NBA World Cup Proposal

[Tor_Raps]

How about the NBA try an 8 team Tournament during the allstar break where you create 2 divisions of 4 teams. To offset how stacked some of the teams can be, you split them into 2 teams based on their conferences.

- Western Conference US
- Eastern Conference US
- Western Conference Europe
- Eastern Conference Europe
- Canada
- Australia + Oceania
- South/Central America + Mexico
- Africa + Asia

Top 2 teams in each division move to the final 4 in a winner takes all format. The revenue generated from this tournament gets split amongst the NBA and the players who take part.

Link to all international players in the nba to fill out these teams - https://www.nba.com/news/2024-25-international-players-opening-night-rosters-official-release

[Big J]

How about the NBA try an 8 team Tournament during the allstar break where you create 2 divisions of 4 teams. To offset how stacked some of the teams can be, you split them into 2 teams based on their conferences.

- Western Conference US
- Eastern Conference US
- Western Conference Europe
- Eastern Conference Europe
- Canada
- Australia + Oceania
- South/Central America + Mexico
- Africa + Asia

Top 2 teams in each division move to the final 4 in a winner takes all format. The revenue generated from this tournament gets split amongst the NBA and the players who take part.

The US should probably be split into 4 regions instead of 2.

[Shock Defeat]

They should make the US based on where the players are from.

SE America (players from Florida, Georgia)
South (Players from Texas, Oklahoma)
West (Players from Cali, Washington)
Northeast (players from NY, Philly)

Bring states rivalries into play

[nbanflguy]

Doesnt matter what the proposal is. Could be an amazing idea. Doesnt matter. The 4 nations worked because the hockey players bought in and cared deeply. They went all out. There were players that were even willing to play injured in these exhibition games. Nba players will not do that so there is no proposal that could work. If by some miracle the NBA players did decide to actually give a F and try then you could just do a normal all star weekend and it would be awesome. Would be no need for a world cup tourney.

[Tor_Raps]

How about the NBA try an 8 team Tournament during the allstar break where you create 2 divisions of 4 teams. To offset how stacked some of the teams can be, you split them into 2 teams based on their conferences.

- Western Conference US
- Eastern Conference US
- Western Conference Europe
- Eastern Conference Europe
- Canada
- Australia + Oceania
- South/Central America + Mexico
- Africa + Asia

Top 2 teams in each division move to the final 4 in a winner takes all format. The revenue generated from this tournament gets split amongst the NBA and the players who take part.

The US should probably be split into 4 regions instead of 2.

Ya I thought this would make it the most fair but then you have too many teams lol

[Wingy]

Doesnt matter what the proposal is. Could be an amazing idea. Doesnt matter. The 4 nations worked because the hockey players bought in and cared deeply. They went all out. There were players that were even willing to play injured in these exhibition games. Nba players will not do that so there is no proposal that could work. If by some miracle the NBA players did decide to actually give a F and try then you could just do a normal all star weekend and it would be awesome. Would be no need for a world cup tourney.

ThE 4 NaTioNs!!!

Yeah, a competition representing your country where the competition level is well, fairly level…. being regularly compared for some ridiculous reason to a general all star game…makes sense how?

[magee]

The 4 Regions: North America 1 & 2, Europe, the rest of the world.

[nbanflguy]

Doesnt matter what the proposal is. Could be an amazing idea. Doesnt matter. The 4 nations worked because the hockey players bought in and cared deeply. They went all out. There were players that were even willing to play injured in these exhibition games. Nba players will not do that so there is no proposal that could work. If by some miracle the NBA players did decide to actually give a F and try then you could just do a normal all star weekend and it would be awesome. Would be no need for a world cup tourney.

ThE 4 NaTioNs!!!

Yeah, a competition representing your country where the competition level is well, fairly level…. being regularly compared for some ridiculous reason to a general all star game…makes sense how?

This thread you have read and are now posting in was clearly inspired by ThE 4 NaTioNs!!
Keep up

[UcanUwill]

Doesnt matter what the proposal is. Could be an amazing idea. Doesnt matter. The 4 nations worked because the hockey players bought in and cared deeply. They went all out. There were players that were even willing to play injured in these exhibition games. Nba players will not do that so there is no proposal that could work. If by some miracle the NBA players did decide to actually give a F and try then you could just do a normal all star weekend and it would be awesome. Would be no need for a world cup tourney.

I do believe people would care if the team was their nation, like hocky, but you really think we Euros care, or these players care if their European all star team wins, like come on? If it was team Slovenia, yeah, NBA Slovenians would care. As for this, you just asking for more shi**y games.

This was discussed on NoDunks today, as I said there, maybe one day we could have something like this, but as of today, I believe on Canada and France would have enough NBA players to field a team, and by looks of it, USA would still be major favorite.

It is funny, that everyone in America that is Basketball person, only talked about Hockey today, when yesterday, literal USA MENS BASKETBALL team played a game. Sadly, in America, nobody gives a crap about FIBA windows.

