Why the NBA Cup is working for Adam Silver, even if it’s still a work in progress

LAS VEGAS — The NBA Cup finale Tuesday night had many of the things you’d want for an emerging product the league started just a year ago to fanfare, buzz and the natural skepticism that comes with something most sports fans don’t quite understand.

Tuesday’s title game in Sin City boasted a cool locale. It featured a showdown between a not-too-distant defending champion in the Milwaukee Bucks and a rising force in the Oklahoma City Thunder. And if, in the end, the game wasn’t exactly close, it was certainly hard-fought, with a healthy share of chippiness, physicality and too-hard fouls — a sign the players, at least, thought the tournament had enough value to fight over.

There were also the requisite superstars in the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, and the Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Throw in a crowd that was bigger and louder than it seemed on television, and this newfangled thing the league had conjured up felt, at least up close, far from a dud.

But while the Bucks won, 97–81, the more important contest remains undecided: Is this NBA Cup, in just its second year, ultimately trending toward a victory for a league that covets something that will someday significantly matter to sports fans?

The early ratings in the leadup to the three cup games here in Vegas were, in the competition’s second year, down from its inaugural season. The word on the street, and in the arena, was that tickets were easy to come by — and inexpensive. 

Neither of those facts screams the cup was a must-watch.

And when the gold confetti floated down from the top of T-Mobile Arena, as the Bucks donned black shirts celebrating the title and Giannis strutted across the floor with a gaudy, giant golden trophy, the moment didn’t quite have that sizzling sensation of awe you get when it happens in June, for an actual NBA championship.

But there was still real joy in the Bucks’ on-court banter, interviews and celebrations. Milwaukee coach Doc Ricers later mingled with media and leftover fans, beaming. Giannis used the chance to note that the victory marked a change for his team — an exclamation point in what has been a huge turnaround after a disastrous 2-8 start. 

“We’re getting better,” he told ESPN’s Malika Andrews. “We’re improving. And we’re going to keep improving.”

He was talking about his team, but he couldn’t have summed up the NBA’s plan for its new in-season tournament any better.

In the NBA league office, there is still confidence in the concept and surety that the NBA Cup, a priority for commissioner Adam Silver modeled after similar in-season tournaments in European soccer, will get plenty of runway to succeed in the years ahead.

Poor ratings, scoffing talking heads, low ticket prices, and other would-be warning signs aren’t going to be assessed as some kind of flashing red light. The league, sources say, are in the NBA Cup business for the long haul. And they largely like what they’ve seen.

Maybe tweaks will be made. Maybe the experiment has to be refined. But the NBA is more likely to assess the value of this thing in five or 10 years than in five or 10 days.

Already, players, coaches, and general managers like the tournament. Several GMs said their players have clearly been motivated to compete at a higher level in cup games, aligning with Silver’s desire to increase the quality of regular-season games.

“I love it,” one GM told CBS Sports. “Anything that gets the guys playing that hard this time of year is great. If all it does is that, why not do it? What’s the harm?”

Players, too, have been open about the way in which playing a group stage, and then a knockout tournament for those that advance, also has the added benefits of simulating playoff basketball.

“So there’s an aspect to that,” the Thunder’s Jalen Williams said this week. “This is the closest thing that you can get to a playoff environment for the most part throughout the whole season, aside from a couple of games that are going to feel like that. We get to simulate a lot of what’s going on during the playoffs, during those stretches, to where we can kind of flex that muscle now and be better on later in the season.”

A close title game would have been welcomed. Those in the NBA league office, in more candid moments, would also admit the Warriors or Knicks might have spiced things up and ever-so-slightly sped up the rate at which the cup can claw its way above the noise in the sports ecosystem and someday make itself matter.

Still, this incarnation of the NBA Cup was … fun. The games were mostly good. The semifinals were interesting, and also chippy. And while there was no Steph Curry, or, like last year, a LeBron James, to assure eyeballs and relevance, Giannis isn’t exactly a nobody.

The NBA Cup isn’t relevant yet. But it just might be in five or 10 years, when we’ll look back and realize the best thing Silver did with this event was give it the time any new venture needs to grow into something that truly matters.