NBA unveils new, long-awaited $18million in-season tournament

The NBA unveiled the details of its inaugural in-season tournament, the NBA Cup, at the Summer League Saturday. 

The tournament will have a prize pool of about $18million and will be capped by a championship game – which won’t count in the standings – in Las Vegas on December 9. 

It’s an event that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has wanted for years, giving teams a trophy to play for during the regular season in a European soccer cup-style competition, and now he’s made it a reality. 

‘This is a concept that has been rumbling around the league office for about 15 years,’ Silver said. 

‘It’s not a new concept in sports. For those that follow particularly international soccer, it’s a long tradition of having in-season tournaments … so we thought, what a perfect opportunity for a global league like the NBA and it’s a perfect fit for our game.’

The NBA unveiled its inaugural in-season tournament (pictured commissioner Adam Silver) 

The tournament payouts for players on standard contracts will be $500,000 apiece for those on the winning team, $200,000 apiece for those on the runner-up, $100,000 apiece for those on the teams that lose semifinal games and $50,000 for those on the teams that lose in the quarterfinals.

Two-way players on any of those teams are eligible for up to half those amounts, depending on how many games they spend on a roster during the tournament.

‘I can see what the aim could be,’ said Miami guard Josh Richardson, who follows global soccer closely and understands the parallels Silver makes when comparing it to in-season tournaments that sport has around the world. ‘It gives you another chance to win something, for real. I think that´s a big part.’

With the announcement of the tournament, the NBA also revealed the six five-team groups – three for each conference – that will make up the group stage of the competition. 

The teams will play one game against each other in the group stage with the six group winners making the quarterfinals and the best two second-place teams from the groups as well. 

To form the groups the NBA used a FIFA World Cup-style draw and split each conference into five pots, according to last season’s standings. 

Pot One featured the teams that finished first through third, followed by teams four-six in Pot Two, teams seven-nine in Pot Three, teams 10-12 in Pot Four, and teams 13-15 in Pot Five.

One team was then randomly selected from each pot to create what should be five equally matched groups. 

‘I’m excited about this midseason tournament,’ Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. ‘I think it’s going to add an element of energy and excitement for the players and coaches and the fans. I think it’s a great idea.’ 

Games will start on November 3, being played mostly on Tuesdays and Fridays in November – except for November 7, when the NBA will play no games to commemorate Election Day. That announcement came Saturday, and will mark the second consecutive year when the NBA has no games on that date with hopes of promoting civic awareness and engagement.

The Final Four will be in Las Vegas.

‘This city knows how to host big events,’ Silver said.

Joe Dumars, the league’s executive vice president of basketball operations and a Hall of Famer as a player, said he thinks players will like the idea – even if it takes some time.

‘Everybody´s not going to buy in right away,’ Dumars said. ‘That can´t be the goal, that everybody´s going to buy in from Day 1. These things take time. And I think as time goes on you can build this up and people can really get into it.’

Tournament games, except for the championship game, will all count in the standings – much in the same way that the WNBA runs its Commissioner’s Cup event.

It’s been known for some time that teams will be getting only an 80-game schedule when the 2023-24 slate is released by the NBA in the coming weeks.

Golden State coach Steve Kerr claimed the competition would add an ‘element of energy’

After finishing top of the Western Conference the Denver Nuggets were added into Pot One 

Games 81 and 82 will be added in December; this is where things get tricky.

Teams that don’t make the knockout stage will be assigned two games against other non-knockout qualifiers, and those will be the missing two games on their schedules.

For the eight teams that make the knockout stage, the quarterfinal game becomes the 81st game added to their schedule. Quarterfinal losers – two from the East, two from the West – will play each other, and that´ll be the 82nd game on their schedules. Semifinalists – again, two from the East, two from the West – will play, and that game becomes the 82nd game on their schedules.

That means the championship game will be one of 83 games on the schedule for the last two teams standing. And since the season is 82 games, that game won´t count in the standings, nor will the stats count for anything. They´ll be playing for money and the trophy.