Im torn on the ist games. So far i think its been a success and ive enjoyed them. Even the courts and unis. My concern is how it looks moving forward. Will the newness wear off? I agree with others that id like to see higher stakes tied to these games.
3/4 of the Suns roster is on minimum contracts. They're gonna be playing like it's the Finals tonight.
I think it's already a flop--ratings are up, but not by nearly enough given it's the first year. When the novelty wears off will the ratings just be flat?
The king of tournaments is March madness. They missed all the cues of what makes march madness great. Big bragging rights, focus on the tournament, bracket competitions, 1-and-done. The "IST"? Messed up the schedule, spread out too much to hold any intrigue or suspence, the courts weren't ideal to watch on TV, impossible to remember who is in your group, difficult to tell what the standings were and which games had which impacts, no meaningful prize. Even the name "NBA In-Season Tournament" was bad. Bonus: NBA refs and agendas are the worst, IST or not.
The only positive thing I can see is that the Rockets get more time to practice with a new coach. But I am hating these breaks between games.
My biggest problem with the in-season tournament is that it screwed up the nba schedule with these huge gaps between games. oops, ditto what cosmonaut said.
As long as the IST is a tag on to the regular season, it will always be seen as not the real championship, just some distraction. To make it real, it has to be a completely separate tournament that produces another "real" champion, probably a March Madness kind of format. I know it is not likely to happen because it would mean either reducing regular season games or lengthening the season.
It could take place instead of the Pre-season though. It is definitely not happening in March....... It would turn into a Pre-Season Tournament instead of a In Season tournament. The Rockets are always ready during Pre-Season.
I’m sure Alpi and Tari are more pissed. A chance to play for $500K is quite the prize when each of them are making $3.5M for the season.
I'm not blown away by the IST or anything, but I do think it adds a little something extra to the early season. I'm interested in how the games are presented in Vegas for the final four. It probably needs a little more tweaking but it's better than nothing in the part of the season when the NFL overshadows the NBA.
