It's patternedw after the Cup tournaments in European soccer, like the FA Cup, the Copa del Rey, the Coppa Italia, etc. An elimination tournament that happens mid-season alongside the premiership races. The players on the winning team each get to pocket $500k.
The Final Four of the NBA's new in-season tournament will take place on Dec. 7 and 9 in Las Vegas, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday.
Statistics will count for the league's regular season, except for the championship game of the event, Wojnarowski reports.
Full details on the competition -- including groupings -- will be unveiled Saturday night in Las Vegas on ESPN's "NBA Today," the league said. Commissioner Adam Silver, recent No. 1 overall picks Victor Wembanyama, Paolo Banchero and Cade Cunningham and All-Stars Anthony Edwards and Trae Young will be part of the broadcast.
The in-season tournament will debut for the 2023-24 season, and details of it were unveiled officially in the league's new collective bargaining agreement that went into effect Saturday.
All teams will participate in the group stage, which will consist of six groups total -- three per conference -- and chosen by a random draw based on teams' winning percentage the previous season. Each team will play four games in its group, with the six group winners making the knockout stage, along with two wild cards who finished with the best winning percentage and not first in their groups.
Knockout-stage games will be single elimination through the final.
Silver has pushed for the past several years for the in-season event to be added, and he has often compared the notion of an in-season tournament to what is commonly seen in European soccer.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37966379/las-vegas-host-final-four-nba-new-season-tournament-sources-say
If Jaylen signs his supermax of $295m over 5 years, the $500k prize, while being something that is more than probably the majority of Americans will earn in a year, would represent 0.8% of his annualized salary. Kind of like someone who earns $100k a year winning $847. Maybe it will be something for deep benches to get some playing time in?
The thing is, these other tournaments are totally independent of the EPL. With what the NBA is doing, I don’t actually get the point. Will teams even take it seriously?
The other thing about those tournaments is they are open to all teams, not just the ones in the top leagues (Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, etc). It's a big deal for teams that might be in England's lower divisions to go on a Cinderella run, much like in the NCAA tournament where they get a chance to kill some giants. Like Exeter City, not even in the top 3 leagues of English soccer, forcing the Cup holders Manchester United to a replay after finishing the game 0-0. Or Grimsby Town, in League Two, beating Southampton, a Premier League team (or was) this year. It would kind of be like if a G-League team, or even the G-League Ignite team, beat one of the NBA franchises. That's part of what makes these soccer Cups interesting, because those things can happen. Like Bleacher Report noted in their list of 10 Biggest FA Cup Upsets, these Cups are what fans of lesser teams live for, because, like being a fan of FAU or St Peters and watching them make their run in the NCAA tournament last year and this year:
The FA Cup still has magic.
Despite attempts by certain managers and clubs to belittle a great English footballing tradition, it still has magic.
Ask any fan who's team has upset the odds and beaten a team three divisions above them whether the FA Cup has magic and they'll tell you yes.
Some fans don't want promotion or playoffs at the end of the season, they just wish for a good cup run and good luck to them.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1032077-10-most-infamous-fa-cup-upsets
Topic: NBA to add in-season tournament with Final Four in Dec (Read 8528 times)