Adam Silver floats the idea of Las Vegas hosting a midseason NBA tournament, for whatever reason

[KamaAina]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/adam-silver-floats-the-idea-of-las-vegas-hosting-a-midseason-nba-tournament--for-whatever-reason-175245017.html

Silver, rightfully beloved after just five months on the job, spoke to assembled media on Tuesday, addressing several league issues as the Las Vegas Summer League ran up and down the Thomas & Mack Center court. One talking point, initiated by Silver, circled around a proposed midseason NBA tournament, not unlike the ones already utilized by European football leagues.

The reasoning? As relayed by NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner, the NBA’s competition committee is buoyed by a slight increase in Summer League attendance, which is apparently the impetus behind turning the league on its ear in order to stop everything and fly out to Las Vegas in mid-February for some ham hock tournament. From Aschburner’s report:...

To cram some needless tourney – no specifics have been outlined, thus far – into an 82-game season is just another money grab for a league that wants to put advertisements on the jersey that you just spent hundreds of dollars on to give to your son or daughter on their birthday....

It would not do well to create a pointless tournament, with whatever trumped-up basketball-related payoff, during the middle of the season. A 25 percent increase in attendance at Summer League games is not a reason to add more to the workload of players that we’d prefer not to see cramping up as they play deep into June. For the fourth year in a row. With an Olympics turn and basketball “World Cup” tossed in every other summer.

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Dumb!

I think it's dumb when hockey disrupts its season for their world cup.

Are they going to shorten the season? Is it voluntary?

Can you imagine Popovich letting his guys play in these games?

And, what's the odds the NBAPA goes along? I see it as approaching zero at warp 9.

[KamaAina]

2. Hockey's "World Cup" is known as "the Olympics".

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Not What I Meant

They stopped the season on at least two occasions to participate in the World Championships. (Notice i didn't capitalize it.)

And, i think it's stupid they send their players, mid-season, to the Olympics. I don't care what the event is called.
GAC

[KamaAina]

4. One of those years was the Year of the Lockout

When was the other?

[ProfessorGAC]

5. I'd Have To Check

I'm bitter about it because the Hawks were good that year and the layoff took the steam out of them. I'll check on the year.