NBA commissioner Adam Silver has announced that the In-Season tournament the league debuted this year will “no doubt” be back for the 2024-25 season. After a successful first run, the league will look to build on the midseason cup format which increased game viewership by over 20%.
The NBA plays 82 regular-season games, with viewership tending to lull during November and December. The NBA Cup was in an effort to increase viewership, bring eyes to the sport, and make more money overall. This year the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Cup in an exciting game against the Indiana Pacers.
Silver was pleased with the success of the tournament, telling AP the format will return “with just a couple of tweaks.” While he didn’t elaborate on specific changes that are coming, he noted that he liked the colorful alternative courts used for the tournament, and wants the league to incorporate more of such creativity going forward.
“I’m a big advocate of the colorful courts,” said Silver. “For the Finals, we could have a special Finals court — not just with the (Larry O’Brien) trophy in the center, but a little bit more colorful.”
Teams from each conference were separated into groups of five to play four games round-robin style. The team with the best record in each group, along with one wild card team from each conference, advanced to the quarter-finals. Four teams then advanced to the semi-finals in Las Vegas.
To further incentivize players, the first-place team received $500,000 per player, second place $200,000, and $100,000 for those who made the semi-finals.
Players seemed in favor of the tournament. LeBron James, whose Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural NBA Cup on Dec. 9, 2023, said following a 122-119 group play win over the Phoenix Suns, “It feels great… There’s $500,000 on the line – so we’re goin’ for that.”
“A lot of competitiveness. I think everybody is trying to get off to a good start during the year with the In-Season Tournament vibe, the court change and all that added a little energy to it,” said Warriors guard Steph Curry of the tournament.
Viewership data suggests the fans love the tournament, too: viewership for nationally broadcast games was up 26% from December 2022, and the league’s average attendance in November was the highest it has ever been at 18,206.
While it seems to be going well, some fans still have some concerns about the point differential rule. This first tiebreaker is a head-to-head record, the second is the point differential rule, meaning that the team with the most points throughout the whole tournament advances.
Fans noticed the impact of the point differential rule when in a game against the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls, the Celtics kept on fouling Bulls’ center Andre Drummond. Even though the Celtics were up by 30 points, they fouled him in hopes that he would miss and keep the Bulls from adding to their score.
Silver addressed fans’ concerns following the Lakers’ NBA Cup win, expressing he did not intend to get rid of the rule, but was open to tweaks that would make the games feel more fair to fans.
“I’m not ready necessarily to move away from it,” Silver told Bleacher Report last December. “But if ultimately there’s going to be a sense, particularly from our American fans, that it’s somehow an indication of poor sportsmanship, that’s not a good idea for us to be doing it. And maybe there’s some ways to tweak that.”