The inaugural NBA in-season tournament concluded on Saturday, December 9th as the Los Angeles Lakers took home the trophy over the Indiana Pacers (123-109). Each player on the Lakers took home a $500,000 prize, which might not be important to billionaires like Lebron James, but is a handsome raise to many players with contracts significantly smaller.
James won the tournament MVP award, averaging 26.4 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.6 assists per game. Tyrese Haliburton also played spectacularly during the tournament, averaging 26.7 points and 13.3 assists, bringing his young Pacers team to the finals. Each In-Season Tournament game will count towards each team’s win-loss total for the regular season.
Announced earlier this year in July, the NBA decided to create the In-Season Tournament (also known as the NBA Cup) in an effort to make games early in the season more competitive and enticing for fans. As the NBA season spans 82 games, many teams rest their star players frequently and some casual fans don’t begin paying close attention until closer to the playoffs when the major stars have more time on the court. The In-Season Tournament, especially the semi-finals and finals that took place in Las Vegas, had fantastic TV ratings for the NBA. According to Sports Media Watch, the finale alone had the highest rating outside of Christmas and the postseason in over five years.
As the season started, many fans, players and coaches were slightly confused by the concept of the tournament. The NBA unveiled special In-Season Tournament courts for each team, which were met with some criticism from fans as some of them were painfully neon and bright in color. In addition, during the group stage, there was a point-differential tiebreaker, causing some teams to run up the score in the final minutes even during blowouts, which goes against an unwritten basketball rule. Though it made for some funny moments, like when the Celtics began fouling Bulls’ Andre Drummond while they were up 32 points. While the first In-Season Tournament was triumphant, NBA commissioner Adam Smith appears open to making tweaks to the tournament structure in future seasons. The tournament is still new, and the NBA will have plenty of time before next year to hash out all the problems and potential solutions.
