The NBA schedule now includes the In-Season Tournament where 30 teams have been divided into six groups and are set to compete in the event. The Prize money for the winning team is $500,000 and a beautiful trophy. On designated “Tournament Nights,” every team will take part in 4 group games, one match against each other in their group. Fans have been excited all summer for this tournament but recent reactions say that it did not go down well and have blamed Adam Silver for it.
To make it obvious to spectators that these are In-Season Tournament games, group games, and the quarterfinals will take place on the new courts. The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will host both the semifinal and championship match.
This is certainly the ugliest NBA court ever. pic.twitter.com/llb7gQHBHU
— Steve Perrault (@Steve_Perrault) November 4, 2023
On 3rd November the NBA In-Season tournament was up and running. Teams dawned out on the newly designed courts in style but fans did not seem to be happy about these designs. They were left dissatisfied with the designs made, so much so that one fan wrote on X(formerly Twitter), “This is certainly the ugliest NBA court ever.” While some blamed Adam Silver for this “terrible” start to the tournament
According to ESPN all of the courts have essentially the same layout. With team names on the baseline, a 16-foot-wide runway in a contrasting color down the middle of the floor, and the NBA Cup. Also, the tournament’s trophy is displayed both at midcourt and in the lanes.
How the new NBA In-Season tournament courts came to fruition
One of the important aspects of this tournament was that newly designed courts were needed to differentiate them between the normal league and the In-Season tournament. Hence The league’s creative team started experimenting with a major query. How could they guarantee that spectators would recognize right away that they were seeing a group stage match?
In-Season Tournament Courts are HERE.
See them in action this Friday, 11/3 on ESPN and the NBA App. https://t.co/rG104UFYAC pic.twitter.com/GeqbZl6p3O
— NBA (@NBA) October 30, 2023
A lot of ideas were put forward by the creative team but the one that stood out was the painting of the courts/newly designed NBA In-Season courts. “The biggest decision was to paint the entire court with no wood showing, “ Christopher Arena, the NBA’s head of on-court and brand partnerships told ESPN. “That was the ‘Wow.'”
According to ESPN, by the end of July, they had decided on the following layout: the majority of the court would be painted in a single color that corresponded to each team’s City Edition uniform. Also, with a central strip that ran the length of the painted area from baseline to baseline in a different shade.
This arrangement was intended to resemble an airport runway and give the impression that each group game would have the teams traveling on their own (home court) surface first. Later then to the tournament’s final four in Las Vegas. This came to fruition and was announced soon after.
