By now, you’ve probably heard something about the NBA’s brand-new fancy European car: The In-Season Tournament. But why on earth should you care?
Lifted largely from the extremely popular and extraordinarily important European soccer tournament known as the UEFA Champions League, the NBA In-Season Tournament will pit all 30 teams against each other in a tournament baked almost entirely into the 82-game regular season. Two teams will play an 83rd game on December 9th for the championship, known as the NBA Cup. Wow!
But the NBA wasn’t just going to copy Europe’s homework and make it look obvious, so here are a few noted differences from the source material:
- The UEFA Champions League pulls the best teams from multiple leagues, so competition takes place in addition to regular season schedules.