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The Origin of the Mid-Season Championship
"This concept has been brewing in the league office for about 15 years. It is not a new concept in the sports world." NBA general manager Adam Silver said this when the mid-season tournament schedule was announced.
Speaking of the competition system, Adam Silver did not shy away from the fact that the mid-season tournament borrowed from the football league, "For those who pay special attention to international football, the mid-season tournament has a long history. So we think that for a global league like the NBA , it’s a perfect opportunity and it fits our game perfectly.”
As Adam Silver said, the NBA mid-season tournament has been planned for a long time. In 2014, just after taking over from David Stern, Adam Silver told the media, "We are considering hosting a league (similar to football) in the middle of the season, possibly in Las Vegas."
In the following years, Adam Silver would mention the Mid-Season Championship from time to time.
At the MIT Sloan Sports Analysis Conference in 2019, Adam Silver proposed using a mid-season tournament or a pre-season tournament to replace the All-Star Game.
During the All-Star Weekend in February 2020, he expressed his hope to try a mid-season tournament on the 75th anniversary of the NBA. "I firmly believe we will eventually have some kind of in-season tournament and play-offs," he said at the time.
This idea will be officially implemented in the 2023-2024 season.
Regarding the charm of the mid-season tournament, NBA Executive Vice President of Basketball Strategy and Analysis Evan Wasch’s response always revolves around football, “In football leagues like England or Spain, the FA Cup or King’s Cup encompasses the entire national football ecosystem. Although the teams in the next few rounds are almost all top teams, the participation of fans and the team's emphasis on the game are very high."
"The charm of the single-elimination tournament in the mid-season tournament is completely different."
Although the current NBA mid-season tournament does not follow the example of the English FA Cup, which allows all 732 professional or amateur teams to participate, and is limited to 30 NBA teams, by introducing a new trophy and goal, the NBA at least brings Some fresh elements.
Mid-season tournament main format
The mid-season tournament is contested by 30 teams from the league, with each team playing 4 group matches; the 6 first-place teams in the group and 2 wild-card teams (one from the East and West) advance to the knockout rounds, with the top 8 winning The team will be able to travel to Las Vegas to challenge for the ultimate championship.
The mid-season tournament is a round-robin system. Every Tuesday to Friday from November 3rd to 28th is set as "Championship Night" by the NBA. The regular season matchup combinations of that day will be the matchup groups of the mid-season tournament. Each team The teams will have exactly 4 games each, playing the other 4 teams in the same group. In the ABC grouping of the East and West regions, the team with the best record in the mid-season tournament and the team that won the wild card round will advance to the knockout round of the mid-season tournament in December.
How to group
The mid-season tournament groupings are divided into teams with good and poor records in the previous season's regular season. They are also divided into east and west. The top three in each section are divided into three groups by drawing lots. Divided into 6 groups in the east and west areas, each group has 5 teams.
bonus
As long as the team reaches the quarter-finals in the mid-season tournament, each team member will receive a bonus of 50,000 US dollars, each of the top four teams will receive a bonus of 100,000 US dollars, and each runner-up will receive a bonus of 200,000 US dollars. Each member of the championship team (including the coach) can earn US$500,000, equivalent to NT$16.05 million.
Stadium and jersey
During the mid-season championship, in addition to wearing new city version jerseys, each team's home floor was also replaced with new paint to highlight the home style.
This is done to let fans know they are watching the Mid-Season Championship. The creative think tank of the NBA League began to think about an important question, how to ensure that fans immediately know that they are watching the mid-season championship?
Immediately, NBA executives including Adam Silver began to hatch a bigger idea: "What if we painted the entire court? What if we used the same universal template to color the floors of all 30 teams? How about it?"
"The biggest decision was to paint the entire court so that the original floor would not be exposed," said Christopher Arena, director of NBA arena and brand cooperation. "Fans will definitely be 'wow' when they see it."
As a result, the NBA began to design a court floor exclusive to the mid-season championship. The most obvious element is to place the mid-season championship trophy in the center of the court and then superimpose the logo of each team.
On August 10, the league held a meeting with the equipment directors of the 30 teams, showing them some renderings, explaining the production cycle and asking for their cooperation.
The league emphasized that the set of templates is non-negotiable in nature but will allow teams to participate in color selections.
"We just need to distinguish the mid-season tournament from other games, and you can turn on the TV and know what the game is, which is very important." Arena said.
When the mid-season tournament schedule was released, the NBA's campaign plan was gradually realized.
Mid-season tournament backlash
Many people have questioned the value of the mid-season tournament and the physical load it places on players.
Mark Cuban, the owner of the Mavericks, publicly stood up against the mid-season tournament, saying, "I might let the Mavericks not participate in this game at all, or let our best players rest, unless they give me an O'Brien Trophy, something like that A reward is a reward.”
Although Cuban's statement is radical, it also raises the core question of the mid-season championship: how to balance players' physical load and game value?
The format of the Mid-Season Championship gives the answer - according to the schedule, the Mid-Season Championship will divide the 30 NBA teams into 6 groups. After the round-robin within the group, the first place in each group and the two best second-place teams will advance to the top 8. , and then single-elimination elimination started.
Compared with setting up a separate game timeline like the FA Cup, the NBA's approach is to integrate the tournament into the regular season as much as possible. The victory or defeat of the mid-season tournament will be added to the regular season record, and each team will still Maintaining the 82 regular season games, only the championship and runner-up teams will play 83 games due to the mid-season tournament.
