What We Learned from the First NBA In-Season Tournament

The NBA has been growing in popularity around the world over the past few years, with Asia being home to its biggest fanbase outside North America. The league has made concerted efforts to capitalize on this growth, including the introduction of the inaugural in-season tournament. Styled after cup tournaments taking place in European soccer, this tournament aimed to showcase the best of the NBA while adding some extra excitement to what is already an action-packed sport.

In what was the first-ever in-season tournament for the NBA, the LA Lakers were crowned victorious, and LeBron James was named MVP, picking up yet another accolade in an impressive career. The season will still continue of course, with the playoffs just around the corner. Check out NBA parlay picks today if you want to bet on the upcoming games. Below, we’ll take a closer look at what we learned from the inaugural tournament.

A Hit with Fans

The ultimate goal of the tournament was to create more interest in the NBA, especially during the November and December period, which is often when fan interest isn’t as high. By adding some higher stakes to these games and creating a new format, it certainly piqued the attention of fans watching around the world. Based on initial viewership figures, some games saw a 98% increase compared to last season during the same time period.

While initially, there was a lot of skepticism around the idea of the tournament, it seems that overall it’s been a hit with the fans. It really felt like a competition that mattered, with all of the players in the Championship game giving their all to become the first to lift the trophy. Naturally, this success means we’re likely to see the tournament return in future seasons, as the NBA would hate to miss out on an opportunity to increase the interest from viewers.

NBA Expansion

To match the growing interest in the NBA, the league has clear ambitions to expand and start new franchises. Currently, Las Vegas and Seattle look like the most likely options, both of which have also had new NHL franchises in recent years. Part of the appeal of the in-season tournament was that games took place in courts across the country, even in cities without an NBA franchise.

Having unique courts for this tournament was a benefit for fans across the country. Despite this, some were against the move. A total of thirty new courts were introduced for the games, and some were perhaps not up to the standard that NBA players are used to. Occasionally, the surfaces were too slippery, and in some places, the ball didn’t bounce as it should.

While expansion of the NBA is a good thing, it’s important that the right measures are taken to ensure it’s a success. When introducing new courts, they need to be safe and fit to a specific standard. If Las Vegas does become the home of a new franchise, as James alluded to in an interview, there’s no doubt it will have a lot more time to prepare.

Tweaks to the Format

While the in-season tournament was no doubt a success, there are tweaks that can be made to improve it in successive seasons. For example, only players and coaches earned prize money with no incentive for the teams themselves. It seems that while motivating players was the primary concern, future tournaments will likely feature some kind of reward for successful teams. This could be in the form of post-season seeding or an advantage in the draft.

Other tweaks to the format of the competition could include changing how the group stage works. Some fans have stated that having groups of teams that wouldn’t normally play each other was confusing. Future iterations of the in-season tournament could instead be grouped on division.