NBA Expert Howard Beck On The In-Season Tournament

Yes, we discuss those courts...

If Bravo and ESPN had a baby, it would be Impersonal Foul. Thanks for being a paid subscriber! Consider referring this newsletter to your friends. It means the world!

This year, the NBA is doing things a bit differently.

Not in the way a new farm-to-table restaurant in Williamsburg says they do things a bit differently and suggest you order “six to eight small plates to share” between two people when you really maybe need like four.

The NBA is basically throwing in a course for free between your mains (or sharing plates if we’re at this hypothetical restaurant) and dessert. Let’s call it messert.

In July, the NBA announced that they would hold their first in-season tournament.

Essentially, NBA fans are getting their main course as usual (regular season games) with a fun messert (the in-season tournament) smacked in the middle before dessert (the championship).

To better understand the tournament, why it’s happening, and why the courts are different colors, I spoke with Howard Beck, veteran NBA journalist for The Ringer.

Beck has spent nearly 30 years covering the NBA and is a sports legend. He kindly answered all of my questions so that you’re armed with everything you need to know before the quarterfinals next week.

I hope you enjoy our conversation, and thank you again for being a paid subscriber!

An Interview With Howard Beck

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. You can follow Beck on Twitter here and read his incredible work for The Ringer here.

Can you briefly explain what the NBA in-season tournament is and why they decided to have it?
The in-season tournament is essentially a means for the NBA to create more interest in the early part of the regular season. That's the easiest explanation.

It is a tournament that is essentially grafted onto the regular season. No new games were added. It did not disrupt the schedule, but it will end with two teams playing one extra game. An 83rd game in what is otherwise an 82-game season.

The two teams that get to the finals of what they're calling the NBA Cup will have played one extra game. Everyone else will simply have played games that would be normally scheduled anyway. That are part of the regular season. That are part of the same regular season structure that the NBA has always had, but what it's done is for this first eight weeks of the regular season, there's something else extra at stake.

The short answer is the NBA wanted to create more stakes and more intrigue in the earliest part of the schedule when both incentive for teams and interest for fans is arguably at its lowest historically.