The inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament has arrived before most fans’ excitement for it has arrived.
Soon, Adam Silver and the league will see whether people and players grow to care about it.
Friday’s game in Milwaukee between the Knicks and Bucks will be the tipoff of the commissioner’s experimental and soccer-influenced side tournament.
Games counting toward the tournament will take place every Tuesday and Friday from Nov. 3-28 (apart from this Tuesday’s Election Day).
They will count double — as regular-season games and Group Play games.
Every team plays each of the other four teams in its group once during the Group Play stage.
The Knicks’ group contains the Bucks, Heat, Wizards and Hornets.
Eight teams will advance to the Knockout Round — six winners of the groups and two wild cards (the two top second-place finishers).
This single-elimination round will begin on Dec. 4.
Fans will have no visual problem identifying when tournament games are being played.
Each team’s court will be redesigned and feature an image of the NBA Cup — as they’re calling the tournament’s trophy — and differently colored, 16-feet-wide “runways” will be seen across the length of the court.
The runway is a nod to teams trying to make it to Las Vegas, where the semifinals and finals will be.
The Knicks will first see a cream Fiserv Forum floor with a light green runway running across the court.
The Garden’s orange court will not debut until the Knicks host the Heat on Nov. 24.
The NBA’s goal is to make early-season games matter, and the league is offering players further incentive than a trophy.
There will be a pool of cash winnings of about $18 million, including $500,000 to each player on the championship team.
It is a paltry sum to the NBA’s stars but might be enough to inspire more effort from players earning the league minimum.
There also will be an MVP and All-Tournament team based on performance in the Group Play and Knockout Rounds.
Will the players care?
Will you care?
As it tries to spice up pre-Christmas games, the league wants to find out.
“They’re keeping score, you got to care about it,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said this week. “I think everyone’s excited to see what it looks like.”
