The NBA season, which began on Tuesday, will be the first to include two championships. In addition to the traditional postseason chase for the Larry O’Brien trophy, teams this year will compete for the NBA Cup, the prize in the inaugural In-Season Tournament.
Stitched into the doldrums of the season in November and early December, the new tournament will test whether the NBA can turn games that only meant so much into something more. Potentially, the new tournament represents a marketable new tentpole as the league heads toward a new media rights deal following the 2024-25 regular season.
“The In-Season Tournament … is really about the possibility of creating a second championship. The notion of there only being one thing to win each season—we wanted to challenge that,” Evan Wasch, VP of basketball strategy and analytics for the NBA, said in an interview.
The brand took inspiration from international soccer and basketball, Wasch said, “but also individual sports like golf, tennis, and racing where there’s more than one championship. We felt that there was untapped opportunity for the NBA.”