With Fears of Load Management, What Is Adam Silver Doing to Keep Players Interested for In-Season Tournament?

The NBA stands as one of the world’s premier sports leagues. Each year, it regularly broadcasts its games in over 200 countries in more than 40 languages. However, due to the ever-evolving global landscape, the NBA harbors ambitions of achieving even more. As a result, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has recently revealed a hidden gem that was collecting dust in the league’s office for 15 years: In Season Tournament. The concept is quite simple. It revolves around hosting a tournament within the regular season; with all the highlights and celebrations fans can handle, harmonized with the league’s standard schedule. It will be like throwing a party in the middle of a workweek, just in the grand scheme of a months-long NBA season.

Adam Silver’s vision is to capture as much attention as possible for the NBA by introducing the high-stakes tournament. While the tournament may temporarily divert teams from their ultimate goal of winning the championship, it is expected to bring the NBA the much-needed attention; especially during the often-neglected months of November and December.

Adam Silver has already made things interesting

Adam Silver has made sure that the in-season tournament radiates energy nothing short of a bunny on a caffeine high. Being a different experience despite being a part of the regular season, the in-season tournament will offer a unique and distinct experience. Firstly, Teams will don different uniforms. Furthermore, according to Adam Silver, the courts will feature a fresh look.

The Phoenix Suns recently gave fans a sneak peek into their court design for the in-season tournament, and it’s cooler than the other side of the pillow. The NBA has also provided a glimpse of what the courts will look like for all teams. All teams share several common elements, including fully painted courts from one end to the other.

Furthermore, there is more than just bragging rights and a trophy on the line. The winning team will lay hands on the NBA Cup, and players will earn significant monetary rewards. Each player on the tournament-winning squad will home $500,000. Additionally, players from the second contending team will pocket $200,000 each. Additionally, the semi-finalists and quarterfinalists will receive $100,000 and $50,000 per player respectively.

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In addition to the financial incentives, there will be an All-Tournament Team selection and the league will give out a Most Valuable Player award for the tournament itself.

How will the In-Season Tournament work?

All 30 teams are projected to participate in six groups of five teams each. The groupings are determined randomly based on last season’s records. In the initial phase of the tournament, each team will play two home and two away games as part of the group play. This way, each team will have an opportunity to face their group rivals once.

Following that, it will be survival of the fittest. Three group winners from each group will advance to the next stage; the eight-team knockout quarter-finals. The victorious teams will then move on to the semi-finals and ultimately the finals. The last two stages of the tournament will take place at a neutral location in Las Vegas.

For the teams that get eliminated in the group stage, they will play games on December 7 and 9; which will count towards the regular season schedule. As for the teams that are eliminated in the quarterfinals, they will face each other on December 8. This will be to ensure the 82-game mark is reached for the teams.

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For the semifinalists, no extra games will commence. However, for the teams that reach the championship, their season will be destined for an 83-game tenure.

What do you make of the In-Season Tournament? Do you think it is a good idea? Let us know in the comments below.