Adam Silver Says NBA's In-season Tournament Will 'Look Different' Than Regular Season
NBA commissioner Adam Silver provided some details on the in-season tournament that will be implemented during the 2023-24 campaign.
When speaking at Tuesday's Sports Business Journal's World Congress of Sports he told reporters, "The players will be wearing different uniforms. Maybe the court will look different. You'll know that it's not just a regular-season game."
He also said there will be an initial round, a knockout round and pool play ahead of four semifinalists who will play at a neutral site.
Ultimately, Silver explained the idea is "to create new games of consequences during the regular season" and pointed to international soccer as something of a blueprint.
"Taking a page from European soccer where they play for multiple cups throughout the season," he said. "We think taking nothing away from the Larry O'Brien trophy, and the ultimate goal of winning a championship, that you can create another competition within the season that becomes meaningful. And there's a recognition that new traditions are not built overnight."
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Bobby Marks reported each player on the winning team will receive $500,000 with $200,000 going to the players on the runner-ups. The financial incentive was notable because it is easy to wonder whether the motivation level for players will be any different than a normal regular season game even if it will "look different."
Silver addressed that notion as well.
"And I think that particularly it was interesting when we first started talking to our players about it several years ago," he said. "Part of the initial reaction from players is 'Why would we care?' It's interesting with getting close to a third of our players now who were born outside the United States, they're very familiar with this Cup notion from European soccer or soccer tournaments elsewhere in the world."
Earlier this month, Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports reported on the format of the tournament.
Teams will be placed in intraconference pools for group games, and winners and wild-card teams will advance to the single-elimination part of the tournament. The only game that won't count on the regular-season record for teams is the championship contest, and the financial incentive will come into play at that point.
Frankly, fans likely won't notice much of a difference at first.
The race for the NBA title will still be the most important thing even if the in-season tournament championship game in particular adds an element of intrigue that wouldn't necessarily be there for a normal regular-season contest.
It could also lead to some additional inter-conference matchups depending on how the bracket unfolded.
But this won't be a significant change for the overall fan experience with all but one game impacting the regular-season standings and just one additional contest for the two finalists on the entire league schedule.
