…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.
While it’s a different sport, it’s analogous: Steven Gerard won the the FA Cup ( in season tournament equivalent ) but not the Premier League and is considered one of the greatest players in league history. So there’s precedent.
Okay. But the in-season Cups and tournaments in European soccer are a huge deal and have been around forever. The players and fans genuinely care about them, sometimes more than their regular league for some of the smaller clubs.
You cannot compare the Cups and tournaments over there to this random ass tournament they decided to do for whatever reason.