MILWAUKEE — The winner of Adam Silver’s bold creation will likely flow with “sickos,” according to JJ Redick, who compared the self-motivation required to conquer the In-Season Tournament to that of the 2020 pandemic bubble playoffs.
“Whoever ends up winning the In-Season Tournament is probably the team with the most amount of sickos on their team. I mean that,” Redick said. “Like, you don’t need to give Chris Paul a reason to be competitive. He wakes up that way.
“Some teams and some players are just wired that way. There’s a purpose to everything they do,” Redick added. “The NBA weeds out the non-competitive people very quickly. And I think this is another opportunity for the competitive people to rise to the top.”
Despite a $500,000 prize for each winning player and a huge PR push from the NBA, there’s skepticism the In-Season Tournament will be embraced by players and fans as anything more than a gimmick.
As with most of Silver’s major changes, the purpose is to create more competitiveness and relevance to a lagging regular season.
The commissioner had already introduced the play-in tournament to keep more teams involved in the playoff chase, revamped lottery odds to deter tanking and a player-participation policy to entice fewer DNPs.
Redick, a former player who now works for a league partner (ESPN), said the hope is to compete with the NFL for eyeballs.
It’s quite a lofty goal considering the NFL’s TV ratings remain in another stratosphere.
It’s also worth noting that the 2020 bubble playoffs — won by the Lakers — was a dud in terms of TV viewership, although that was probably more about the timing of the games in autumn.
“The new policies around resting players in nationally televised games, the new policies about end-of-season awards — look, we’ve done enough. I think in general we’re always going to have a competitive battle, I would call it, with the NFL this time of year,” Redick said. “Look, I’m somebody who played in the NBA for 15 years and watched the NBA for another 15 years before that. I’ve watched the NBA — this is my third season now retired. I’ve always loved the regular season. The league and its partners, I think we’ve done plenty to make the regular season matter.”
The Knicks haven’t won an NBA title in over 50 years, which might drive fans to get excited about the idea of a new trophy.
With European soccer, for instance, tournament titles unaffiliated with league play are tacked on prominently to a club’s résumé.
They’re significant.
To reach the championship game Dec. 9 in Vegas, the Knicks will have to advance out of East Group B and win two elimination rounds.
After Friday’s game in Milwaukee, they’ll complete group play against the Wizards on Nov. 17, the Heat on Nov. 24 and the Hornets on Nov. 28.
The six group winners automatically advance along with two wild cards.
Redick, 39, pushed back at the idea the players won’t care.
He also insinuated that teams — rather than players — are behind load management.
“Some of these directives — I don’t want to get into the management issue. This is not coming from the players. So, I’ll say that,” Redick said. “Now let’s talk about what the In-Season Tournament is. You’re giving someone another — you’re giving a sicko another reason, another incentive, another accomplishment, another trophy, like ‘I can go get that?’ Okay.
“I will say this: I’ve been out of the league three years. This is the most excited I’ve been for a regular season, period, an NBA season, period.”
