LeBron James is Going to Love the NBA Decision on Play-in Tournament

How will LeBron James react to the new decision on the NBA all-in tournament? We all know that the Los Angeles Lakers superstar is not really a fan of it. He and his team played it and confronted Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski: “The NBA and the Players Association have agreed to extend the play-in tournament format through the 2021-2022 season…The league’s Board of Governors will make it official in a formal vote soon.”

This doesn’t come as a surprise. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver approved the tournament. He spoke about this in May. Yes, he wanted it to be around. NBA teams aren’t really excited because players will have to take another game after a long season. But, these play-in games may be of great help for some franchises.

“I haven’t made any secret that I want it to be [around long term]. I have two constituencies I need to convince of that. One is the 30 teams, and I think for the most part they’ve supported it. Again, I understand the sentiment if I were a team — a 7-seed in particular — the notion [that] after a long season, you could potentially play out of the playoffs. I understand those feelings. I think at the same time, the teams recognize the amount of additional interest we’ve created over the last month of the season plus those play-in games make it worth it.”

Adam Silver doubled down on his decision about the NBA play-in tournament

In July, Silver discussed the same topic about this during his pre-Finals press conference. He said it was positive for the league and all the players.

This makes sense. The Warriors vs. Lakers game was really fun and ESPN had highest ratings for an NBA telecast since 2019.

? ESPN's exclusive telecast of last night's #Lakers v #Warriors NBA Play-In game drew an average audience of 5,618,000 viewers, peaking w/ 6,149,000 viewers from 12:30-1am ET. It was the most-watched NBA game on ESPN since the 2019 Western Finals & up 190% v 2020 Play-In on ABC. pic.twitter.com/ESjH2MOKXi

— Ben Cafardo (@Ben_ESPN) May 20, 2021

Jared Dudley is a great fan of this tournament. He supported the decision.

Ratings was way to high to get rid of… Kept 10-12 extra fan bases involved last couple months of the season… Will help with the TV money when contract eventually runs out.. https://t.co/gzIp6ncuwp

— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) July 16, 2021

Silver supported incentivized midseason competitions throughout his entire career.

LeBron didn’t like the tournament because his team had to take part in it. But, he won and that’s the only thing that matters.

LeBron on the play-in tournament: “Whoever came up with that shit need to be fired”

— michael corvo (@_michaelcorvo_) May 3, 2021