…many taking head critics will say things in 15 years like, yeah Donovan Mitchell never won the finals but his three tournament titles and MVPs have to count toward his hall of fame case.
(For the can’t think so goods, I picked Mitchell at random. Insert any all star who isn’t a mega star in his place. The point is that the tournament has the opportunity to create some meaningful moments that will later become part of a player’s lore.)
I really don’t understand any counter argument: is it Grrrr I want Nov-Dec basketball to be mostly meaningless and ignored?! If it fails, it fails. The only real failure would be if just as people are getting into it, Acuck Silver says, I had to cancel it, it was my fault, X player told me November and December are the new training camp, and so out of respect for my player papi’s, we will gladly return to being a league that is not interesting until after the Super Bowl.
I know that it’s older, footballs been around longer than basketball. While not an exact match, I was just trying to name the closest thing that I could think of to an in season tournament format. I also named a player who won the in season tournament but never the main competition. I believe that if this tournament stays around, in 15 years it would absolutely be a seen as an achievement to have won it. It’s new, it will take time to grow and be fleshed out.