Michael Wilbon Bashes NBA In-Season Tournament 

There are some who aren’t enthused about the NBA’s in-season tournament, including one ESPN staffer, Michael Wilbon. The tournament started on Friday night.

Michael Wilbon Bashes NBA In-Season Tournament

Michael Wilbon attacked the in-season tournament on Friday’s episode of Pardon The Interruption. Eight teams total, four from each conference, will move on to the knockout stage, which will end with a championship game in Las Vegas on December 9th, where the victor will receive the first-ever NBA Cup.

In an interview on Friday, the host of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” stated that athletes shouldn’t require “a stupid trophy and orange slices” to be inspired to perform in the regular season.

“I’ll give you a couple of reasons,” Wilbon said in a discussion with co-host Frank Isola. “It’s already supposed to count, Frank. It’s a game on the schedule. These aren’t separate games. It’s a game on the schedule you’re paying good money to see. Players are being paid to play these, and now you’re telling me, ‘I’m gonna assign something else.’

“Speaking of our obsession with analytical junk, so I’m gonna assign something phony to it, let the marketing people run my league. The marketing people are gonna say to you, ‘Go watch this game, we’re  gonna assign it an extra value, so then we can give people orange slices and trophies at the end of it.’

“If it’s supposed to matter, Frank, let it matter… Let’s convince all you dopes that these games are special. No, it’s a Wednesday night in Milwaukee. That’s what it is.”

The Knicks’ loss to the Bucks and the Nets’ victory against the Bulls marked the start of the tournament on Friday night.

Teams should be encouraged to perform at their highest level if they are offered prize money of more than $500k per player, which is similar to what the Denver Nuggets received for winning the title the previous year. This may lessen worries about “load management,” which has irritated both television networks and fans.

However, it appears like Wilbon was irritated for other reasons because he seemed to have a “Old man yells at cloud” vibe. Frank Isola is often the pessimistic one, but Wilbon had a pass at it and leaned toward the claim that it’s a money grab rather than a hidden gem.

 

 

 

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