(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The NBA deserves a lot of credit for the In-Season Tournament.
While there was plenty of skepticism at first, it didn’t take long before it proved to be a success.
Offering that huge prize money was the perfect incentive for the players to buy in and get involved, and the fans also got tangled up in the excitement.
As a matter of fact, the final between the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers drew a whopping 4,580,000 viewers on ABC and ESPN2 (via ClutchPoints).
The first ever NBA In-Season Tournament Championship Game between the Lakers and Pacers averaged 4,580,000 viewers on ABC and ESPN2
That’s the most-watched non-Christmas NBA game during the regular season in nearly 6 years
(via @Ben_ESPN) pic.twitter.com/MacA1xR561
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 12, 2023
According to Ben Cafardo of ESPN, that was the most-watched non-Christmas NBA game during the regular season in almost six years.
Now, the league faces an even tougher challenge, which is to maintain this same level of interest throughout the course of the regular season and before the Play-In Tournament.
They cannot offer the players any more money, and that wouldn’t be right anyway, as they should have more than enough motivation to play at the highest level with the kind of money and recognition they’re getting as NBA players.
There has been a lot of talk about whether the Lakers should raise a banner for this tournament or not, and while most people don’t give this win a lot of importance because it was just a seven-game tournament, the numbers don’t lie, and it shows that it was a massive win for Adam Silver and company, so the NBA Cup isn’t going to go away any time soon.
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