Much has been said lately about the NBA’s interest in creating a mid-season tournament. Will such an idea be viable? Can it captivate the interest of the average NBA fan? The answer is, unequivocally, yes. But how would an NBA mid-season tournament work and where and when would the tournament take place? The answer is obvious: the tournament should take place in the same week and place as the all-star break, after the Super Bowl, and before March Madness. That would put the NBA at the center of the sports world for around 2 weeks in the month of February.
But how would such a tournament be able to captivate the interest of a fan base that, for the most part, currently just cares about the playoffs? This is the hardest issue to solve. From a prestige and legacy perspective, there is no way winning this tournament will come close to winning the NBA Finals. That being said, basketball as a single-elimination knockout sport can be an exciting, chaotic roller coaster experience. We’ve already seen how popular March Madness is with this tournament structure. This is a no-brainer; the league has to adopt a single-elimination tournament.