Woj: NBA wants to restart conversations on a mid-season tournament

[Winsome Gerbil]

Adam Silver is weak.

He also is missing why the Play-in was such a success. It's not because "ooh! Tournament!" Its because the "ooh! Tournament!" inspired a wide swath of teams to actually play hard through the end of the season. THAT should be the goal, not some junky midseason gimmick. Figure out ways to make the Top 8 and Bottom 8 teams play hard through the end of the season the way the Play in inspired the middle class to give a crap, and then you've done a good thing.

Otherwise you're still just a weak wannabe commissioner who's overseen the decline of his league's product as he proposes stupid unwanted gimmicks because he doesn't believe in his own league's history.

[Pharmcat]

Might as well just introduce boxing matches between nba players

[Chanel Bomber]

Overall, I am very pro this tournament. I liked the idea of making this U24 or something like that, basically a cup for up and coming teams of the league. Fans always debate each other whose team has best young talent, well, this would settle it.

And its not srimmage, its a trophy. You thinking its meaningless because it doesnt exist yet, so to your perspective it has no meaning. but when you introduce a trophy, every player and fan will still want to win, thats the point of sports. Yes, it would never have the same prestige as O'Brien trophy, but no cup is, but it is still a trophy team and fans can be proud of.

You're trying to apply European league logic to the NBA. It's absurd, it breaks with almost a century of tradition and it doesn't make sense within the context of the NBA.

It's the same reason why the SuperLeague project where foreign owners tried to establish franchise soccer in Europe was absurd and unacceptable.

Respect for tradition matters, and Adam Silver has no respect for it.

[HeartBreakKid]

Overall, I am very pro this tournament. I liked the idea of making this U24 or something like that, basically a cup for up and coming teams of the league. Fans always debate each other whose team has best young talent, well, this would settle it.

And its not srimmage, its a trophy. You thinking its meaningless because it doesnt exist yet, so to your perspective it has no meaning. but when you introduce a trophy, every player and fan will still want to win, thats the point of sports. Yes, it would never have the same prestige as O'Brien trophy, but no cup is, but it is still a trophy team and fans can be proud of.

You're trying to apply European league logic to the NBA. It's absurd, it breaks with almost a century of tradition and it doesn't make sense within the context of the NBA.

It's the same reason why the SuperLeague project where foreign owners tried to establish franchise soccer in Europe was absurd and unacceptable.

Respect for tradition matters, and Adam Silver has no respect for it.

I mean...neither did Stern and the NBA did pretty well under him.

[Chanel Bomber]

The play-in tournament was a disaster - Curry and the Warriors had earned their playoff spot. In fact they beat the Grizzlies the last game of the regular season.

I want to see the ratings for Jazz-Grizzlies because that match-up is the byproduct of the tournament.

You can't just look at the ratings for the play-in games.

[worldjbfree]

For clarity, why are people saying the play-in was a success? Most of the games were lame blowouts, so I'm guessing ratings were good?

[HeartBreakKid]

For clarity, why are people saying the play-in was a success? Most of the games were lame blowouts, so I'm guessing ratings were good?

The ratings for Lakers vs Warriors were the best they had in years, as expected. Injuries helped that one out a lot.

The play-in was a success because it put drama and stories more toward the end of the season, where usually the last month everyone is kind of chilling. Put's pressure on 5th and 6th seed to keep going.

Whether the actual play-in games were competitive or not doesn't make much of a difference.

[Chanel Bomber]

Overall, I am very pro this tournament. I liked the idea of making this U24 or something like that, basically a cup for up and coming teams of the league. Fans always debate each other whose team has best young talent, well, this would settle it.

And its not srimmage, its a trophy. You thinking its meaningless because it doesnt exist yet, so to your perspective it has no meaning. but when you introduce a trophy, every player and fan will still want to win, thats the point of sports. Yes, it would never have the same prestige as O'Brien trophy, but no cup is, but it is still a trophy team and fans can be proud of.

You're trying to apply European league logic to the NBA. It's absurd, it breaks with almost a century of tradition and it doesn't make sense within the context of the NBA.

It's the same reason why the SuperLeague project where foreign owners tried to establish franchise soccer in Europe was absurd and unacceptable.

Respect for tradition matters, and Adam Silver has no respect for it.

I mean...neither did Stern and the NBA did pretty well under him.

There were a lot of "obscure" things happening in the NBA under Stern (the officiating, game 6, Seattle losing the Sonics, expansion, international growth), but he never tried to break from tradition as much as Silver. The NBA product will be unrecognizable if Silver keeps running things the way that he has. He's looking for any excuse to make the NBA something it's not.

[bon]

All fun and games until teams rest players for this meaningless midseason tourney

[Chanel Bomber]

For clarity, why are people saying the play-in was a success? Most of the games were lame blowouts, so I'm guessing ratings were good?

The ratings for Lakers vs Warriors were the best they had in years, as expected. Injuries helped that one out a lot.

The play-in was a success because it put drama and stories more toward the end of the season, where usually the last month everyone is kind of chilling. Put's pressure on 5th and 6th seed to keep going.

Whether the actual play-in games were competitive or not doesn't make much of a difference.

Will the ratings for Jazz-Grizzlies be a success?

Because that's the series we got as a consequence from the play-in tournament, instead of watching Curry for 4 to 7 games in the first round.

[clyde21]

[Jazz9]

Play in was a "success"...
Let's have that conversation again when you don' have Bron/AD/Curry/.. in it anymore

[HeartBreakKid]

You're trying to apply European league logic to the NBA. It's absurd, it breaks with almost a century of tradition and it doesn't make sense within the context of the NBA.

It's the same reason why the SuperLeague project where foreign owners tried to establish franchise soccer in Europe was absurd and unacceptable.

