Michael Wilbon isn’t digging the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament.
The host of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” said on Friday’s show that players shouldn’t need “a stupid trophy and orange slices” for motivation to compete during the regular season.
“I’ll give you a couple of reasons,” Wilbon said in a discussion with co-host Frank Isola. “It’s already supposed to count, Frank. It’s a game on the schedule. These aren’t separate games. It’s a game on the schedule you’re paying good money to see. Players are being paid to play these, and now you’re telling me, ‘I’m gonna assign something else.’
“Speaking of our obsession with analytical junk, so I’m gonna assign something phony to it, let the marketing people run my league. The marketing people are gonna say to you, ‘Go watch this game, we’re gonna assign it an extra value, so then we can give people orange slices and trophies at the end of it.’
“If it’s supposed to matter, Frank, let it matter… Let’s convince all you dopes that these games are special. No, it’s a Wednesday night in Milwaukee. That’s what it is.”
The tournament began on Friday night, including the Knicks’ loss to the Bucks, and the Nets’ win over the Bulls.
Each team will play four games in pool play before four teams from each conference advance to the knockout round, with the championship game — including prize money of over $500,000 per player — to be held Dec. 9 in Las Vegas.
Some fans on social media also were critical of the gaudy and colorful courts designed for each team’s home games in tournament games.
Wilbon added that Michael Jordan never would have needed added motivation, even early in the season.
“He didn’t need a phony cup,” Wilbon said. “He didn’t need a theft from soccer. This is to satisfy all the under-40 soccer heads…Frank, I know it’s gonna work. I didn’t say it wasn’t smart. It is smart. It’s a straight lift, so it can get a whole generation of kids that might go, ‘Ehh, I don’t know, I’m watching [the] Champions League.’ They’re gonna pull some of those kids away. It’ll work.
“It’s a marketing ploy. That’s all it is. It may be genius. I’m cynical. I’m like, stop it. Don’t try to tell me it means something additional, ’cause it doesn’t.”