The second annual NBA Cup is in the books. How are we feeling about it?
There seems to be a lot of handwringing and brow-furrowing in NBA circles about potentially waning interest in their product. With TV ratings in freefall ahead of a new multi-billion-dollar broadcast deal, events such as the NBA Cup take on outsized importance. Not only does it have to deliver the goods as an on-court product, it also has to help restore the game of basketball at the forefront of the global consciousness.
Did it succeed on those terms? No, because nothing could. Did it succeed as an entertaining and (occasionally) thrilling framework for the best basketball league on earth? Yes – mostly.
Let’s Siskel and Ebert our way through the 2024 NBA Cup.
Thumbs up: It’s different!
The NBA regular season is a methodical and grueling test of endurance, roster construction, and mental/physical wherewithal. It is the most brutal basketball test known to man. Whichever team ends up surviving that test – plus another couple months of extra-brutal playoff basketball – to win the championship absolutely, positively, unequivocally deserves it.
But even the most die-hard NBA fans would admit their interest in the product tends to wane during the more laborious portions of the schedule.
Have you ever watched a marathon on TV? Perhaps you tuned into the Olympic race, or you know someone who qualified for Boston or New York. Typical marathon viewers get excited to see the start of the race, the leaders, the people they might know, and then they check out for a while until the leaders approach the finish line. It takes a special kind of viewer to watch mile six with the same intensity as mile 24.
The NBA Cup is simply a way to make miles 6-8 of the marathon a bit more interesting.
The NFL dominates casual discourse due in large part to the scarcity of their product. The NBA can never compete on that level, so it must introduce variety. Events such as the NBA Cup are always going to have their detractors – armchair quarterbacks who exist solely to criticize anything new – but a sports league cannot evolve without taking a few chances. The NBA Cup is convoluted, sure, but so is pro sports. It means whatever you want it to mean. These 82 games are happening with or without a Cup – why not change the context?
Thumbs down: Las Vegas
Look, we all know why they hold the NBA Cup semifinals/finals in Las Vegas. It’s equal parts a test run for the eventual expansion team and a nod to the myriad gambling sponsors who keep this league and several others swimming in cash. Las Vegas is uniquely situated as a location that can host a major event at a moment’s notice, regardless of the participants. It makes sense on paper.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere sucks.
With no actual fans in attendance – just people looking for something to do – the games just feel, well, off. These games are supposed to be a big deal, but they have the crowd energy of a random summer league game. Casting the crowd in an ominous shadow (likely to hide the number of empty seats) doesn’t help either.
The NBA lucked out in last year’s inaugural in-season tournament with the Los Angeles Lakers. Not only is Los Angeles close enough for wealthy Laker fans to travel, the Lakers are a public team with the most famous American athlete. The energy was there because the Lakers and LeBron James were involved.
The Bucks, Hawks, Thunder, and Rockets – as fun as these teams are – cannot generate the same level of casual interest. Giannis Antetokounmpo made one of the most incredible plays a human can make to helps seal his team’s win over the Hawks in the semifinal. Trae Young (who had a magnificent tournament in his own right) threw a brilliant lob to Clint Capela, and just as he was about to slam it down, Giannis met him at the peak and turned him away. Giannis makes the incredible seem routine, but this play was remarkable even by his standards. The crowd reacted as though it was a side out-of-bounds play.
If the league wants these games to feel important, take them out of Las Vegas. The team with the better record hosts the game. Real fans get to attend and make noise. Simple.
Thumbs up: Pool play
I love all the things the NBA does to set these games apart. I’m on board the special courts (even the ugly ones). I love how certain nights in the schedule are set aside as Cup Nights. I’m on board with all of it.
But at no point am I ever going to pay attention to which team is in what pod and what those standings are.
As you might have gathered through previous editions of Elevator Doors, I am obsessed with the Denver Nuggets. This is my team. I’ve been with them since the LaPhonso Ellis days. I was watching when Dikembe Mutombo clutched the ball in his hands and nearly cried after the Nuggets upset the Seattle SuperSonics. I was watching those ill-fated Nikoloz Tskitishvili games. I was there for the 17 wins in 2002-2003 when the franchise was tanking for LeBron but ended up with Carmelo. I am currently savoring every magical moment Nikola Jokic bestows upon us.
And I had no idea who was in Denver’s pod. I truly had no clue what this team needed to do to advance in the tournament. Point differentials are involved? At no point am I ever going to pay attention to the machinations of this thing. Tell me who wins. Tell me who plays who when.
This is a feature, not a bug.
I am a fan of anything that has a “choose your own adventure” element to it. If you want to dive fully into the weeds and get into pool play and point differentials, that’s there for you. If you just want to watch the games, that’s there for you too. It’s how I approached “Game of Thrones.” I watched the entire HBO run and enjoyed a solid 80% of it. I never read any of the books and have no interest in any spinoff shows. But I like knowing it’s there.
Thumbs down: The officiating
I hate complaining about officiating. It’s a lazy and often biased airing of grievances. These complaints never change anything, and NBA officials get it correct so much more often than they get it wrong.
But when they get it wrong, hoo boy.
I guess I have no idea what a loose ball foul is. Golden State’s Jonathan Kuminga got whistled for a “correctly assessed” personal foul call in a scrum situation with Houston’s Jalen Green in the Rockets eventual win over the Warriors. The call came with 3.5 seconds left in a one-point game. I have never – not once in my life – seen that call take place, especially one that quite literally decided the outcome of that game.
Of course, Golden State blew that game six different ways beyond that call, but the call stands out, especially given what occurred early in the third quarter of the Thunder/Bucks NBA Cup final. Before the game devolved into a blowout, the game was separated by only five points. Lu Dort controlled a loose ball before Giannis belly-flopped onto his back, dislodging the ball and forcing a jump ball. Dort was reasonably frustrated with this non-call, as was OKC coach Mark Daigneault. Both were assessed technical fouls. After Lillard cashed each foul shot, the Bucks controlled the jump ball and Lillard drilled a deep three. This five-point swing started the tidal wave that led to Milwaukee’s dominant victory.
The Bucks earned this win. They were the far superior team. OKC missed 27 of its 32 3-point attempts (yuck). But that sequence robbed fans of what could have been a more competitive final. What a shame.
Thumbs up: Giannis
Holy moly.
It wasn’t that long ago when this OKC defense bottled up Luka Doncic. The Thunder have so many young, athletic, long, swarming, feisty defenders that play beautifully connected defense. If any team could figure out a way to slow down the Mediterranean Monster (trying out some new Giannis nicknames, bear with me), it would be OKC.
They didn’t. Not even close.
Giannis racked up another triple double (26/19/10), but that doesn’t come close to telling the full story. Ever since the infamous 2-8 start to the season, Giannis has decided he is personally tired of the nonsense. He has all but stopped taking jumpers and instead barrels toward the basket with relentless fury. Turns out nobody has any answers for “Giannis drives to the basket.” His passing has always been great, but it has ascended to another level. He’s passing guys open – not just passing to open guys (big difference).
He was the obvious MVP of this convoluted, anticlimactic, occasionally incredible midseason event. Let’s definitely do this again next year, and the year after that. Long live the NBA Cup, warts and all.
