They say it takes a strong person to admit they were wrong. I'm not sure how strong this will make me, but I am ready to accept that I was wrong about the NBA In-Season Tournament.
One of my first columns was about my opinions regarding the NBA's newest product, the NBA In-Season Tournament. My opinions were almost all negative, and Adam Silver and his associates at the NBA proved me completely wrong on almost all of them.
First, I want to start with the one take I will forever stand by: most specially-made courts for tournament games are terribly ugly. The court for the semifinals and final in Las Vegas was also terribly ugly. The red and blue representing the NBA logo is a clever idea, but the court could have been more pleasant to look at, especially when you had to watch the Pacer's defense try to stop anyone from scoring on it.
My biggest concern about the tournament was the player's level of interest. The NBA has become notorious for its load management problem with the league's superstars and how uncompetitive the regular season has become in recent years. If players couldn't apply effort or care about regular season games, what would change about the tournament games? Especially considering the only reward for winning the tournament was a $500,000 bonus, which, for most star players, is chump change.
However, I could not have been more wrong about the players caring. The tournament games and even those leading into the tournament were absolutely electric. The Kings vs. Warriors qualifying game felt like a real elimination game, with the loser being kicked out of a tournament spot. Pacers vs Celtics felt like a legit playoff game with star power, elite scoring down the stretch, and every fan in the crowd jumping out of their seat. While the final didn't meet the level of those two games, the Pacers and Lakers still had an entertaining game that saw Anthony Davis dominate the Pacer's porous defense.
The last issue I had with the tournament was the timing. I found it dumb that the tournament games were split up between regular season games, and I was worried about the flow of the tournament. While the flow of the games was slightly hard to follow, I cannot deny that the tournament gave us exciting basketball during a time in the NBA calendar that is infamously devoid of exciting storylines and plays on the court.
For that reason and those listed above, I formally apologize to Commissioner Silver and the NBA for writing off the In-season Tournament.
Charlie Fadel is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to share your thoughts? Let Charlie know by emailing or tweeting him at @CharlieFadel or cf111322@ohio.edu.
