The NBA is always changing. Every season, Adam Silver and league executives watch and evaluate their product and make adjustments that they feel improve the overall quality of the season.
Among the most recent additions is the play-in tournament, which features the mid-seeded teams facing off in a death match for the final two playoff seeds. But the league doesn’t plan on stopping there.
Eventually, Silver plans to introduce a mid-season tournament to the schedule as well, which will add yet another element to the league.
While the details of this mid-season tourney have not yet been worked out, NBA Twitter’s Rob Perez shared a brilliant idea that could give a mid-season bracket some extra flavor.
Dear NBA: you want people to care about your mid-season tournament? Let the popularity of this Drew League game serve as an example and host it at iconic basketball locations/gyms/parks throughout the country. Capture the magic of The Rose Bowl, but basketball.
Dear NBA: you want people to care about your mid-season tournament? Let the popularity of this Drew League game serve as an example and host it at iconic basketball locations/gyms/parks throughout the country. Capture the magic of The Rose Bowl, but basketball.
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) July 16, 2022
Places like Rucker Park and Venice Beach are very famous and super well-known courts. Taking NBA players there for a legitimate tournament sounds like an excellent and unique experience that would greatly benefit the fans.
The only question is, would the NBA really entertain such a scenario? And how close is a mid-season tournament to actually happening? Believe it or not, nothing is off the table for Adam Silver, and there are already plans in place to test some kind of mid-season event.
“I think the play-in tournament is gonna be there in the future,” said Silver to reporters. “And I think you’re gonna hear more conversation moving forward about a mid-season tournament. But I think that’s once we get out of this shortened season and get back to a normal 82-game schedule that’s on a regular NBA calendar.”
It’s anybody’s guess how this mid-season tournament will be received by the fans. The play-in was a great idea, and it has worked great so far.
If adding another tournament in the middle of the season can bring more excitement and buzz to the league, why shouldn’t the NBA give it a chance?
