NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been a long-time proponent for adding a mid-season tournament, but he recognizes there would be a difficult balance between promoting the new event and maintaining the importance of the regular season. Silver discussed the challenges involved during an interview with Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.
No matter when the tournament would take place, it will require a reduction in the regular season schedule, which has been set at 82 games per team since the 1967/68 season.
“The last thing I’m trying to suggest is that we don’t value our current regular season, it’s enormously valuable,” Silver said. “These teams care a lot about home-court advantage, and people can’t get enough of NBA basketball.”
A new tournament would be modeled after similar events in European soccer, providing all the teams with a break during the season and a new prize to play for. To be implemented, it would require agreement from the players union and two-thirds majority approval from the Board of Governors.
Silver provided a tournament update last week during his annual NBA Finals press conference, but admitted “we’re not there yet” as far as working out the details.
In his interview with Goodwill, Silver promised that regardless of what schedule changes are required, each team will continue to host every other team at least once per season.
“I think that’s critically important,” he said. “Everybody wants to see, even if it’s a cross-country trip, that wherever that player is on that team that plays in the other conference, they should have the opportunity to see that player at least once.”
Silver recognizes that as a new event, it may take some time for the tournament to catch on with both fans and players. The public may view is as just another event on an already-crowded winter sports calendar, while athletes may see it as a chance to rest if the stakes aren’t high enough.
“I’ll say I recognize that [if] we do that, it’s not going to be an overnight success,” Silver admitted. “Because the obvious question, whether it’s from the players or for the fans will be, ‘What? Why should we think this is meaningful? Playing in-season tournaments?’ My response is going to be, ‘I get that.’ But I think we can create new traditions, obviously, things change over time. And so that’s something I’m very focused on right now.”
Could there possibly be an idea that fans would want less than this?
I’m mixed on it, if they treated more like the Summer leagues and showcased young talent I’d be all for it, however if it shortened the regular season and involved veteran players is be a lot more hesitant.
How about if the game goes to OT, the team that wins the tip gets a free 10 points, like in baseball…
You know, go full clown show, since that’s what we’re clearly trying to do to everything…
Like in baseball? Wtf are you even talking about?
Is this a real question?
runner starting on 2nd, 3 batter pitch mandate and 7 inning double headers to start
You know what could be a great decision along those lines? How about 7 minute games. 4 1 minute and 45 second quarters
Overtimes should be shortened to as short as possible anyway. Say, first team to lead by four. Most overtime periods are anti-climatic until the very end so spare us.
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It would be so easy to equalize the number of games played for each team with a new tourny, but I doubt it happens. Statistical integrity has no seat at the negotiating table.
I understand how Silver could look at European soccer cup competitions that run parallel to the regular season and want to replicate that. But one of the reasons those competitions work is because they involve lower level teams, and there’s always the possibility of some great Cinderella runs. This tournament would have to involve G-League or college teams to have the same effect, and there’s no way that happens. Would be a lot of fun though.
European football and hockey leagues are run very differently to North American sports. Multiple levels and the chance of relegation is a big one. And then as you mention those lower level leagues’ teams take pride in winning something against the bigger clubs. Those tiers don’t exist in the same way in any NA sport.
Which means a mid-season tourney in basketball is likely not very compelling or competitive.
It’s good to know that the last thing Silver wants is to devalue the regular season.
I liked the playin tournament. Now they are talking about another tournament. Just hold on right there and scrap all that crap and go back to the way it was. Get rid of Adam Silver too. His face gives me nightmares.
David Stern and Adam Silver, the alien jewelers from Men in Black
Divide the season into 3 parts. After 30 games have mini tourney, after 28 games have all star event, then finish out last 24 games.
Mini tourney takes top 7 teams and plays in #1 seeds home. #1 gets bye, other 6 play by seeds. #1 seed plays worse team. Single eliminatation. Winner takes all, $30 mil. Any of top 3 teams can opt out. Reduce regular season to 78 games. 1 day off in-between games and 2 before final. so 9 day event including 2 day rest before and 1 day rest between games and 2 before final, and 2 after for travel. Crazy idea but it’s quick and different
Not a bad start I think for the mechanics but then before anything else, it’s important for us to establish the BIG WHY. You can already see that in the comments asking what’s in it for the fans, for the players. Whatever it is, it has to be something better than the status quo else it will be seen as a step backward and be criticized – all touche.
