Sarah Todd of The Deseret News believes the NBA’s new in-season tournament will be a boon for what is typically a ho-hum portion of the regular season. According to Todd, players will be motivated by the glory of winning, being pictured with the NBA Cup, and the chance to earn $500K.
As Todd notes, while $500K may not be a huge sum for the league’s highest-paid players, it’s only $60K shy of what players on two-way deals will make over a full season, and it would be a significant reward for those on rookie deals and minimum-salary contracts. It might take a year or two for fans to buy-in, but the in-season tournament should make the regular season more fun, Todd opines.
Here a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- EuroLeague team Panathinaikos has parted ways with Georgios Kalaitzakis, as Eurohoops.net relays. The final pick of the 2021 draft, Kalaitzakis played 13 NBA games in 2021/22 — his rookie season — with the Bucks and Thunder, though he spent much of that campaign in the G League. He returned to Panathinaikos last summer, marking his second stint with the Greek club.
- Former NBA center Miroslav Raduljica has left Serbia’s Crvena Zvezda by mutual agreement, per Eurohoops. The 35-year-old will be signing with Greek side Marousi B.C., sources confirm to Eurohoops. Raduljica, who played 53 games with the Bucks and Wolves from 2013-15, has had a lengthy international career and was formerly the captain of Serbia’s national team, winning silver medals at three different tournaments (2009 EuroBasket, 2014 World Cup, and 2016 Olympics).
- In case you missed it, we passed along several World Cup notes this morning.
The leauge could not have picked a worse time to end the tournament. The country goes blind to sports after the army, navy game week and don’t look up again until mid January.
It’s also not defined goal Americans care about.
The leauge is better off starting the tournament right after the start of the season and ending it Thanksgiving weekend in Vegas.