[ItsDanger]

Sunday's all star game drew 4.7M viewers unofficially. That was less than the USA/Canada NHL 4 nations face off game on Saturday. We all know its a problem in NBA but fixing it is difficult. They make too much money and there is no need to promote the game unlike NHL who is trying to increase viewership.

Read on Twitter

[Deathray]

I don't follow hockey closely but it seems like a big part of this was that NHL players hadn't played in the Olympics for awhile so the tourney was heavily anticipated by fans.

Obviously the Olympics serves the same purpose for basketball so I wouldn't expect an NBA international tournament to be as important.

If the NBA All Star game goes the way of the Pro Bowl so be it. I don't really care if it's "fixed" or not, just let it die.

[Wingy]

Doesnt matter what the proposal is. Could be an amazing idea. Doesnt matter. The 4 nations worked because the hockey players bought in and cared deeply. They went all out. There were players that were even willing to play injured in these exhibition games. Nba players will not do that so there is no proposal that could work. If by some miracle the NBA players did decide to actually give a F and try then you could just do a normal all star weekend and it would be awesome. Would be no need for a world cup tourney.

ThE 4 NaTioNs!!!

Yeah, a competition representing your country where the competition level is well, fairly level…. being regularly compared for some ridiculous reason to a general all star game…makes sense how?

This thread you have read and are now posting in was clearly inspired by ThE 4 NaTioNs!!
Keep up

It’s an idiotic comparison.

Remember when I said “where the competition level is well, fairly level”

That dynamic doesn’t exist for USA vs anyone in an all star format. The other countries would have tons of unworthy players as all stars.

“The World” is not an identity a person associated themselves with. It is not a country.

It’s no longer an all star game exhibition at that point when you make it USA vs Canada, or whoever.

It’s a completely different thing at that point. It’s an international competition wherein you’ll actually see star players compete too hard and possibly tank the rest of their team’s season getting injured.

Great, you won some other random international title when we already have Olympics and Worlds. But oops, you lost your chance at the NBA title. That’s just not the intent of the break.

[nbanflguy]

Doesnt matter what the proposal is. Could be an amazing idea. Doesnt matter. The 4 nations worked because the hockey players bought in and cared deeply. They went all out. There were players that were even willing to play injured in these exhibition games. Nba players will not do that so there is no proposal that could work. If by some miracle the NBA players did decide to actually give a F and try then you could just do a normal all star weekend and it would be awesome. Would be no need for a world cup tourney.

I do believe people would care if the team was their nation, like hocky, but you really think we Euros care, or these players care if their European all star team wins, like come on? If it was team Slovenia, yeah, NBA Slovenians would care. As for this, you just asking for more shi**y games.

This was discussed on NoDunks today, as I said there, maybe one day we could have something like this, but as of today, I believe on Canada and France would have enough NBA players to field a team, and by looks of it, USA would still be major favorite.

It is funny, that everyone in America that is Basketball person, only talked about Hockey today, when yesterday, literal USA MENS BASKETBALL team played a game. Sadly, in America, nobody gives a crap about FIBA windows.

I dont think the nation part would really matter for the basketball people. The nation stuff was huge for hockey and amplified by the current political climate. But I think it wouldnt have mattered at all if the Hockey guys played this exhibition tournament like the other sports normally play their all star games. Remember this tourney replaced the NHL All star game this year. The best selling point and what made this product so great was seeing the absolute best of the best actually going all out and trying to win for pride. The nba doesnt need the nation or the tourney gimmick. A normal all star weekend where the players were going all out is all it would take. Basketball is a more popular sport than hockey. A product like that would be gigantic and must watch tv

I don't follow hockey closely but it seems like a big part of this was that NHL players hadn't played in the Olympics for awhile so the tourney was heavily anticipated by fans.

Obviously the Olympics serves the same purpose for basketball so I wouldn't expect an NBA international tournament to be as important.

If the NBA All Star game goes the way of the Pro Bowl so be it.

Im not a giant hockey guy, but I go to 3 or 4 games per year, track the box score, and watch the playoffs when my team is in it. From what I was seeing it actually doesnt seem like fans were all too excited coming into the tournament. This is literally just a random thing that the NHL made up out of the blew. Once people saw the product in action thats when everyone got super into it.

[nbanflguy]

ThE 4 NaTioNs!!!

Yeah, a competition representing your country where the competition level is well, fairly level…. being regularly compared for some ridiculous reason to a general all star game…makes sense how?

This thread you have read and are now posting in was clearly inspired by ThE 4 NaTioNs!!
Keep up

It’s an idiotic comparison.

Remember when I said “where the competition level is well, fairly level”

That dynamic doesn’t exist for USA vs anyone in an all star format. The other countries would have tons of unworthy players as all stars.

“The World” is not an identity a person associated themselves with. It is not a country.

It’s no longer an all star game exhibition at that point when you make it USA vs Canada, or whoever.