Respect for tradition matters, and Adam Silver has no respect for it.

I mean...neither did Stern and the NBA did pretty well under him.

There were a lot of "obscure" things happening in the NBA under Stern (the officiating, game 6, Seattle losing the Sonics, expansion, international growth), but he never tried to break from tradition as much as Silver. The NBA product will be unrecognizable if Silver keeps running things the way that he has. He's looking for any excuse to make the NBA something it's not.

Changing the officiating to produce stars is pretty much the textbook example of breaking tradition. NBA pre Stern is night and day.

In addition he also changed the playoff format and added the lottery.

And the guy before him (Larry O Brien) added this gimmick called the 3 point line.

I mean the NBA changes and changes radically. Silver has barely even done anything different in comparison. Just because there are guys protesting police officers hardly means the NBA is breaking tradition. Play-in tournament is not that radical.



You probably started watching basketball when David Stern was comish, so you don't realize how radically he changed the NBA.

[Memories]

"Success" of the play-in. GTFO with that bullcrap. If it weren't for the Lakers vs Warriors, the play-in was a disaster.

The only thing that should be done is a 8 seed vs 9 seed one game playoff. Everything else is just a gimmick and a gimmick that hurts the NBA.

[life_saver]

Yes...please...would probably be the best decision Silver would have made...reduce the regular season to 70-72 games...add in the mid-season tournament at around February (before ASB)..if it's ok, you can even name the tournaments among any of the past legends...make it knockout tournament with 1-30 seeds and top 2 seeds getting bye...put an incentive like winners getting an additional late first round pick. Americans love one-off knockout tournaments and this will become NBA's own version of March Madness..will lead to more people getting into NBA, atleast for purpose like bracket challenge like how people do for March madness. This will also provide an opportunity for bottom teams/treadmill teams to win some piece of silverware.

[HeartBreakKid]

For clarity, why are people saying the play-in was a success? Most of the games were lame blowouts, so I'm guessing ratings were good?

The ratings for Lakers vs Warriors were the best they had in years, as expected. Injuries helped that one out a lot.

The play-in was a success because it put drama and stories more toward the end of the season, where usually the last month everyone is kind of chilling. Put's pressure on 5th and 6th seed to keep going.

Whether the actual play-in games were competitive or not doesn't make much of a difference.

Will the ratings for Jazz-Grizzlies be a success?

Because that's the series we got as a consequence from the play-in tournament, instead of watching Curry for 4 to 7 games in the first round.

Point of the play-in tournament is to stop more teams from coasting, which worked.

Someone asked if the ratings were good, and I replied yes - because they were. If you're saying there is opportunity cost because the Warriors didn't make the playoffs well, so what? I don't care about ratings, I just care about guys playing high stakes basketball.

But to answer your question - even if the Grizzlies/Jazz series has low ratings, the play-in game between the Grizzlies and Warriors already did enough to bolster a low market's brand (Grizzlies). Ie, more people have watched a team they normally would not have watched (Memphis).

[cupcakesnake]

The play-in has been great. Surprised to see people still hating on it with no explanation, after just witnessing what great end to the season we just had. Lebron vs. Curry in an elimination game? Multiple single-game eliminations decided by game-winning shots? It went better than anyone hoped.

I don't have any pushback against injecting some meaning into the doldrums of the NBA's season. I don't see what there is to lose here. Why y'all mad?

[HeartBreakKid]

The play-in has been great. Surprised to see people still hating on it with no explanation, after just witnessing what great end to the season we just had. Lebron vs. Curry in an elimination game? Multiple single-game eliminations decided by game-winning shots? It went better than anyone hoped.

I don't have any pushback against injecting some meaning into the doldrums of the NBA's season. I don't see what there is to lose here. Why y'all mad?

People don't like change.

If the play-in had been around since the 80s, people would look forward to it at the end of every year.



I get the concept of someone losing their spot for losing two games as cheap, but in the grand scheme of things - this is really a show case for teams that were going to get their butts whooped anyway. I don't really get the problem, just don't watch them if you think they suck.


How often does the 9th and 10th seed teams get to play in a game any one cares about? That can be pretty interesting. We might not have a Warriors vs Lakers one next year, but we could get a Zion vs Doncic one instead. It's a showcase for upcoming teams if anything.

[life_saver]

man..why are people on here so negative on here re-everything? Regular season has been losing ratings for a while...lot of people just tune in just during playoffs...something like this would turn attention of casuals towards NBA even during NBA season and you also have perfect time window (right after Superbowl) to implement this tournament. This would be a great way to attract lot of new fans to the league..people love one-off elimination tournaments and this kinda tournament can easily be wrapped up in 2 weeks. It will also provide a good opportunity of winning some kind of silverwear for treadmill teams too

[Chanel Bomber]

I mean...neither did Stern and the NBA did pretty well under him.

There were a lot of "obscure" things happening in the NBA under Stern (the officiating, game 6, Seattle losing the Sonics, expansion, international growth), but he never tried to break from tradition as much as Silver. The NBA product will be unrecognizable if Silver keeps running things the way that he has. He's looking for any excuse to make the NBA something it's not.

Changing the officiating to produce stars is pretty much the textbook example of breaking tradition. NBA pre Stern is night and day.

In addition he also changed the playoff format and added the lottery.

And the guy before him (Larry O Brien) added this gimmick called the 3 point line.

I mean the NBA changes and changes radically. Silver has barely even done anything different in comparison. Just because there are guys protesting police officers hardly means the NBA is breaking tradition. Play-in tournament is not that radical.



You probably started watching basketball when David Stern was comish, so you don't realize how radically he changed the NBA.

You were making some very fair points but you crossed the line when you mentioned the protests.

Who the hell are you to presume that I have a problem with the player protests?

Don't put me in that category.