As the NBA continues to discuss changes for the 2021-2022 season, many involved in the league continue to speak out against the idea of an all-30 teams’ in-season tournament.
Tuesday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban spoke trashed the idea that the NBA would reward the in-season tourney winner with an extra first-round pick.
Cuban called the idea “so dumb,” responding to a tweet by New York Times sports reporter Marc Stein, which said that the NBA teams were sent a memo, “detailing a proposed $15 million pot for the championship team and $1.5 million for the winning coaching staff, ‘incentives for teams and fans’ were listed as ‘to be determined.'”
In full, Cuban wrote “What will teams that are in the tax going outdo, tank the tournament because they don’t want the pick? Or teams trying to build a cap room? Be forced to trade it? Draft and stash ?,” continuing his disagreement with the idea in a second and third tweet saying, “And to create incremental financial incentives to play games just sends so many wrong messages. Free agency recruitment will change. ‘Hey, we can’t compete for a ring, but we go all out for the TBT, so sign with us and u could make another $1m,’ and “Or the convo if the TBT winner doesn’t make the playoffs. This is like the MLB trying to add drama to the All-Star game by using it to assign home-field advantage. How did that work out? I can’t hate an in-season winner take all tournament enough. Hopefully, TBT has a patent.”
The commentary regarding the impact on NBA cap and the way that the extra first-round pick would change and the already-complicated process is particularly strong. All things considered, there seem to be more details that players and coaches can find wrong with the proposal at this point than they have been able to compliment regarding the idea.