It’s a completely different thing at that point. It’s an international competition wherein you’ll actually see star players compete too hard and possibly tank the rest of their team’s season getting injured.

Great, you won some other random international title when we already have Olympics and Worlds. But oops, you lost your chance at the NBA title. That’s just not the intent of the break.

If you read what I said at all you would have seen where I said the NBA doesnt need the nations gimmick. All they need to do is actually try. Easiest fix ever.

[UcanUwill]

I dont think the nation part would really matter for the basketball people. The nation stuff was huge for hockey and amplified by the current political climate. But I think it wouldnt have mattered at all if the Hockey guys played this exhibition tournament like the other sports normally play their all star games. Remember this tourney replaced the NHL All star game this year. The best selling point and what made this product so great was seeing the absolute best of the best actually going all out and trying to win for pride. The nba doesnt need the nation or the tourney gimmick. A normal all star weekend where the players were going all out is all it would take. Basketball is a more popular sport than hockey. A product like that would be gigantic and must watch tv

Nation thing is the only way they would probably care tho. No one cares to win regular all star game, thats the problem.

[Wingy]

If you read what I said at all you would have seen where I said the NBA doesnt need the nations gimmick. All they need to do is actually try. Easiest fix ever.

On that we can agree. Not even the whole game to be honest. People would be satisfied with them ramping it up in the 4th quarter.

[nbanflguy]

I dont think the nation part would really matter for the basketball people. The nation stuff was huge for hockey and amplified by the current political climate. But I think it wouldnt have mattered at all if the Hockey guys played this exhibition tournament like the other sports normally play their all star games. Remember this tourney replaced the NHL All star game this year. The best selling point and what made this product so great was seeing the absolute best of the best actually going all out and trying to win for pride. The nba doesnt need the nation or the tourney gimmick. A normal all star weekend where the players were going all out is all it would take. Basketball is a more popular sport than hockey. A product like that would be gigantic and must watch tv

Nation thing is the only way they would probably care tho. No one cares to win regular all star game, thats the problem.

Thats a choice by the players though. Yes an all star game is just an exhibition and yes in the grand scheme of things winning it doesnt matter. But they could choose to actually try for a game if they wanted to. When I am just playing pick up ball with my buddies there are definitely lazy games and then there are games where the intensity organically ramps up and all of a sudden everyone is going 100%. All it would take is for 2 or 3 guys to show that they actually care in that particular game and the others would follow

[Charlie Sollers]

Nothing says pride like being part of Team Africa and Asia

[UcanUwill]

I dont think the nation part would really matter for the basketball people. The nation stuff was huge for hockey and amplified by the current political climate. But I think it wouldnt have mattered at all if the Hockey guys played this exhibition tournament like the other sports normally play their all star games. Remember this tourney replaced the NHL All star game this year. The best selling point and what made this product so great was seeing the absolute best of the best actually going all out and trying to win for pride. The nba doesnt need the nation or the tourney gimmick. A normal all star weekend where the players were going all out is all it would take. Basketball is a more popular sport than hockey. A product like that would be gigantic and must watch tv

Nation thing is the only way they would probably care tho. No one cares to win regular all star game, thats the problem.

Thats a choice by the players though. Yes an all star game is just an exhibition and yes in the grand scheme of things winning it doesnt matter. But they could choose to actually try for a game if they wanted to. When I am just playing pick up ball with my buddies there are definitely lazy games and then there are games where the intensity organically ramps up and all of a sudden everyone is going 100%. All it would take is for 2 or 3 guys to show that they actually care in that particular game and the others would follow

Well, they wont care if its all star teams, West vs East, or team Shaq vs team Kenny. I know nothing of NHL, but did they care when it was East vs West or whatever? I imagine the only reason they cared was because they played a National team games basically, and thats what I am saying. Sadly, NBA demographics are just way different as of now, and you can't mimic such a thing in the NBA.

[Charlie Sollers]

Nation thing is the only way they would probably care tho. No one cares to win regular all star game, thats the problem.

Thats a choice by the players though. Yes an all star game is just an exhibition and yes in the grand scheme of things winning it doesnt matter. But they could choose to actually try for a game if they wanted to. When I am just playing pick up ball with my buddies there are definitely lazy games and then there are games where the intensity organically ramps up and all of a sudden everyone is going 100%. All it would take is for 2 or 3 guys to show that they actually care in that particular game and the others would follow

Well, they wont care if its all star teams, West vs East, or team Shaq vs team Kenny. I know nothing of NHL, but did they care when it was East vs West or whatever? I imagine the only reason they cared was because they played a National team games basically, and thats what I am saying. Sadly, NBA demographics are just way different as of now, and you can't mimic such a thing in the NBA.

Exactly this. The 4 Nations works because the teams are actually able to fill full rosters with the existing pool of NHL players. Not to bash OP's ideas here but why would we expect players to have the same passion for some mixed zone/country team?