By Isabelle Baldwin for Dailymail.Com and the Associated Press
01:56 09 Jul 2023, Updated 02:56 09 Jul 2023
The NBA announced the roster for the first season of the NBA Summer League on Saturday.
The tournament will have a prize pool of nearly $18 million and will culminate in a championship game — not ranked — in Las Vegas on Dec. 9.
It’s an event that NBA commissioner Adam Silver has wanted for years, giving teams the chance to play in a European Cup-style tournament during the regular season, and now he’s made it a reality.
“This is a concept that has been bandied about in the league office for 15 years,” Silver said.
“It’s not a new concept in sports. It’s a long-standing tradition, especially for those who follow international football…so we thought what a great opportunity for a world league like the NBA and it’s a perfect fit for our game.”
Under regular contracts, tournament pay for players is $500,000 for each of the winning teams, $200,000 for the first-place team, $100,000 for the semi-finalists and $50,000 for the losing teams. The quarter finals.
Two-way players on these teams are eligible for up to half that amount, depending on how many games they spend on the roster during the tournament.
“I can see what the goal could be,” said Miami guard Josh Richardson, who follows international soccer closely and understands Silver’s analogy when comparing the sport to seasonal competitions around the world. It actually gives you another chance to win something. I think it’s a big part.
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After the announcement of the tournament, the NBA announced the six five teams – three for each conference – that will make up the tournament’s group stage.
The teams will play one match each in group one, with the six group winners advancing to the quarter-finals as well as the top two teams from the group.
To form the teams, the NBA uses a FIFA World Cup-style draw, dividing each conference into five pots, as was the case last season.
Pot One included the teams that finished first through third, Pot Two followed by Four to Six, Teams Seven-Nine in Pot Three, Teams 10-12 in Pot Four, Teams 13-15 in Pot Five.
One group was randomly selected from each pot to create five equally matched groups.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said, ‘I’m happy with this half of the season. I think it adds more energy and excitement to the players and the coaches and the fans. I think it’s a great idea.’
Games begin on Nov. 3, with most Tuesdays and Fridays in November — except for Nov. 7, when the NBA does not play any games in observance of Election Day. That announcement came Saturday, and marks the second straight year the NBA has had no games that day in hopes of promoting civic awareness and participation.
The Final Four will be in Las Vegas.
‘This town knows how to put on big events,’ Silver said.
Joe Dumars, the league’s executive vice president of basketball operations and a Hall of Famer as a player, said he thinks the players will like the idea — even if it takes some time.
‘Not everyone buys right away,’ Dumars said. It can’t be a goal that everyone buys into from day 1. These things take time. And I think as time goes on you can build this and people can get into it.’
Tournament games, with the exception of the championship game, all count in the standings – the same way the WNBA conducts the Commissioner’s Cup event.
When the 2023-24 slate is released by the NBA in the coming weeks, it’s been known for some time that teams will only get an 80-game schedule.
Games 81 and 82 will be added in December; This is where things get tricky.
Teams that do not advance to the playoffs will receive two games against other qualifiers, and those will be the two missed games on their schedules.
For the eight teams making the playoffs, the quarterfinal match will be the 81st game added to their schedule. The quarterfinal losers — two from the East, two from the West — will play each other, and this will be the 82nd game on their schedule. The semifinalists — again, two from the East, two from the West — will play, and that game will be the 82nd game on their schedule.
This means the championship game will be one of 83 games on the schedule between the last two teams. And since the season is 82 games, that game doesn’t count in the rankings, and the stats don’t count at all. They play for money and trophies.
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