NBA Cup 2025: Players, coaches on future of in-season tournament
NBA Cup 2025: Players, coaches on future of in-season tournament
NBA杯2025：球员与教练谈季中赛未来
As the New York Knicks and Orlando Magic tipped off the first of two Emirates NBA Cup semifinal games Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, plenty of empty seats -- particularly in the upper level -- were scattered across the building.
纽约尼克斯与奥兰多魔术周六在拉斯维加斯T-Mobile Arena打响NBA杯两场半决赛的第一战，但现场大量座位——尤其是上层看台——空空荡荡。
The NBA Cup, which is in its third season, has largely accomplished the objective laid out by commissioner Adam Silver when he first championed the in-season tournament. It has successfully increased the spotlight on the NBA during the early part of the season, when college football and the NFL traditionally dominate the sports calendar. Players have bought in, too, if for no other reason than the more than $500,000 at stake for title-winning players.
NBA杯已进入第三个赛季，基本实现了总裁亚当·萧华最初力推季中赛时的目标：在大学橄榄球与NFL主导赛季的早期，为NBA赢得更多关注。球员们同样买账，毕竟夺冠每人能分超过50万美元。
What hasn't caught on is the atmosphere of the tournament's final stretch to decide a champion. That's in part why the league announced in September that 2025 would be the final Cup featuring a neutral-site semifinals, a recognition that the approach has lacked the energy and enthusiasm the league had hoped to create.
但决赛阶段的中立场地氛围始终未达预期。联盟9月已宣布，2025年是最后一次在第三方城市举办半决赛，承认此举未能点燃足够热情。
And it seems the NBA is pondering another change. Sources familiar with the situation told ESPN recently that the league is considering also moving the title game out of Las Vegas.
据悉，联盟还在考虑把决赛也搬出拉斯维加斯。
Beyond the tournament's future in Las Vegas, there has been plenty of chatter in the lead-up to Tuesday night's finale between the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. From the motivation of prize money and continued frustrations over the schedule, to the growing trend of the knockout rounds showcasing the league's young talent, here is what players and coaches have said about the third installment of the NBA Cup.
除了是否继续落户赌城，人们也在热议周二晚尼克斯与马刺的决赛：奖金驱动、赛程抱怨，以及淘汰赛成为年轻球员舞台的趋势，以下是球员和教练对第三届NBA杯的看法。
The semifinal shift is a welcome one
半决赛改回主场制获好评
If the venue changes for the semifinals of the Cup began this season, those matchups would have been held in Orlando and Oklahoma City because the Magic and Thunder entered the knockout stage as the top seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference brackets, respectively. Both teams lost Saturday in Vegas.
若本赛季就实行新规，半决赛应在奥兰多和俄克拉荷马城举行，因为魔术与雷霆分别是东西部头号种子，但两队周六都在拉斯维加斯输球。
Not surprisingly, the two coaches who would've benefitted -- Magic coach Jamahl Mosley and Thunder coach Mark Daigneault -- approved of the move.
两位本可拥有主场优势的教练——魔术的贾马尔·莫斯利与雷霆的马克·戴格诺——自然支持改制。
"Oh, absolutely," Mosley said with a smile when asked about the change ahead of Saturday's game. "Who wouldn't want to take a home-court advantage?
莫斯利赛前笑着说：“当然支持！谁不想要主场优势？”
"I think it's similar to playoffs. You earn the right to get the higher seed ... I think that's very important."
“这就像季后赛，你打出高排名就该享受主场，这很重要。”
Saturday's matchups could occur again in the 2026 playoffs. Orlando and New York have had some feisty games over the past couple of seasons to create a nascent rivalry between the two franchises. Meanwhile, there is plenty of history between the Thunder and Spurs, who met in the playoffs in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Young star big men Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren have faced off numerous times, a rivalry that began at the FIBA U-19 championship game more than four years ago.
周六的对阵可能在2026季后赛重演。魔术与尼克斯近两个赛季已擦出火花；雷霆与马刺更是老冤家，2012、2014、2016都相遇过，文班亚马与霍姆格伦的恩怨更可追溯到四年前的U-19决赛。
Imagine a scenario where Wembanyama, who had missed the previous 12 games because of a calf strain, returned inside a cauldron of intensity in Oklahoma City as the Thunder looked to continue their record-setting start? Or if the Magic got an extra home game to play a Knicks team it could face again late in the East playoffs?
