NBA Discussing Massive Reward For Potential In-Season Tournament: Report

The NBA is reportedly mulling a 30-team, in-season tournament in the future, and they’re discussing a $1 million per player reward for the winning team, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Woj notes that several team execs are skeptical of the idea of an in-season tournament, but the league is hopeful that the massive reward would encourage players to take it seriously. 

That $1M may not be much to the LeBron James and James Harden’s of the world, but ESPN reports that the average NBA player makes approximately $9M.

The league’s goal is to have the in-season tournament start with pool-play as part of the regular season, concluding with a single-game elimination tournament in December between the teams with the best records. 

Per ESPN:

“Some team executives are skeptical that would be the case. Among the concerns of top front office officials discussing these ideas with the league office: Many suspect that star players might prefer the five-day scheduling break that would come with not qualifying for the tournament rather than competing for the financial reward of a winner-take-all event that requires a quarterfinal, semifinal and title round to become champion.”

In order for the in-season tournament to come to fruition, two-third of the NBA teams and NBPA must agree to the changes. According to ESPN, NBA commissioner Adam Silver hopes everything will be in place for the 2021-22 season. If that is to be the case, the proposed changes would need to be passed at the league’s Board of Governors meeting in April.