Report: NBA In-Season Tournament May Happen as Early as 2021-22 With $1 Million Prize Per Player

The NBA is looking to make some calendar changes that could include an in-season tournament.

The NBA's proposed changes to the calendar with an in-season tournament may happen as soon as 2021-22, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Wojnarowski reports that NBA commissioner Adam Silver hopes for the changes to happen that year, which would be the league's 75th anniversary season.

The proposed changes include an in-season tournament with pool-play as part of the regular season schedule. Teams with the best records would advance to an eight-team, single-elimination tournament ending in mid-December, sources told Wojnarowski.

However, some NBA executives reportedly worry that players would prefer to have the five-day break in the schedule that comes from not playing in the tournament rather than participating in it. To incentivize players, the league is allegedly discussing a $1 million prize per player for the winners of the tournament.

The NBA needs the approval of two-thirds of the teams (23) and the NBPA to agree to the calendar changes. In order for the changes to be implemented in 2021-22, they need to be passed at the league's Board of Governor's meeting in April.

The proposals also include reducing the regular season schedule to 78 or 79 games instead of 82. The NBA is reportedly talking with players and the union about a three-part calendar change that would create the post-Thanksgiving tournament, a play-in for the seventh and eighth conference playoff seeds and a re-seeding based off Eastern and Western Conference Finals based on regular season records.