Las Vegas may be bidding farewell to the NBA Cup, partly because of poor attendance at the neutral-site games. Sources suggest the league is rethinking its neutral-site tournament strategy after just three years.
According to an ESPN report on Monday, the NBA is considering moving the NBA Cup in-season tournament out of Las Vegas after three years. According to sources, the league doesn't believe the event — two semifinal games and a championship game at T-Mobile Arena — has worked well enough at a neutral site.
The event started in 2023, with the 30 teams divided into six five-team groups. They played a round-robin that counted as regular season games, with the six champions and two wild-cards advancing to a single-elimination tournament. The quarterfinal and semifinal games also count in the regular season standings; the title game does not.
The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural tournament, and the Milwaukee Bucks won last year. This year's title will be decided on Tuesday night when the San Antonio Spurs take on the New York Knicks.
"I think it's registering well," Washington Wizards guard CJ McCollum, the former president of the National Basketball Players Association, told ESPN last month. "I think there's excitement around it. There's a clear difference in those games. I think you understand magnitude of it, not just because of the [prize] money, and the significance of that, but I think it's the court, the ball, the jerseys ... the NBA has bought into, obviously sponsors have bought into it, the players have obviously provided outstanding performances.
"Look at the last two years, those games have come down to the wire, they've been competitive, there's a different feel than the monotony of the regular-season games."