NBA Cup

The NBA Cup is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) tournament that occurs during the regular season. The tournament was officially announced on July 8, 2023, and it debuted during the 2023–24 NBA season. The first edition of the event was called the In-Season Tournament.
The format is a multi-stage tournament beginning with group play followed by single-elimination knockout rounds. Group play consists of three groups of five teams per conference, for a total of six groups. Each team plays four group stage games, which count towards both the NBA Cup group standings and the regular season standings. The winners of each group, along with one wild card team from each conference, advance to the knockout rounds. The final two rounds of the knockout stage are played at a neutral site.
The winning team receives the trophy, also called the NBA Cup, and each winning player receives a cash prize, which was $500,000 for the 2023 edition. The first winner of the NBA Cup was the Los Angeles Lakers, with the tournament MVP being LeBron James.
NBA officials discussed the possibility of holding an in-season tournament for at least 15 years before it was introduced. The NBA has been concerned for decades about trying to compete with the National Football League (NFL) for viewers and attention when the two leagues’ regular seasons overlap during November and December each year.
On July 6, 2023, the NBA announced it would hold the first in-season tournament from November 3 to December 9. The details of the tournament were revealed by the NBA on July 8; the group draws were announced and the semifinals and championship were scheduled at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip. The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers in the championship game to win the inaugural NBA Cup.
The second edition of the NBA Cup was held from November 12 to December 17, 2024 with the semifinals and championship hosted at T-Mobile Arena for the second consecutive year. The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the second NBA Cup championship game.
On February 2, 2024, the airline company Emirates announced a multi-year deal with the NBA including the naming rights of the NBA Cup. On December 13, 2024, Refugees International urged the NBA to suspend its partnership with the UAE due to its role in inciting the Sudanese civil war. The organization stated that instead of legitimizing the UAE through sponsorship, the NBA should reevaluate its partnership with the Emirates and use its influence to pressure it to end the involvement in the Sudan war. Similar concerns were raised during the preseason games hosted by the NBA in Abu Dhabi on October 4-6, 2024. The Human Rights Watch had accused the NBA of "sportswashing" the UAE's human rights record and urged it to cancel the games over the Emirati involvement in the Sudan war.
The tournament has a similar format to in-season, multi-stage tournaments such as WNBA Commissioner's Cup and those held in association football. The tournament rules are as follows:
In the event two or more teams are tied within a group at the end of the Group Play, the tie will be broken according to the following tiebreakers (in sequential order):
If two or more teams are tied for the wild card in a conference, after group tiebreakers are resolved, the wild-card tie will be broken following the same tiebreakers described above (with the exception of the head-to-head record in the Group Stage).
The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), the players' union, said in 2023 that many players objected to the use of point differential and points scored as tiebreakers. These tiebreakers, according to one report, encouraged teams to run up the score, in violation of the sport's unwritten rules. Players, coaches, and other league employees have suggested alternative tiebreakers, such as limiting point differential to a maximum value per game, or using the number of quarters in which a team outscored its opponent.
For the NBA Cup games, home teams wear the "Statement" edition uniforms and road teams wear the "Association" edition uniforms. Cup games are played in basketball courts specially designed for the event. The courts, unlike the ones used in the regular season, feature a fully-painted maple surface with three concentric circles. The NBA Cup is displayed at center court, and silhouettes of the trophy are also painted on the free-throw lanes. The court designs contrast with the home team's "Statement" uniform for that particular season.
In the Inaugural In-Season Tournament in 2023, home teams wore the "City" edition uniforms. The courts also featured a fully-painted maple surface with a contrasting middle color strip painted from each end of the free-throw lane. The NBA Cup was displayed at center court, and silhouettes of the trophy were also painted on the free-throw lanes. The court designs were based on the home team's "City" uniform for that season.
Not all teams were able to play on their new NBA Cup courts. The Dallas Mavericks' two home NBA Cup games in 2023 were played on more traditional basketball courts due to manufacturing issues affecting their NBA Cup court.
Reactions to the unique court designs were mixed, with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban saying he "wasn't a fan" of the courts, though he did admit that they were a "brilliant marketing idea". Some players, including Jaylen Brown and Luka Dončić, complained that the new courts were slippery. Some fans complained on social media that the courts were too bright and distracting.
For the semifinal and final rounds at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the tournament court was blue with a red middle strip. However, despite playing all tournament games in their black "City" uniforms through the quarterfinals, the Los Angeles Lakers were forced to wear their gold "Icon" uniforms in the semifinal round due to lack of contrast with the court, against the wishes of Lakers players. The Indiana Pacers were also hit with the same restriction.
The 2024 semifinal and final round court featured a similar aesthetic as the team-specific NBA Cup courts for that year, with bracket motifs complementing the three concentric circles and blue and red gradients representing the Eastern and Western Conferences respectively.
With the exception of the championship game, all games in the tournament are counted as regular season games.
To adjust for the differing number of games played by different teams, the NBA's regular season scheduling formula will be modified so only 80 games for each team are initially announced prior to the beginning of the season, with two other scheduled games to be announced:
After the tournament, the league awards the NBA Cup trophy, NBA Cup Most Valuable Player award, championship medals, and an All-Tournament Team.
The winning team of the tournament receives the NBA Cup. The trophy is designed by Victor Solomon and created by Tiffany & Co. It is 35 pounds (16 kg) of sterling silver, vermeil, coated with 24 karat gold, black ceramic and stands at 23 inches (58 cm) tall symbolizing the year the tournament was created. The design features a black cup surrounded by eight gold prongs and a base inspired by the new conference championship trophies. The eight prongs are in reference to the eight teams that qualify for the knockout round. The base design includes 30 net openings which represent the 30 teams in the league.
The winner of the Most Valuable Player award is decided by members of a selected media panel, as well as by online fan votes. In the inaugural tournament, 20 votes were decided by media members while 5 votes were decided by fans.
Players in bold were the NBA Cup MVP. Numbers in parentheses denote the number of All-NBA Cup Team selections up to and including that year.