The inaugural month-long in-season NBA tournament has officially kicked off, bringing buzzing excitement to players and fans alike.
Announced on July 8, the NBA introduced their first ever in-season tournament, which takes place every Tuesday and Friday for the entirety of November. All 30 teams participate in 67 total games through four rounds, showcasing early playoff talent as well as new City Edition uniforms and courts.
“With the addition of this new marquee event on the NBA calendar, we are focused on providing players and teams with another competition to win, engaging fans in a different way and driving further interest in the early portion of the regular-season schedule,” NBA Executive Vice President Joe Dumars said.
Each team was placed into six five-team sections for the first round: Group Play. For three weeks, teams will play against opponents in their group, where everyone has two home and two away games. From there, the top teams from each group and the two best runner-ups will compete in the single-elimination Knockout Round, which consists of quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. Players who are a part of the team that wins the championship are not only gifted the new NBA Cup, but awarded $500,000 each.
“I don’t think I need to motivate our players, really,” Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr told Yahoo Sports. “If you put a prize in front of NBA players, they’re going to compete. This is what they do.”
Different from other rounds, the championship is the only game that will not count towards teams’ regular season record. However, teams will still play in regular season games outside of the designated tournament nights, which do not count towards their tournament record.
There are numerous variables for fans to look out for during this tournament, such as rookie Victor “Wemby” Wembanyama and whether or not he can lead the Spurs to the championship. Not to mention veteran faces will compete against each other once again, such as LeBron James and Kevin Durant, who have played each other twice in two weeks after not facing off once in the past five years. Bringing a playoff-like atmosphere to courts early in the season may also drive players to perform at their best, especially with the prize on the line.
“Anything you play you want to win,” LA Clippers guard PJ Tucker said during a shootaround. “I feel like the league is full of a ton of competitive guys. Everybody wants to win, so if we’re gonna have a tournament, we’re gonna want to win it.”
Tune in every Tuesday and Friday to watch the in-season tournament unravel throughout the remainder of the month.
