Sorry Luka, the NBA Play-in Tournament is Tremendous

LeBron and Luka are upset because the NBA is making them earn their playoff entry. And I love it.

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At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of the NBA’s play-in tournament for the 7-10 seeds in each conference. It felt like a gimmick. The regular season doesn’t mean that much in the NBA, and I wasn’t sold on this making any impact.

I’m here to say I could not have been more wrong, as the negative comments from LeBron and Luka in recent weeks reveal.

Both star players are upset because they feel that a whole season should not come down to one game at the end. But that’s not what’s happening at all. Instead, the play-in has provided an amazing incentive to play hard down the stretch to make the top 6, so you avoid the play-in tournament. More game matters, not just the last one.

In short, LeBron and Luka are upset because the NBA has instituted the closest thing to a meritocracy in American sports in decades and they don’t know how to react.

We see this all the time in European soccer, where clubs have to qualify for the Champions League and many have to go through extra playoff rounds to get to the group stage. Ditto for the Copa Liberatores in South America, and CONCACAF’s Champions League in North America.

The same thing applies for the World Cup, as some teams are able to directly qualify for the World Cup finals while others have to go through a playoff round to get there. No one in soccer cries about it because they understand that’s how it works.

Major League Baseball instituted something similar when adding a second Wild Card team and, predictably, people complained that it was unfair that a 162-game season would be decided by one game. That’s the beauty of sports! You play the 162 to win your division to avoid that one-game playoff. That’s the incentive.

If there was no play-in tournament, the Lakers and Mavericks would be coasting to the playoffs without anything to play for, as has been the case for the entirety of my life. Instead, every game feels more important than ever. It’s not as if the Lakers are going to be eliminated completely if they go into the play-in – in fact, they would just have to win one of two games against teams they are clearly better than. Why is this bad?

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It’s only bad because it directly affects Luka and LeBron. You don’t see players on the Suns or the Pelicans complaining about it, because it’s good for them. For the Suns, the #1 seed in the West now gives them not only the worst team to make the playoffs, but one that had to exert extra energy to get there. The #1 and #2 seeds in each conference almost get the luxury of a bye, by facing teams that have had that extra hurdle to climb.

For the Pelicans, it gives them hope. In the old format, their season would essentially be done, barring a miracle. Today, they are within range of catching the Spurs, and can you even imagine what a play-in game between Steph Curry’s Warriors and Zion’s Pelicans would be like? Or even more delicious, a Warriors/Lakers play-in game?

The NBA has not only figured out a way to keep teams and fans interested in the final weeks of the regular season, but they’ve added 3 playoff games that will not ruin the structure of the playoffs while adding tremendous value. It’s a stroke of brilliance.

As an NBA fan in Washington, D.C., the play-in tournament couldn’t be timed any better. The Wizards dug themselves a mighty hole to start the season, due in large part to COVID running through the team at the onset of the season, delaying the meshing of Russ Westbrook and Bradley Beal, on top of numerous injuries. Oh yeah, and Scott Brooks sucks.

Still, the Wizards are currently in 10th. In a normal year, they’d be chasing down the 8 seed, with only two games to make up in the final weeks of the season. Yet, they are still chasing down the 8 seed, because doing so would give them a much different path to the playoffs. As an 8 seed, they’d be guaranteed to play two games and would just have to win one. As a 9 or 10 seed, they’d need to win two games in a row to make the playoffs.

It has ended up as a genius move from NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who has seen his exalted status questioned in recent months. This hasn’t been the best season for the NBA, with a compressed schedule with too many games to chase too much money and causing too many injuries. Through that smoke, the play-in tournament has been a revelation.

Don’t ignore LeBron or Luka, though, because their opinions mean far more than you’d think. Their dislike of a merit-based system for the playoffs is exactly why it’s so great.

I’ve never been more interested in the final weeks of the NBA regular season, while still as excited as ever for the playoffs to start. 

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