The NBA In-Season-Tournament

By Cortez Heyworth

Analyzing the First-Ever NBA In-Season-Tournament

Back in November, the NBA played its first ever in-season-tournament. Similar tournaments in European soccer like the FA Cup inspired the idea. Its goal was to inject excitement into a long and sometimes boring regular season while offering additional incentives for teams and players. The tournament offered $500K for every player on the winning roster. This may not be a lot for star players who make millions of dollars per year, but it can be lots of money for a bench player. This was evident in how hard Pacers bench players were playing, obviously incentivized by their money.

Although many people were skeptical of the idea originally, many fans came around to liking it. The only complaint from fans is the ugly courts. However, NBA commissioner Adam Silver aims to fix this next year, giving teams more creativity. In terms of quality of play, the in-season tournament did not disappoint. The Indian Pacers shocked the world, showing their talent that many didn’t know they had. This was the outbreak of Tyrese Haliburton, who is now going to be on Team USA in the Olympics this year. Despite the Pacer's success, Lebron James and the Lakers won the finals, with LeBron winning Tournament MVP.

At the time, this didn’t seem too surprising, but considering the Lakers wound up just making the playoffs, the Lakers are a prime example of how bad teams can shine in this format. This seems like just the start of the tournament's success, and hopefully, it only gets better next year.