The NBA will release details of its in-season tournament during a broadcast on ESPN Saturday evening at 7:30 PM ET. Said broadcast will come during NBACon from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Final 4 of the tournament will take place in Las Vegas from December 7-9.
Full details will not be released until Saturday evening with the likes of Victor Wembanyama, Paolo Banchero and Cade Cunningham taking part in the festivities. But we do have an idea about what the NBA has planned.
NBA in-season tournament details
- The tournament will be divided into six pools of five teams each with teams from each conference.
- On certain days during the first six weeks of the 2023-24 NBA season, teams will play group games. Teams will play each team in their pool once with two at home and two away.
- The winner of each pool will advance to a single-elimination stage with two other wild card teams.
- The regular season schedule will now only include 80 games. The teams that do not advance to the elimination stage will have two games added to their regular season schedule. The team that reach the tournament final will play 83 total games.
- Players on the championship team will reportedly receive $500,000 for playing in the NBA in-season tournament.
- The semifinals and finals will be held in Las Vegas, likely the T-Mobile Center.
It remains to be seen how seriously players and teams are going to take the tournament. The Association might have to reward the winner with an automatic bid into the playoffs. Again, we’ll have full details Saturday night on Sportsnaut.