We asked our NBA Preview guest editor, Jimmy Butler, for the hoops story lines he’s most intrigued by for the coming year, and he said the new in-season tournament, which has the potential to give the NBA a decidedly European flair. Butler also shared thoughts on a few other topics, and as all good journalists do when their editor throws out interesting ideas, we covered those as well.
New In-Season Tournament
The variations were spitballed in conference rooms at the NBA’s offices in Manhattan’s Olympic Tower for more than a decade. Ideas that for a variety of reasons—disputes with the union, prioritization of the play-in, a global pandemic that for a while put everything on hold—never made it out of the competition committee. Different formats. Different prizes. Different times of year. A single elimination, 30-team knockout tournament. A tournament that included teams from outside the NBA. A tournament that was stretched over several months, culminating with a knockout round at the end of the season.
