NBA Officially Unveils Long-Awaited In-Season Tournament

BYCole BlakePublished on July 09, 20233.6K Views

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The NBA in-season tournament is officially here.

Commissioner Adam Silver has finally officially announced the long-anticipated in-season tournament for the NBA. He revealed the full plans during NBA2K24 Summer League on Saturday afternoon. The plan change will introduce an "NBA Cup" that will mirror similar European sports.

"This is a concept that has been rumbling around the league office for around 15 years," Silver said on an episode of NBA Today from "NBA Con" as noted by ESPN. "We thought what a perfect opportunity for a global league like the NBA, and it's a perfect fit for our game. New traditions take time. But, all throughout sports, we are seeing new innovations, and now is the time for this NBA in-season tournament."

Adam Silver Holds A Press Conference

OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 01: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver speaks to the media before Game 1 of the 2017 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 1, 2017, in Oakland, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

The NBA's executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics, Evan Wasch, also played a key role in facilitating the creation of the in-season tournament. He also discussed the impact the tournament will have on the schedule.

"The commitment we made to teams is that we would do everything in our power to avoid the group play games being the second night of back-to-backs, it will likely be impossible to avoid some of them being the first night of back-to-backs," Wasch said. "It is probably infeasible for us to deliver a schedule where they're not the first or second night of [any] back-to-backs. So the commitment we hope to achieve at this point is to avoid second nights of back-to-backs."

ESPN's Richard Jefferson Breaks Down The Tournament

In other NBA news, rookie Victor Wembanyama made his summer league debut on Friday night. Despite a win for the San Antonio Spurs, Wemby disappointed fans with just nine points, eight rebounds, three assists, and five blocks while going 2-for-13 from the field. His next chance to play will be on Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers.

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About The Author

Cole Blake

Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.