Adam Silver Says NBA Can Add Midseason Tournament, But 'Fair Amount of Work to Do'

The idea of a midseason tournament is still a possibility for the NBA, but commissioner Adam Silver admitted Monday there is still a "fair amount of work" to do to make it a reality.

Per Tim Bontemps of ESPN, the commissioner said he thinks adding such a tournament could be done without detracting from the importance of the NBA Finals. However, the work that still needs to be done consists of finalizing the details and actually selling the players on participating.

Such a tournament has been a subject of discussion for some time.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported in 2019 that the league was considering creating a tournament that would pay $1 million to each player on the winning team. The idea of such a notable financial prize would be to provide additional incentive for players to "treat a new tournament with a competitive fervor."

Executives around the league were concerned at the time that star players would not be motivated even by the $1 million prize.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported the Competition Committee discussed the $1 million per player prize last month.

In May, Wojnarowski noted Silver hoped the success of the play-in tournament for the final seeds in the postseason would create more enthusiasm for the possibility of a midseason tournament.

Wojnarowski's 2019 report pointed out that the commissioner envisioned the 2021-22 season as the one he could implement such a competition, however, that will not happen with the schedule already in place.

There also needs to be an agreement between the NBA Players Association and at least two-thirds of the league's 30 teams to create the tournament.