For years, an in-season NBA tournament felt like one of those far-out ideas that always seemed cool but would probably never be executed.
Fast forward to today and it’s happening.
The NBA’s in-season tournament is finally here. The league has been building up to this moment for the last few years and now we’re actually going to see what this thing looks like and how it’ll work out.
That’s the big question everyone has: How exactly does this thing work? The NBA is going to be an American basketball version of a soccer league. It’s going to be pretty strange. It could also be pretty fun, too.
Let’s take a look at everything we know about it so far.
What in the world? There's an in-season tournament? How long has this been a thing?
Yes, folks! It’s finally here. The NBA’s in-season tournament is finally making its debut on November 3.
This has been in the works for quite some time. Rumors surfaced about it dating back to 2021 when the league began its first season on Christmas day after the NBA Bubble.
It was considered a supplemental idea to the NBA season with teams potentially playing 78 games instead of 82 to make room for the tournament. The season didn’t shorten at all, but the league did add the intrigue of the tournament as well as the new player participation policy to make sure star players were playing in these games.
The NBA first announced it’d come last season and made the official debut of the format over the summer.
How does it work?
It seems kind of complicated at first, but it’s actually fairly simple.
All 30 teams across the league are split up into groups by conference. In total, there are six groups:
Western Conference
- Group A: Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, LA Lakers, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers
- Group B: Denver Nuggets, LA Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets
- Group C: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs
Eastern Conference:
- Group A: Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons
- Group B: Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Washinton Wizards, Charlotte Hornets
- Group C: Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic
Ok, so they split into groups. Then what?
So this is the fun part. Starting on Nov. 3 and continuing through Nov. 28, each team plays four designated “group play” games against the other teams in their group. Each group play game will be played on designated tournament nights by the NBA, which fall on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Each team will get two games at home and two on the road with one game against each opponent in the group. The teams with the best standing in the groups as well as two “wild card” teams will advance to the knockout stage.
The knockout stage? Wait, are they boxing?
Nah, nah. It’s nothing like that. This is when the tournament starts to whittle teams down.
The eight teams that advance will all play in what is basically an eight-team single-elimination game tournament. The quarterfinals will be played on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5, the semifinals will be on Dec. 7 and the finals will be on Dec. 9.
Like I said, it’s a lot. But it’s not actually complicated at all.
What do they win in this thing?
The players and coaches that win the tournament get a cool trophy called the NBA cup which, yes, is extremely generic and probably going to be used for some corny sponsorship moving forward if this goes well.
But, on top of that, coaches and players both get to split up an $18 million prize pool, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
“The head coach of the tournament’s winning team will be awarded $500,000 — same that already had been designated for the winning team’s players, sources told ESPN.
Assistant coaches will share an additional pool of money that’ll comprise 75% of the winning coach’s total. For head coaches and players now, that prize pool will descend based on advancing to become the tournament runner-up ($200,000), a semifinalist ($100,000) and a quarterfinalist ($50,000), sources said.”
That’s a lot of money, folks!
Do they play the games anywhere special?
I’m so glad you asked! Every game in the tournament up to the quarterfinals will be played in the team’s home markets. But the semifinals and the finals will be played in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena.
Plus, they’ll also be playing on some interesting (and kind of ugly!) new courts. A few have already been laid down ahead of the games.
Here’s a look at the Pacers’ court.
I mean. Wow. pic.twitter.com/WVlSyjkP3X
— Tony East (@TonyREast) November 3, 2023
And the Thunder’s.
Another look at our @NBA In-Season Tournament court 🎥 pic.twitter.com/91PstFH3zc
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 3, 2023
And the Heat’s
We're In-Season Tournament ready 🔥
You gotta see this in person – https://t.co/XngeKQeW7W pic.twitter.com/6FOnE0Qh1g
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) November 3, 2023
Each team is going to be wearing their city jerseys throughout tournament play, too.
For your future reference, here’s a complete view of the schedule here.
Who's expected to win?
The Boston Celtics (+700) come in with the best odds at BetMGM to win the inaugural event. Here’s a look at the favorites:
- Boston Celtics (+700)
- Denver Nuggets (+900)
- Milwaukee Bucks (+900)
- Phoenix Suns (+1100)
- Golden State Warriors (+1200)
- Los Angeles Clippers (+1300)
The Detroit Pistons (+10000), Washington Wizards (+8000) and Portland Trail Blazers (+8000) have the longest odds to win, but given structure of this tournament, long-shots don’t have as far to go to surprise the top contenders.
Alright, this is cool. But will it actually work?
I have no idea! We’ll know the answer to this question in just over a month’s time, so we have to be patient.
Plenty of people have scoffed at this idea, but I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss it. Sure, these are still just regular-season games that amount to simple regular-season wins and losses. But that prize pool is a significant number. And, if this tournament gets bigger, there’s a chance that the pool will get bigger, too. Players will always play for more money — even if it isn’t necessarily hundreds of millions of dollars.
So let’s see. Give this a chance. Maybe it’ll work. Maybe it won’t. Either way, we’re still getting more basketball and I’m OK with that.
Let’s just hope that, in the future, the aesthetics behind it won’t be as cringy.