试想：若文班亚马在俄城复出，雷霆主场气势如虹；或魔术多一个主场再战尼克斯，东部季后赛预演将何等火爆。
"It's a good change by [the league], and it's further incentive [for teams]," Daigneault said. "They want these Cup games to be elevated. Obviously, the cash prize does that. The difference of branding or whatever does that. They are on TV. They are isolated to certain nights. They have done a nice job there.
戴格诺说：“联盟改得好，又多了一层动力。奖金、曝光、专属比赛日都已到位，若再加主场诱惑，球队会更拼。”
"But I think it's further incentive to really go after those games if you can potentially get an extra home game out of it, for sure."
“如果能多一个主场，谁不全力以赴？”
Money remains a motivating factor
奖金仍是最大驱动力
Plenty of discussion over the past few days centered on the cash prize for every player, and what they would do with the money their team won.
近日球员们的谈资离不开那笔奖金以及怎么花。
"[Jaylin Williams] reminds us the exact dollar amount every single day." Thunder forward Jalen Williams said Friday, one day before OKC lost to the Spurs in a thrilling semifinal game.
“杰林·威廉姆斯每天提醒我们具体数额，”雷霆前锋杰伦·威廉姆斯说。
"Half a million dollars is a lot of money, regardless if you make what I make or whatever the case may be, you know what I mean. That's enough money to get you going and play hard."
“50万不少，不管你拿多大合同，都能让人拼命。”
After San Antonio clinched a spot in the knockout round of the tournament with a win over the Denver Nuggets, Spurs forward Keldon Johnson said, "for $500,000, I'd play in a back-to-back-to-back. I'll run through a wall."
马刺前锋凯尔登·约翰逊此前就说：“为50万，我可以连打三天，撞墙也干。”
One major motivator among players is giving teammates on two-way contracts or young guys at the end of the roster a chance at life-changing money.
另一大动力是给双向合同与板凳末端的队友改变命运的机会。
"We don't speak on the value of it [to the two-way players] as much as what it really is," Mavericks guard D'Angelo Russell said. "A lot of guys that didn't really need it [were motivated] knowing that those guys get an extra piece of the cake."
独行侠的拉塞尔说：“大家嘴上不提，心里都清楚，这笔钱对底层队友是巨款。”
That has been a common refrain over the past couple of years, with LeBron James and Anthony Davis two years ago and then Damian Lillard last year openly talking about their happiness at getting those end-of-roster players more money.
过去两年，詹姆斯、戴维斯、利拉德等球星都曾公开表达为底薪队友赢钱的喜悦。
"A lot of people in the league don't make the funds of all the franchise players, the superstars," Suns forward Ryan Dunn said. "Having that chance, having that opportunity is big for them."
太阳新人瑞安·邓恩说：“联盟里很多人挣不到明星的钱，这次机会太重要了。”
"You want to win for those [two-way] guys."
“我们想为那些兄弟赢。”
The schedule -- and frustrations regarding it -- aren't changing
赛程抱怨依旧，但数据并不支持
This month, several team officials complained about the condensed schedule as the league tried to fit Cup games into the early part of the NBA calendar.
本月多位球队官员抱怨杯赛让前期赛程过密。
There's only one problem: The data doesn't back it up.
问题是：数据并不支持这一说法。
Through Sunday night's action, there had been 354 games played this season -- four fewer games from the same point last season and two more than two seasons, before the addition of the in-season tournament.
截至上周日，本赛季共354场，比去年同期少4场，比增设杯赛前多2场。
Meanwhile, stretches of five games in seven days remain from past seasons, and overall, they will be down from 2024-25. But with many teams getting multiple four- or five-day gaps in their schedule as the knockout rounds play out, those dates have to be made up at some point during the regular season.
七天五赛的情况过去就有，且今年将少于上一季；只是淘汰赛期间空出的长间隔需在之后补赛，因此显得密集。
The added travel was a more immediate concern to the teams playing in Las Vegas. Last year, it was Oklahoma City going from its Cup title game defeat to a road back-to-back set against Orlando and the Miami Heat. Last month, Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers described the toll winning the 2024 NBA Cup took on his team.
真正麻烦的是旅途：去年雷霆决赛失利后马上东征背靠背；上月雄鹿主帅里弗斯也坦言夺冠后球队疲惫不堪。
"I think the attention that it gets has been amazing," Rivers said. "Now, I will say, on the back end of it, the team that has won it has struggled coming out. I found that out last year. It's hard."
