Coming soon: the NBA Cup. The NBA unveiled the details Saturday of its inaugural in-season tournament.
Coming soon: the NBA Cup.
The NBA unveiled the details Saturday of its inaugural in-season tournament, which will have a prize pool of about $18 million and will be capped by a championship game — which won’t count in the standings — in Las Vegas on Dec. 9. It’s an event that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wanted for years, giving teams a trophy to play for during the regular season.
And now, it’s finally reality.
“This is a concept that has been rumbling around the league office for about 15 years,” Silver said. “It’s not a new concept in sports. For those that follow particularly international soccer, it’s a long tradition of having in-season tournaments … so we thought, what a perfect opportunity for a global league like the NBA and it’s a perfect fit for our game.”
The tournament payouts for players on standard contracts will be $500,000 apiece for those on the winning team, $200,000 apiece for those on the runner-up, $100,000 apiece for those on the teams that lose semifinal games and $50,000 for those on the teams that lose in the quarterfinals.
Two-way players on any of those teams are eligible for up to half those amounts, depending on how many games they spend on a roster during the tournament.
“I can see what the aim could be,” said Miami guard Josh Richardson, who follows global soccer closely and understands the parallels Silver makes when comparing it to in-season tournaments that sport has around the world.
