The NBA has already added a play-in tournament to its annual postseason schedule recently, and now an in-season tournament could also be on the horizon. While speaking with Yahoo Sports, NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently said that the league was "moving closer" to adding such a tournament, though he added it wouldn't happen next season. Thus, The earliest that such a tournament could be added to the schedule would be during the 2023-24 season.
The idea of an in-season has been tossed around league circles for several years, and the success -- and acceptance -- of the play-in tournament has amplified such discussions. "I think we were moving closer to it," Silver said. "But I feel we've had productive conversations with the Players Association, whose approval, of course, would be required to change the format. And my sense is there's a fair amount of interest.
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"There's tournaments [in other sports] along the way where players, I'm sure feel an extra boost of competitiveness around winning a particular trophy," Silver added. "And that's what we're looking at. It's complicated."
The addition of an in-season tournament would also result in a reduction of regular season games, though the exact number of games is yet to be determined. Obviously, shortening the schedule by any length is something that the league would want to seriously consider before pulling the trigger on, and Silver said as much. "I think we have to approach a change in the schedule very seriously, both on behalf of the teams and the players, because at least in the short run, it would reduce our overall revenue," he said.
Silver is a proponent of the in-season tournament, just as he was with the play-in tournament, as he is consistently looking for ways to improve the overall product of the NBA. It remains to be seen whether or not an in-season tournament is something that would be embraced by the league and its fans, but it's certainly something that's being discussed at a high level and could be implemented in the near future.
