For me as a European, being used to the system of european sports, I can’t really see why most NBA fans are against the new In-Season tournament.
Most of the arguments that I read why people reject it is „it is pointless, because winning it has no consequence and doesnt lead to anything. For example you don’t earn a playoff spot or get some other reward for winning the tournament.“
For me as a european sports fan, it is normal to have more than one trophy, more than one competition per year. Regardless if european Soccer, european Basketball or whatever. You even have three tournaments per season: the national league, the national cup, and the Champions League (in Soccer) or the Euroleague (in Basketball).
I can‘t really see the argument of „it is pointless because it leads to nothing, you get no reward.“ Why should it lead to anything? It leads to win a trophy, to win a competition. That’s the point in itself. Thats the reward.
For example, in UK soccer, winning the FA Cup (the national cup competition) doesnt lead to an advantage in the Premier League (the national league competition), and winning the Champions League doesnt lead to any consequences in the Premier League or in the FA Cup as well. The whole point of each of these competitions/tournaments is just to win them in itself, to win that trophy. Winning the national cup for example is a great experience for the fans of the winning club. Those fans are not saying: „meh, we don’t need to win that tournament, because it doesnt give us an advantage in the Premier League!“ They just want to win the tournament and celebrate the title.
So I‘m kind of curious how that thing will develop in the NBA. Maybe Americans are just not used to compete in more than one competition per season, and are not used trying to win parallel competitions in a season. Maybe that view will change in 10-20 years, when it might be established in everyones mind that more than one title per year exists (and that doesnt mean each competition will have the same importance, of course the NBA title will always clearly be the most important title… like in english football the Premier League title clearly is more important than the FA Cup title).
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Because it’s meaningless and holds 0 value
You could say the same about the NBA championship. It doesn’t REALLY meaning anything. The value of a championship is there because we as fan attach value to it. If we attach value to the NBA cup then the players will too.
As an euro I have to disagree a bit, even if you only asked a question…
It’s not really comparable.
The cups are outside the regular national League, you are playing different teams there (at least to a great margin).
Since there is an extreme power difference between the NBA and the g-league, this would be pointless.
For example in Germany, while there is a gap between the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga, the gap is way closer. It even gets more balanced in the euro main sport - soccer, where one goal and a bunch of luck can change the game (cups are do or die).
Nevertheless, really sad how some here answered, since you didn’t said Euro system is better, but only asked why the reacting to the in session cup is so negative, at least I understood it this way…
Because the NBA is trying to add a second trophy/team award to the same teams playing for the proper NBA championship in June.
Premier League teams are not only competing for a title in their top flight league, but also going against League One/Two, Championship, and other clubs from the English pyramid (FA Cup), and also going against the best clubs of other European leagues (UEFA Europa/Champions League).
The NBA meanwhile is having the exact same 30 franchises play for two in-season team awards, one with 75 years of history backed in it (NBA Finals), and the other just made up on the fly completely because of profit for its owners (NBA PiT).
It doesnt have to be more complicated than euros have tons of leagues and teams and you need to hand out more metal to have something happening.