Instead of creating a separate schedule like the FA Cup, the NBA integrates the tournament into the regular season as much as possible - the midseason tournament wins and losses are added to the regular season record, and each team still maintains a regular number of 82 games, with only the champions and runners-up playing 83 games because of the midseason tournament.
In addition, the NBA league also uses "real money" to make up for the consumption of players preparing for war.
The winner of the midseason tournament will receive $500,000 per player, the runner-up will receive $200,000 per player, the top four teams will receive $100,000, and the top eight teams will receive $50,000.
Compared with the $2.43m (£2m) that the FA Cup winners receive in prize money, the league has a lot of money.
As for Cuban's idea of rotation, the NBA has long completed the "patch" in the new rotation regulations - the rotation policy of the 2023-2024 regular season clearly states that healthy star players cannot miss the national broadcast and the new season's midseason championship in principle; The number of home and away absences of star players should be basically the same; Star players cannot take long-term breaks for any reason, and even if they take breaks, they must appear on the bench.
If the team violates the rules, it will be fined $100,000 for the first offense, $250,000 for the second offense, $1.25 million for the third offense, and $1 million more for each violation after that.
Replacing the floor, painstakingly
In order to make the midseason championship to be different from the regular season, the NBA has also made efforts, the biggest change comes from the floor.
About seven months ago, when the midseason championship was about to become a reality, the NBA's creative brain trust began to ponder an important question - how do you make sure fans know right away that they're watching a midseason championship?
Immediately, the NBA executives, including Silver, began to incubate a bigger idea: "What if we painted the entire court?" What if we painted the floor for all 30 teams using the same common template?"
"The biggest decision was to paint the whole court and not let the original floor show." "Fans are going to go, 'Wow,'" said Christopher Arena, the NBA's director of arena and brand partnerships.
As a result, the NBA began to design the floor for the midseason championship, the most obvious element of which is to place the trophy of the midseason championship in the center of the court, and then superimpose the logo of each team.
On Aug. 10, the league held a video conference with the equipment heads of the 30 teams to show them some renderings, explain the production cycle and ask for their cooperation.
The league stressed that the template is non-negotiable in nature, but allows teams to participate in color selection.
"We just need to separate the midseason championship from the rest and turn on the TV to know what it is, which is very important." Arena said.
The mid-season tournament schedule came out, and the NBA's campaign plan was gradually realized.
Durant also said of the midseason tournament: "It's a regular season game from a schedule standpoint, but I understand it's the league trying to get fans interested early in the season."
"Fans just want to watch the playoffs and high-intensity games, so the NBA creates a high-intensity atmosphere during the regular season."
Payroll expert Bob Marks was more blunt: "I would love to see the winner of the midseason tournament get a playoff spot straight away."
Silver was more direct: "I realize that winning the tournament is different than winning the O 'Brien Cup. But you can look at how those European leagues work."
"The NBA can't introduce something like this right away, but the idea is that we can create an event where teams care about winning and fans love to watch."
