Sorry LeBron, the NBA Play-in Tournament is Fantastic

LeBron and Luka are upset because the NBA is making them earn their playoff entry. And I love it.

At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of the NBA’s play-in tournament for the 7–10 seeds in each conference. It felt like a gimmick. The regular season doesn’t mean that much in the NBA, and I wasn’t sold on this making any impact.

I’m here to say I could not have been more wrong, as the negative comments from LeBron and Luka in recent weeks reveal.

Both star players are upset because they feel that a whole season should not come down to one game at the end. But that’s not what’s happening at all. Instead, the play-in has provided an amazing incentive to play hard down the stretch to make the top 6, so you avoid the play-in tournament. More game matters, not just the last one.

In short, LeBron and Luka are upset because the NBA has instituted the closest thing to a meritocracy in American sports in decades and they don’t know how to react.

We see this all the time in European soccer, where clubs have to qualify for the Champions League and many have to go through extra playoff rounds to get to the group stage. Ditto for the Copa Liberatores in South America, and CONCACAF’s Champions League in North America.