The Final Four of the NBA’s new in-season tournament will be held on December 7 and 9 in Las Vegas, according to sources. The statistics accumulated during the tournament will count towards the league’s regular season, except for the championship game.
Full details of the competition, including the groupings, will be announced on Saturday night during the “NBA Today” broadcast on ESPN. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, recent top draft picks, and All-Stars will be part of the broadcast.
The in-season tournament will debut in the 2023-24 season and was officially unveiled in the league’s new collective bargaining agreement. All teams will participate in the group stage, which will consist of six groups in total, with three groups per conference. The groupings will be determined by a random draw based on teams’ winning percentage from the previous season. Each team will play four games within their group, and the six group winners, along with two wild cards with the best winning percentage, will advance to the knockout stage. The knockout-stage games will be single elimination until the final.
Commissioner Silver has been advocating for the addition of an in-season tournament for several years, drawing inspiration from similar tournaments in European soccer.