Champion.
It would be good for the league’s rejuvenation, good for the fans because they aren’t being bombarded with a new change right at the beginning of the season, and it could prove valuable to the NBA’s bottom line because now some fans at home will have to chose between watching this tournament, or watching the NFL. Any amount of turnover from the NFL to the NBA would mean more brand opportunities, and most importantly, more money.
Those are just some of my ideas. I have some more, but I think I’d have to write a physical book if I wanted to get them all down. How do you feel about the tournament? How would you change it, or do you think it is fine the way it is? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for tuning in. Tell someone you love them. I’ll see you on the next post.
