The Pre-Championship Championship

Who knew the NBA would end up passing out two championship trophies and two sets of championship rings in the same season. Crazy to think its actually a thing. As odd as it sounds, I must admit that it has been a success having an In-Season Tournament. Everyone has noticed the lack of enthusiasm from the players during the regular season. The remedy for this was the In-Season Tournament. I haven't been the most supportive of it, although I did give it a chance. On the positive side, there has been a marked uptick in player and fan engagement as the tournament moved forward.

Fan engagement has increased even though the opinions have been mixed. On one side the fans think its great to see the players play for something meaningful during the regular season. The flip side of that coin is the opinion of the tournament devaluing what a championship means. In either case, fan activity has increased. I can admit the intensity of the games did appear to be genuine with the players, especially in the final four. So I absolutely give the NBA kudos for that.

For all the positives, there does happen to be some questions that need to be answered. You can't say this wasn't expected being the first one and all. The questions that I have are what do you do about the point differential tie break rule, are you willing to take a hit on last minute scheduled games for teams that didn't make it to the final, and are you really going to consider giving the winner a guaranteed playoff spot for games settled so early in the season? I guess one more question I have is what will the league emphasis be on weighing this championship versus the Larry O'Brien trophy?

I don't think the answer to those questions have to be anything complex. The one thing I feel should be a hard no is giving the winner of the tournament an automatic playoff spot. There is too much time where anything can happen between the tournament championship and the start of the playoffs.

In my heart of hearts, I am not happy that an In-Season Tournament is necessary for players to care about the regular season. I am also aware that this was a business decision made to repair an image. To be honest, I can't complain too much about it because it did what it was supposed to do, breathe life back into the regular season.