The NBA in-season tournament is fresh and weird and kind of great

09/12/2023

The new NBA tournament that couldn’t possibly work seems to work just fine. So much for all that impulsive grumbling. The change curmudgeons and tradition gatekeepers must bow to experimentation.

From the basic name to the absurdly maximalist court designs, the NBA in-season tournament has been a worthwhile concept to bring to life. It’s neither perfect nor guaranteed to become a popular fixture, but as the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers prepare for the championship game Saturday night, the sport can bask in the novelty of pre-Christmas relevance.

Television ratings received a significant boost. During the knockout quarterfinal round, the atmosphere in arenas was so spirited that players marveled over the college-like vibes. The initial skepticism about manufacturing a higher level of competition was overtaken by a curiosity that increased early-season buzz, altered media coverage and stirred the intensity of players.

The monumental feat of simply trying something new cannot be overstated. In American professional sports, most everyone has a predisposition to shout down fresh ideas. Routine is part of the sports obsession. There’s too much comfort, passion and safe money behind keeping things the same, even though some customs are dangerously outdated and detrimental to long-term health.

It’s critical to differentiate a vital tradition from a mindless habit. Yet the biggest leagues are often too conservative to examine their conventions, let alone actually take a chance. In persuading every NBA stakeholder to break from the normal scheduling model, Commissioner Adam Silver did more than introduce a tournament that borrows liberally from international soccer leagues. He turned his awareness — and his concern, in some respects — about changing sports consumer behavior into forward-thinking action.

Every sports league, especially those with long and sprawling seasons, would be wise to experiment during stable times. Most of the mental energy must focus on media and adjusting the viewing experience for younger audiences that might prefer more digital, interactive and portable ways to watch sports. But the most strategic executives also will infuse creativity into the way their games are presented and the structure of their marathon seasons.

LeBron James’s Lakers, Tyrese Haliburton’s Pacers to meet in tournament final

The NBA could have been arrogant. It could have ignored bubbling issues about load management and concerns about the commitment of both the high-priced players and their franchises to honor the grind of an 82-game schedule. Instead, it took an honest, nuanced look at the problem and initiated what could be a lengthy and multilayered process to create more urgency during the regular season.

In their new collective bargaining agreement, the players and league negotiated participation policies restricting rest for non-injured players during marquee games, and they established a 65-game threshold for MVP and other awards eligibility. They were necessary measures to change the unfair and oversimplified “soft, spoiled millionaires who don’t want to play” narrative that plagues the sport. But while those decisions inspired debate, the in-season tournament really got people going.

Some saw it as a risky admission that the regular season product was so dull it needed a gimmick. Some figured the players — or worse, their teams — wouldn’t care. When a group play format with point differential as a tiebreaker was revealed, some were confused.

But the biggest complaint was a question: What makes this so special? For players on the winning team, the $500,000 mattered, but it still took time to warm to the idea. For the audience, it was harder to predict. In the NBA, the ring is so much the thing and hot takes are so baked into the social-media-driven culture that efforts to evolve can drown in all the razzing.

At worst, the fear was that the NBA Cup would be treated like a bootleg Larry O’Brien Trophy. The team that finishes the regular season with the best record isn’t celebrated unless it wins the NBA Finals, and if that team doesn’t, it often endures ridicule. So imagine what will be said about an NBA Cup champion that flops in the postseason.

But the NBA has been clever about handling the pessimism. Instead of being defensive and taking itself too seriously, the league office leaned into the “What the hell is this?” concerns by going as big, crazy and loud as it could.

Those bright and polarizing court designs reflected that effort the most. They were unavoidable. You knew it was a tournament night. A few of the courts looked great; most of them rated somewhere between bad and terrible. But they illustrated the ambition. The NBA was trying something bold, at least by the unimaginative standard of American sports. If you looked at the season as a drowsy six-month trek, if the NBA was just something to glance at during football season, now it had the power to stop you, at least for a little while.

What the hell is this? After you adjusted your eyes to the different courts and the special Nike uniforms, something else looked different. The players, addicted to competition, had something to play for. They played with passion. And the results weren’t as predictable as a best-of-seven playoff series.

The Pacers, Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and New Orleans Pelicans advanced to Las Vegas for the dramatic conclusion. While the young Pelicans embarrassed themselves during a 44-point loss to Los Angeles on Thursday night, Indiana turned out to be the emerging team that used the stage to make a proper introduction. Some might lament that Pacers-Lakers isn’t the greatest representation of the league right now. But with a quarter of the season complete, you don’t need a Finals preview.

The profile of the Lakers can carry intrigue. Just three weeks from his 39th birthday, LeBron James is bending time again. His competitive buy-in made it much easier to debut this tournament. On the other side, the rising Pacers are a perfect underdog story.

They have used the tournament to put the league on notice, flashing their turbocharged offense and the brilliance of 23-year-old point guard Tyrese Haliburton. He was an all-star last season, but now he looks like the league’s best offensive engine. Haliburton is averaging 26.9 points while shooting 52.5 percent overall and 44.1 percent on three-pointers. He dishes an NBA-best 12.1 assists per game. Unlike other high-usage lead guards, he doesn’t turn the ball over much. In the past two games, he posted 28 assists without committing a turnover.

“He’s amazing,” Milwaukee superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo said of Haliburton.

During a normal regular season, Haliburton would be thriving out of the spotlight because the Pacers are a team in a smaller market that recently underwent a rebuild. But their play in this tournament has given them the national attention to showcase Haliburton, the engrossing offense he operates that scores 128.4 points per game and a roster full of good, youthful and unselfish players that Coach Rick Carlisle manages wonderfully.

You can debate the merits of hoisting the NBA Cup. But it’s already clear that this season has gained significant value in trying something new.

“Listen, Adam Silver is a genius,” James said when asked about the tournament. “So it’s that simple. So it’s going to work.”

As flattered as Silver probably is, he doesn’t need the praise. Instead, he should just be given more equity.

The in-season tournament will need to be refined, and the NBA shouldn’t hesitate to change quickly during its infancy. But more than that, the tournament is a template for the kind of thinking that will be required as sports attempt to shift shapes to remain essential entertainment and accommodate younger generations. In the future, more dramatic changes may be necessary.

It took the entirety of Silver’s nearly 10 years as commissioner to bring this plan to fruition. Surely, he has earned the benefit of the doubt for a quicker launch of his next big idea.