So far swarley 4 has put into words one BIG WHY – for fun!
So let’s see what we already have going on and what else could we be craving for (if there’s any).
HAVE:
All Star Game thru a Fantasy Draft ✓
Young Guns via USA vs the World ✓
Skills Challenge, Shootout, SlamDunk ✓
Play-In Tourney for #7-10 teams
more to play for ~ tighter competition ~
more fun ✓
Summer League for Rookie+Undrafted games ✓
Pre-season – to acclimate players into the
RS games where International Teams also
play ✓
RS games outside the US ✓
HAVE NOTS
> G-League All Stars Vs. Non-NBA International All Stars
> Mixed NBA, WNBA & Celebrity All Stars
> Enhanced in-season bearing games
It’s a long long season and it’s fun for contending teams. I guess this is the thing/ premise, the more games that have bearing for teams, the more competition, the more fun the games will be.
Lesser teams who feels they are not strong enough to contend might as well tank and “compete” for the bottom ranks (despite revising the odds, lower ranked teams still have better chances to get higher picks)
The key words are “not strong enough”, which is a relative term. For last season, ORL, HOU and DET are probably almost certainly not atrong enough VS GSW, PHX, BOS or MIA. But could be strong enough for OKC, SAC, IND, and other Non-Play-In Teams.
The reasons why Play-In Tourney was competitive was #1 It has huge bearing on who gets into the playoffs and #2 they are all more evenly matched.
What makes the playoffs more exciting as it gets deeper into the finals? The teams become more evenly matched as the playoffs progress.
I could go on with other examples like NCAA’s March Madness going into the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Big 4 and Finals.
Or even as far as to ask would you watch Manny Pacquiao Vs. The Lowest Ranked Boxer in another Weight Class? Of course you pay a leg and an arm for a Pacquiao Vs. Mayweather Rematch.
Same thing with Amateur Leagues having Division A, B and so on.
So again bearing games and “skill-level matching”.
Imagine a potential Big 4 of the NBA ranked across the whole league (not just by conferences), battle it out for a single or double round robin. That’s fantasy basketball right there!
Not that I’m saying to bowl this right into the RS games and blow it all up. Doesn’t make any sense. The question is, how do you structure whole NBA season so that you’ll get the most evenly matched games.
Here’s an attempt for a rough answer to above question to kick things off. How about each team gets to play the other teams in their home court at least once (that’s the goal of fans having the chance to see their favorite players play in their hometown right).
That’s 29 x2 (home & away Vs. all other teams) = 58 games.
By then we get to sort real contenders from the developmental teams.
Play-In Tourney can kick in to determine last 2 play-off spots of each conference (gives additional break incentive for players for the higher ranked teams).
The non-playoff teams can then participate in a consolation bracket where teams can play for the lottery picks, #1 pick goes to the “Champion”, #2 to the second place and so on.
Based on league-wide regular season rankings and play-in tourney, team losing jn play-in gets a BYE. #19(~NYK) plays #30(~ORL), #20(~WAS) vs #29(~DET) and so on for the consolation bracket preliminary games. That’s 6 pairings / 6 games.
The winners of 6 games join the Play-in losing teams for their own best-of-3 consolation playoffs. The losing teams of in the conso-playoff quarter finals keep playing for battle for 5th pick and battle for 7th pick knock off games (ala FIBA ranking games). Losing teams in the conso-playoff semis battle for the 3rd pick in a K.O. game. The 6 losing teams in the conso-playoff preliminaries can play a single or double round robin with best team getting 9th pick and so on.
So imagine Lebron playing to win the chance to team up with either Jabari Smith, Chet Holmgren or Paolo Banchero or even Jaden Ivey so AD or Westbrook can get their protege.
Now I’d prefer to watch that than a non-bearing end of season tanking games nor a draft lottery, won’t you?
