This will be one of the great novelties of the next collective agreement, and therefore of next season: the establishment of a mid-season tournament to spice up the regular season. Adam Silver was inspired by European football for this project, and to motivate the teams to give their all for this new competition, each player of the winning team will receive 500,000 dollars, while 200,000 dollars will be paid to the players of the finalist team.
It’s a nice bonus, especially for the players at the end of the bench, and the NBA should largely cover its costs since Yahoo! Sports reports that the league expects a turnover of one billion dollars! This is the figure advanced by Silver during a meeting with the GMs of the thirty franchises, on the sidelines of the Draft Combine in Chicago. This is 10% of the current turnover of the NBA, whose revenues are around ten billion dollars.
A very complicated format
Regarding the format of the competition, a first group stage will take place during the first two months of the regular season. Two days a week will be devoted solely to mid-season tournament matches. It will therefore be a mini-competition, within the regular season itself, with different groups in the current divisions, and even different jerseys for each team!
Teams from each conference will still be split into three groups of five, but first there will be a draw with “pots” based on the previous season’s results. With this system, Adam Silver is inspired by European football, or simply international competitions.
The top six teams from each group will then qualify for the finals. For the 7th and 8th qualified teams, it will be the best 2nd among the six pools.
The final phase will take place in the form of a knockout match as in March Madness. Finally, the four semi-finalists will face each other in a “Final Four” on neutral ground. The results of this final phase will be included in the results of the regular season, with the exception of the final.
