Bingo, though I Am pretty sure it was plenty of strippers in Florida to be had, even casinos but the players were allegedly on hotel arrest lockdown at that bubble so the strippers were probably more easy access if I had to guess
I agree. It’s going to be fun. I’ve long been a critic of playing an 82 game season and still letting more teams into the playoffs than you exclude. But this is different and interesting to me.
As long as it isn’t used as a resume builder/substitute for playoff success. Which, why wouldn’t it be to draw more attention? So and so who’s never made the playoffs is a “2 time NBA Cup Finalist” etc.
Some teams likes to load manage. If the money is not enough incentive, will it change team's sub pattern. Group play and knock out rounds is regular season, but championship game is not. Which means finalist teams will play 82+ games, which statistically will further throw off regular season sample size and historical perspective. Exceptions where seasons were short like lockout or covid couldn't be helped, but now there'd be this weird thing where two of 30 teams will play more than 82. Like the play-in games, in this grey zone of not quite regular season nor necessary playoffs. Scheduling. In the past say Rockets play Nuggets once in Nov maybe another in March. With this grouping since all of this is before Dec 31, it means when a team is grouped, the match ups with the other four team in their group and meetings are all used up in those 2 months. If a star player is out in Winter but back in Spring; or a team made trades and improved after trade deadline, the matchups would already be used up. (no lose predictive indicators for playoffs) --- bad timing: Rockets finally choosing this year to try to turn it around. The first few months be an adjustment period, fans hope for a good start. The last thing you want is another incentive for other teams to win those games. Odds are; we'll be one of the first teams to be eliminated from this thing. Is this what Rocket fans want, a new shortcoming that wasn't there before. Focus on the bball itself, tweak the stuff that people have been asking like flopping rules. Why can't basketball itself be the draw; instead of trying to add this gimmicky stuff to get people to tune in.
This is so asinine....no way this can compete with true big league tournaments, since the tournament games are actually REGULAR SEASON games and count as such!
