A fantastic one-on-one conversation between NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Bill Simmons from the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference:

Adam Silver is one of the most thoughtful, enthusiastic, and interesting guys in sports leadership. He clearly cares immensely about promoting the health of the league and players. This conversation ranges through mental health, NBA trade deadlines, G League, tampering, and more.

At least 3 or 4 times he references European soccer features as having potential in the NBA — relegation (a long shot), player academies, and my favorite idea, a mid-season tournament. The FA and League Cups in England are great models you could use. But it’d take time to build enough tradition to give weight to the tournament trophy itself.