The NBA season is already a quarter of the way through, and the association may have just found a way to keep fans engaged early on in the season. One of the biggest gripes about the NBA is how many games they play and how little each game matters. The majority of casual basketball fans do not watch consistently until late in the season or even until the playoffs. The NBA made an effort to engage these fans by including the first-ever In-season tournament, spoiler alert, it worked.
The tournament consists of all 30 teams, split into six groups. Each team plays the four other teams in their respective group one time and the team with the best record from that group moves on to the knockout round. Since that would mean there are only six teams, the NBA decided to allow two wild card teams to make it eight. These teams will go ahead and play in a single elimination bracket-style tournament where the winner takes home the NBA Cup. Although this style of tournament differs quite a bit from the usual seven-game series the fans are used to, it adds an element of surprise and chaos to each game.
Some people were skeptical at first, and they wondered why the teams or the fans should care. The players on the winning team win $500,000 each while the runner-ups win $200,000. The teams treat these games basically as if they were playoff games and that makes for a product fans can not miss.
The television ratings for the IST finals peaked the highest out of any NBA game since 2018 excluding the playoffs and Christmas. The NBA could not have scripted it better themselves, the two teams featured in the finals were the Lakers and the Pacers. The NBA loves the Lakers and Lebron James, so they must have been ecstatic that they were able to make it that far. On the other side, they got to show off one of the league’s up-and-coming stars, Tyrese Haliburton, on one of the biggest stages. The game was close start to finish but the Lakers looked like they had control throughout the matchup. The Lakers won because of an incredible performance from James’ partner in crime, Anthony Davis. Although Davis scored 41 points while also tallying 20 rebounds, it was not enough for him to win the tournament MVP which was won by James for his earlier performances.
This experiment by the NBA increased viewership and overall engagement in the sport. The IST will likely be the new normal for the NBA and will evolve to become the perfect regular-season entertainment.