里弗斯说：“关注度没得说，但夺冠球队之后往往低迷，我去年深有体会，确实难。”
This season, the Magic would have faced a 16-day road trip if they had beaten the Knicks on Saturday -- Orlando starts a four-game western road trip Thursday against the Denver Nuggets.
若魔术周六晋级，将面临16天连续客场——他们周四就要启程四连客。
"Move it to New York," Knicks coach Mike Brown said with a smile. "I'd like that. Let somebody else fly that way for six hours or whatever it was. You know, again, Vegas is great. But to move it around. ...
尼克斯助教迈克·布朗笑言：“干脆搬来纽约，让别人飞六小时试试。赌城很棒，但轮流转才公平。”
"Initially, I doubted them on the Cup, Initially, I doubted them on the play-in games, and they are both phenomenal. So, I really don't know what the hell I'm talking about, so I'm going to leave it up to Adam [Silver]."
“起初我质疑杯赛，也质疑附加赛，结果都被打脸，我还是闭嘴让萧华决定吧。”
The Cup spotlight remains a springboard
杯赛舞台仍是年轻球员跳板
Last season, the Thunder were in the early stages of their historic championship season when they arrived in Las Vegas for the NBA Cup semifinals. And though the Thunder played one of their worst games of that season in the title matchup against the Bucks, OKC guard Jalen Williams said the experience helped prepare the young team for the bright lights of the NBA Finals.
上赛季雷霆在杯赛阶段正值队史级赛季，尽管决赛输给雄鹿，但杰伦·威廉姆斯称那次经历为总决赛预热。
"This right now, like doing the media scrum, I'm going to stay here hours after practice," Williams said Friday. "Just that kind of stuff was what happened in the Finals. That's what happened during the playoffs. It gave us a good gauge of what to expect.
“现在这种媒体围堵、训练后加练，就是总决赛的预演，让我们心里有数。”
"The biggest thing is how to use my time wisely, to know when to get treatment and still stay in a routine. We get to practice it, we get to utilize this."
“学会分配时间、治疗与作息，这就是宝贵经验。”
Perhaps the biggest benefit of the Cup has been allowing up-and-coming teams to showcase themselves on a bigger stage.
杯赛最大价值在于让新锐球队登上大舞台。
Two years ago, when the Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics and the Bucks en route to the Cup championship game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton emerged into the national spotlight. Indiana's Cup experience helped the team prepare for what eventually became a thrilling run to Game 7 of the 2025 Finals.
两年前，步行者连胜凯尔特人、雄鹿闯进杯赛决赛，哈利伯顿一战成名，该经历为他们2025年总决赛抢七埋下伏笔。
Even the Houston Rockets, despite losing to the Thunder in the Cup semifinals last year, were a young team that got a taste of a big stage ahead of their seven-game slugfest against the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs.
火箭去年杯赛半决赛不敌雷霆，却提前体验了高强度舞台，随后与勇士大战七场。
For teams like Orlando, which hasn't won a playoff series since 2010, and San Antonio, which hasn't made the playoffs since 2019, the Cup presents an opportunity to experience the pressure of a one-game scenario.
对魔术（2010年后未赢过系列赛）和马刺（2019年后未进季后赛）而言，杯赛是一次“一场定胜负”的宝贵历练。
"It's a tremendous opportunity to play on this stage," Magic star Paolo Banchero said. "You can just tell by all the stuff going on."
魔术球星班凯罗说：“能站上这舞台太难得，看看周围就知道。”
For the young Spurs and coach Mitch Johnson, the road to the NBA Cup title game represents the biggest challenge the group has faced.
对年轻马刺和新帅米奇·约翰逊来说，杯赛决赛之路是队史至今最大考验。
"I think we can all go to any part of our lives, personally, professionally, where usually experience helps you gain some wisdom," Johnson said.
约翰逊说：“人生任何阶段，经验都会带来智慧，我们正一天一天积累。”
"We're kind of just trying to take all this day by day and know it's a lot of unknown, for a lot of us, not only individually but most of us as a group. ... Don't try to make it more than that, but also allow it to be a positive influence."
“对个人、对团队都是未知，我们不想过度渲染，但肯定会把它变成积极力量。”
ESPN's Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin and Michael C. Wright contributed to this report.
ESPN 记者蒂姆·麦克马洪、戴夫·麦克梅纳明、迈克尔·C·赖特对本报道亦有贡献。
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