After years of sustained success, the NBA has hit a bit of a rough patch in terms of ratings. Through the first month of the regular season, nine different nationally televised games have failed to hit the million-viewer mark, which is almost half as many games that failed to do so last season, according to Sports Watch Media.
In an effort to keep the league and its athletes fresh, the NBA is in the process of negotiating changes that could go into effect as soon as the 2021-22 season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe of ESPN. Among the changes being discussed is a shortened 78-game schedule and a 30-team in-season tournament.
The in-season tournament in an idea that the NBA commissioner Adam Silver has floated for a while now, so it’s not crazy to think we’ll see it some day soon. That being said, there are already some big name opposers to the new format, including All-Star guard James Harden. After the Houston Rockets’ practice on Tuesday, Harden didn’t exactly give a glowing endorsement of the rumored in-season tournament.
James Harden not exactly on-board with the NBA’s in-season tournament idea:
“Are we in college?” pic.twitter.com/uPS6lnSc9L
— Michael Shapiro (@mshap2) November 26, 2019
Harden’s teammate P.J. Tucker isn’t a fan of the idea, either.
P.J. Tucker joins Harden on the in-season tourney idea:
“I don’t want to play for anything else. …You play games to win an NBA championship, period.” pic.twitter.com/tl2ifBDIAv
— Michael Shapiro (@mshap2) November 26, 2019
To be fair, there isn’t much to be opposed to — or excited about — right now. We know very little about what the proposed tournament other than a few murmurs that it could have a positive affect on the regular season standings in some way. Here’s the latest on the tournament from Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer:
To incentivize teams, league sources told me the NBA could make each victory in the single-elimination knockout tournament worth double toward the regular-season standings, or it could eliminate the win-loss system and install a points system similar to the ones used by EPL, the World Cup, and the NHL. But it’s unclear what the incentives will be in the final proposal; virtually any idea you can imagine has been discussed and debated during meetings.
It’s a fine idea in theory, but in order to make it work in practice, there needs to be a number of drastic changes made to the league’s format beyond shortening the schedule and if there’s already push back for something as seemingly harmless as an in-season tournament, there’s reason to believe there will be opposition to some of the other necessary changes, too. As our Bill DiFilippo laid out last season when the topic was first raised as a possibility, part of the difficulty in creating an in-season tournament that has actual value and intrigue is doing so likely requires some major overhaul of other areas as well.
The negotiations are still in the early stages and the idea of an in-season tournament could be thrown out by the time the board of governors meat again next summer, but it’s something that will be worth keeping an eye on — especially if it continues to be a divisive topic among the league’s athletes.
