The NBA has reportedly sent teams within the league a proposal for changes that would take effect starting in the 2021-22 season, headlined by a reduction to a 78-game schedule, according to The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.
Currently, the NBA schedule spans 82 games for each team. However, coupled with declining game-by-game viewership, advancements in sports science have led to strategies such as load management — wherein players sit out games in the name of preserving their health — have helped ignite discussions on whether or not 82 games is still an ideal number.
In addition to a reduction in scheduled games, the NBA has also reportedly proposed an in-season tournament, according to Charania.
The tournament would include all 30 teams, with the incentive for players to participate being a $1 million-per-player purse for the winners, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Beyond a financial incentive, no further rewards for players are known at this time.
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The NBA’s desire for a mid-season tournament stems from a hope that the league would be able to turn the event into a sponsorship opportunity, helping teams recoup the ticket revenue that would be lost from shortening the season to accommodate a mid-year tournament, Wojnarowski reports.
The in-season tournament would run from late November to mid-December, Charania added. The initial group stage would be comprised of divisional games, four at home and four away.
At the end of the group stage, six divisional winners would be crowned, plus an additional two wild-card spots available for knockout. The semifinals and final would be played at a neutral site.
The NBA also proposed having a play-in tournament for the seventh and eighth playoff seeds in each conference, Charania continued, and the final four of the NBA playoffs would be re-seeded based on their regular-season records.
Re-seeding would see the NBA deviate from its long-standing conference-based format for designating playoff matchups.
In a format featuring re-seeding, teams from either conference could, hypothetically, be matched up against one another prior to the NBA Finals.
None of these proposed changes can be implemented without the NBPA’s agreement and, according to Wojnarowski, those talks have between NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts are ongoing.
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