In the midst of the fervent Sunday NBA playoff session, Adrian Wojnarowski drops us a scoop that many could imagine but that seemed to have come to nothing. And it is that as reported by the reputed journalist of ESPN, the League plans to restart the conversation with the franchises and the Players Association (NBPA) about adding a mid-season mini-tournament to the schedule.
The maximum promoter of this idea is none other than Commissioner Adam Silver himself. In the past, Silver has been optimistic about this project, and the success that the play-in In popular opinion, it could prompt him to put on the table this tournament that had been discussed before the pandemic, but never reached a Board of Governors vote.
The NBA has tried in recent years to incorporate new, more competitive elements into the classic regular season schedule. The most current cases have been some changes in the All-Star Game, such as player drafts and scoring goals, and the inclusion of the play-in, which could even undergo further modifications.
As Wojnarowski has reported, it is too late for the League to consider the idea for the 2021-22 season. But discussion on this topic will begin again with teams and the NBPA as early as this year. In this sense, an agreement with the Players Association and a majority of two thirds of its 30 teams is needed to incorporate this mini tournament (about which there are not many details yet).
The original proposals that had been discussed at first focused on a model similar to that of European football, which would be linked to the traditional NBA calendar. An eight-team elimination tournament had been discussed that would be incentivized with payments of $ 1 million per player to the winning team. These eight participants were to emerge from different groups that would be integrated into the regular season calendar.
Among the main doubts, there was the one referred to the number of total matches that a team would play; which would depend on whether the classic 82-game schedule was shortened or maintained. Another concern maintained by the executives was that some star players (with the most lucrative contracts) might prefer to lower their competitiveness and take a break of several days that would come hand in hand with not qualifying for this potential tournament.
Despite all this, and how it could impact public following, NBA optimism has remained high. In large part it has been due to the number of elite players who have accompanied maintaining their competitiveness with respect to the play-in (despite some resounding criticism), and with some changes to the All-Star Game.
(Photo courtesy of Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
