The NBA Cup is a poor attempt by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to keep the league relevant, but with how the whole idea of the Cup was executed, it may not have achieved the relevance it was aiming for. This was what sports journalist and broadcaster Dan Patrick thought, as he shared his insights on his show.
In one of the recent episodes of “The Dan Patrick Show,” Dan touched on the idea of the NBA Cup, and why he thinks it failed to do for the league what commissioner Adam Silvers may have intended it to do.
“I think that’s what you’re trying to get—you want relevancy,” Dan said. “I think that’s part of the NBA’s problem, it’s not really relevant sometimes. They tried to create the NBA Cup and okay, what? Hey, they’re playing for extra money—that doesn’t excite me.
He added: “There’s only so much room and you got to find your place, you have to find your space on the mantle where you go and wait a minute where you are going to put us.
The NBA was a new annual in-season tournament of the league that was introduced during the 2023-2024 season. The tournament was formed as a response to fans calling for changes in the NBA that would add more air of competition and excitement in games.
One of the highlights of the NBA Cup is that the winner of the tournament not only gets to bring home a physical cup but each player and staff of the team gets a $500,000 paycheck. This sparked mixed discussion even amongst players of the league, with some players getting quoted with the paycheck as their only motivation to win the Cup.
Adam Silver Acknowledges NBA “Problem,” But It’s Not Three-Point Shots
During the championship game for the NBA Cup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Milwaukee Bucks, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was asked about the growing concerns of fans about the state of the NBA, particularly about the state of games and how teams seem to be playing all the same, making games less interesting.
“The answer is yes, [we are having] many discussions about the style of basketball [being played],” Silver said. “I would not reduce it to a so-called 3-point shooting issue. I think we look more holistically at the skill level on the floor, the diversity of offense, the fan reception to the game, all of the above.”
Adam Silver, in an earlier statement, has downplayed the decline in NBA ratings and viewership, citing the MLB World Series and the recent US elections as reasons for the lower ratings.
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