NBA commissioner Adam Silver floated the idea of an in-season tournament for years before the league pulled the trigger on the concept for the 2023-24 season. But at Media Day on Monday, Memphis Grizzlies guard Marcus Smart let slip that players might not be as enthisiastic about the concept as the league office might be.
Smart was asked about the excitement of playing for a new trophy. His reaction might not have been exactly what Silver wanted to hear.
"Being completely honest, no one cares about that," Smart said.
Teams were divided into six pools, three in each conference, and a round-robin group play stage will begin Nov. 3 and continue through Nov. 28. The quarterfinals are set for Dec. 4-5 at team sites before the semifinals and championship Dec. 7 and 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Designed to add some excitement to the early regular-season schedule, a time when the NBA traditionally struggles to gain traction under the enormous shadow of the National Football League, the in-season tournament is an attempt to mimic domestic tournaments that are popular in European pro basketball.
The problem is that it's a foreign concept, literally, for NBA fans and players. If we've learned nothing else about human behavior, we should all know that the reaction to change is almost always negative. Smart's off-the-cuff remark is more evidence of that.
Later in his comment, he did soften his stance a bit.
"I've had mixed feelings on it from players, but it's just great to be able to play more basketball.," Smart said. "And I think that's more of it, just those more games for the fans."
The only problem with Smart's sentiments is that it's not more basketball. The championship game is the only added game to the schedule and it won't count in the regular-season standings.
The tournament also throws the regular-season schedule into flux. Teams that don't qualify for the quarterfinals will have two regular-season games added to their slates, one home and one on the road. Those games will be played on Dec. 6 and Dec. 8. Additionally, the losing teams in the quarterfinals in each conference play each other in a regular-season game on Dec. 8.
That is what separates the NBA plan from domestic tournaments abroad. Players would have never agreed to a tournament format that added up to seven extra games to their already-packed 82-game slate.
Will the idea catch fire with fans? Maybe. Will players take the NBA in-season tournament seriously? If Marcus Smart's reaction is representative of the rank-and-file of the league, it doesn't seem promising.