“There Was Pushback”: Carmelo Anthony Claims Players in the League Did Not Agree with Adam Silver’s Idea for an In-Season Tournament in the Beginning

Carmelo Anthony recently revealed that there was a strong disinclination among some NBA players regarding the In-Season tournament. As per Melo, many players were not willing to participate in the tournament when Adam Silver first introduced the idea.

Anthony recently addressed the significance of the inaugural NBA Cup on his newly launched podcast 7PM in Brooklyn. According to him, much of this reluctance among players about the tournament was due to the idea being new and the lack of knowledge about how it would unfold. 

“There was pushback[about the tournament], I don’t know how it transitioned cuz I wasn’t around it. But I know at the beginning when the conversations came up and the topic of the idea of the In-Season Tournament, some guys were like, ‘Nah, I ain’t fu**ing with that. I ain’t playing in that’, not knowing exactly what it was,” Melo revealed.

However, he cut the players some slack, pointing out that even the NBA didn’t know how to properly execute the idea at the very beginning. Anthony then explained why the points differential system gave a boost to the competition. As he is involved in grassroots basketball, he knows exactly why this arrangement worked for the In-Season tournament. 

“That point system gives you a different type of competitiveness. A mindset, because I come from-I’m a 100 years old-I grew up on standards and morals. Like if you up 20, don’t shoot at the end of the game…but now it’s like go go,” added Melo.

He explained how the introduction of the points system has made teams more ruthless. Instead of slowing down at the end of the game, teams are now looking to gather more points to get an edge in the points differential.

After that, the NBA veteran mentioned how the current EBL structure featuring high school athletes has adopted this method to up the competition. Therefore, the 2013 scoring champion believes that the In-Season tournament is much like the existing high-school scenario which is focused on knockouts and points differential.

Carmelo Anthony is not a fan of the points differential system

Melo isn’t a fan of the points differential system because of how it has broken some prevalent codes in the NBA. To get the edge in terms of points, teams are sticking to their main units instead of sending the bench when they are up by a lot. Therefore, in Anthony’s view, the introduction of this method is interfering with the spirit of the game.

Like Carmelo Anthony, Jayson Tatum doesn’t like this approach either, among other things in the tournament. During an In-Season tournament group stage game, the Boston Celtics were up 32 points against the Chicago Bulls.

“It wasn’t Joe’s fault or our fault, and like, we were in the game, and I was about to tap…I don’t really want to be out here…If it was a Wednesday, I would have been on the bench, the younger guys would have been out there,” stated Tatum

He fouled Drummond despite the big lead so that they could improve their points differential. This whole procedure didn’t sit right with the Celts’ leading scorer.