(Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
On Friday night, the NBA’s In-Season Tournament will officially get underway with the star-studded squad of the Milwaukee Bucks led by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard playing host to Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks in the first game of East Group B.
This is the first year of the league’s experiment with this In-Season Tournament, as the NBA wants to make things a bit more interesting in the first few weeks of the regular season, which will lead up to some games being played in Las Vegas, Nevada with the NBA Cup on the line.
So far, the In-Season Tournament hasn’t gotten a lot of support from the players or the fans, as it seems a lot of people are confused by exactly what is going on.
The league has adopted this format from soccer leagues overseas, as they have made their own version of the FA Cup in England and something similar to the Champions League, which involves all the top-tier professional leagues in Europe and is one of the most popular tournaments in the world.
Even though it will take a while to adapt to this new tournament, Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton thinks the winner of this In-Season Tournament should automatically clinch a playoff spot, via NBA Central.
Tyrese Haliburton thinks the winner of the in-season tournament should get an automatic playoff bid
“I think the greatest incentive for everybody to do it would be an automatic playoff bid. If it was a playoff spot, I think everyone would take it very, very serious, right? I… pic.twitter.com/oCGqc8dbjY
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) November 3, 2023
It will take some time before players and fans embrace this tournament as something special and important during the regular season, so initial reactions will likely be like Haliburton’s, as he and his teammates want more incentive to be excited about playing in the tournament.
Haliburton’s idea isn’t a bad one, and with how progressive the league is these days, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they consider it down the line.
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