Some could say, borderline playoff teams /play In teams could then choose to tank? How do we avoid that, then how about pouring more league-shared revenues to the playoff teams? And even possibly trickle some of them not only to the team orgs but to the players. Should be motivation for everybody right?
How about the bottom teams ORL, DET, HOU, how do they get competitive again, which was the original purpose of the draft lottery. Then they’re forced to develop more quickly and sign a few veterans here and there, and aim to finish #17-20 at the end of regular season. This is much better than aiming to be #30 right? Of course!
While at the same time if they fail to that goal, the worse they could be getting is the most recent estabished mock drafts average concensus #14 is Mark Williams, Ousmane Dieng, Malaki Branham or TyTy Washington? Not bad an aid for the bottom-finishing teams.
All teams have a thing to play for upto the end of the season.
Draft picks would be more valuable, and for those in favor of less stars creating super-teams, this could decrease movement because teams would now want to hold on to draft picks so they have something to play for if they miss the playoffs/ play in.
Another benefit is, per team shall play 58 RS games + 4-28 playoff / conso bracket games = 62-90 games overall vs 82-108, spanning from Nov. to June:
#1 You can reduce back-to-back games to lessen risk of injury
#2 You can re-sched games more freely for present and future unseen circumstances like pandemic
#3 You can lenghten the summer leagues for more rookie /undrafted player exposure / development. Hold it as early as late May, include more teams and commercialize it more into another G-League type, possibly a U-23 or something. Include international teams there, G-League All Stars, heck even the All WNBA Team
#4 There’s now more space to place another tournament with another format like the March Madness K.O. games with the league being sponsored by some Corporation and the team names being the Company officially sponsoring the NBA Team (ex. Disney Magic, PayPal Suns, etc. Would create more jersey merchandise and stuff). Could be held after the Summer League so there’s some rest after the Finals, and could be used to gel the draftees into their teams. Again you can throw in here G-league All Stars, EuroLeague All Stars, Asian Bball League All Stars, WMBA All Stars, all joining in the fun of the BIG DANCE.
u had time today
That’s my hobby ;-) So what do you think?
Ummm. K.
Approved? Great!
I like when mascots dunk and cheer teams dance. Mic up the coaches and refs on the P.A. live, to get a circus of hubba hubba and cussin’.
First superstar that gets injured and this goes away. Finals > Random Tournament
Why would the NBA mess with success? More television revenue and sponsorship opportunities. Sheesh.
Can’t hate more this silly idea, don’t want the RS even shorter than it is, rather add RS games or keep it as it is, Mr Silver can you find something else to break instead, please?
I’ve been waiting for a really stupid idea to come down the pike. Thanks, Adam. You didn’t disappoint.
I don’t even care enough about this idea to read the article. GTFO of here.
No midseason tourney and need 6-10 less games
NBA is boring yes, but its not soccer league play boring. Soccer needs this type of crap to distract everyone from the fact that league play soccer is not going to keep everyones interest.
Why are new traditions needed? Why make this a clown show, like what baseball has done the last several years? This makes no sense. Leave the game alone
Quote: “A new tournament would be modeled after similar events in European soccer…”
Participation in European football cup competitions goes several divisions deep., sometimes down to the sixth or seventh tier. Therefore, especially in the early stages, it involves teams that otherwise would never play against each other.
The David vs. Goliath match-ups make these competitions special. It also gives lower-level teams an opportunity to host the world’s football giants or to play in famous arenas in front of large crowds.
Furthermore, European football leagues are primarily decided in a two-legged round robin system, which differs from the cup competition’s single- or double-leg playoffs.
The national cup winners also get an invitation for participate in the UEFA Europa League.
Comparing a franchise circus league’s mid-season cash grab tournament, played by the same teams in familiar playoff mode, to European football cup competitions, is just another pathetic example of U.S. Americans trying to copy something they don’t remotely understand.
This is so damn stupid.. scrap this crap
Nobody in any position of power in any sports league should even bother mentioning tradition any more… unless the “tradition” they’re referring to is “making as much money as possible without regard to relevance.”