The semi-finals of the third NBA The Cup, initially called the In-Season Tournament in 2023, will be played on Saturday in Las Vegas. The NBA, happy with the third-year event, is choosing not to change its placement in the 2026 calendar.
“We’ll be in December again for the Round of 16 next year,” said Evan Wasch, NBA executive vice president and head of basketball strategy and growth. “So far, we are very pleased with what we have seen during this period from November to December.”
Several measurements illustrate the NBA CupThe success of generating interest at the start of the season. Social media views on NBA-owned platforms in November doubled since 2019, with the largest year-over-year increase occurring in the tournament’s first year in 2023. This season, NBA Cup nights average 24% more views than non-Cup nights.
NBA Cup group games over the past three seasons have averaged 1.44 million viewers, up 26% from comparable November nights last season before the tournament. Although television audience comparisons to this season are tricky because the league has new media partners this year (including NBC), the final week of this year’s NBA Cup group stage was the most-watched week of the regular season since the 2018-19 season, excluding Opening Week and Christmas.
In terms of corporate partners, the tournament is also progressing positively, with sponsors increasing from seven in 2023 to 14 in 2025.
Wasch noted that no decisions have been made beyond 2026 regarding the Cup schedule. January, however, is a busier and more uncertain time in the sports calendar, with the recent expansion of the 2022 NFL playoffs and the potential further expansion of the College Football Playoff.
The NBA isn’t opposed to adjustments — even a change as drastic as competing European teams are reportedly on the table — but the league is in no rush.
“The vision we had with the Cup several years ago was to create a second championship,” Wasch said. “Momentum has been building over the last couple of years, but it was always a long-term vision…that could become a true basketball event and legacy for players and teams. It could take five, 10 years, or even a generation, to take hold like we think.”
The format remaining the same as in 2024, the most important changes in 2025 could concern the presentation. The Round of 16 is being broadcast exclusively by new media partner Amazon, which broadcast its first NBA game seven weeks ago but immediately made its mark as almost all the games on Prime Video so far have been Cup matches.
“This is (Amazon’s) event. That’s what they’re going to throw their weight behind in trying to do things differently,” said Paul Benedict, NBA senior vice president and chief broadcaster.
For the semi-finals and final, the performance of the national anthem and live presentations of the starting lineup will be part of the broadcast. The move comes after the 2025 NBA Finals, when the league reintroduced live starting lineup intros before Game 5 in response to fan complaints that the Finals broadcast was too similar to the regular season. “The branding part, which was a takeaway from last year’s finale, was important,” Benedict said. “We’re trying to really organize this.”
But the product on the field comes first. It helps that about 60% of Cup games have been “clutch” games (with a point differential of five points or less in the final five minutes). That’s higher than the 56% regular season rate and 53% playoff rate over the past three years.
Player buy-in has been crucial, but not surprising, given that the tournament was negotiated between the league and its players’ union during collective bargaining in 2023. Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero said the environment “simulates the playoffs a little bit,” echoing other players’ sentiments about the competitiveness of the games.
Wasch says the league would like to create even more urgency around previous round-robin games. It’s, in a way, a simple elimination: eight of the 22 teams that went 3-1 in the group stage didn’t advance to the round of 16.
“A group stage feels like you have some breathing room from a competitive point of view, but it’s very little,” Wasch said. “If you want to be sure of progressing in the Cup, you have to be 4-0 to guarantee it… I don’t think that’s taken into account yet, but I think it will happen over time.”
The biggest change in 2026 will be to play the semi-finals in their home markets, with only the final played at a neutral site, so that teams can get an extra round of fan engagement in their home arenas. Ultimately, this final location may not be Vegas either.
“Whether it’s here in Vegas or in another market in the future,” said Kelly Flatow, NBA executive vice president and global head of events, the focus is on “building the championship to be this incredible crown jewel.”
