Report: NBA wants to revisit midseason tourney talks

The NBA hopes to reopen discussions with players and teams about implementing a midseason tournament, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

If approved, the proposed competition wouldn't be introduced until at least 2022-23, according to Wojnarowski.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver reportedly believes the success of the end-of-season play-in tournament, which debuted in its current format this year to favorable reviews and ratings, may help convince team owners and the players union to support a midseason competition. Silver has pushed the idea for several years now based around a similar model to European soccer.

"It's incumbent on me to constantly be looking at other organizations and seeing what it is we can do better and learn from them," Silver told Marc Stein of The New York Times in May 2019. "In the case of European soccer, I think there is something we can learn from them."

The league reportedly discussed a format for the new tournament that would pay $1 million to each player on the winning team. Eight teams would reportedly qualify for the single-elimination tournament through a pool-play scenario during the regular season.

However, some teams have reportedly expressed uneasiness about possibly losing gate revenue from as many as two home games to fit the tournament into a 78-game regular-season schedule.

Executives are also apparently worried that the NBA's highest-paid players would avoid participating in a midseason competition in favor of resting. However, the league believes those stars would ultimately be convinced based on their reception of this year's play-in tournament and recent changes to the All-Star Game's format.