Tim BontempsDec 15, 2025, 11:44 AM ET
- Tim Bontemps is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com who covers the league and what's impacting it on and off the court, including trade deadline intel, expansion and his MVP Straw Polls. You can find Tim alongside Brian Windhorst and Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective podcast.
LAS VEGAS -- The Emirates NBA Cup might be leaving Sin City.
The league is openly considering the possibility of moving the championship game of its in-season tournament away from Las Vegas for next season, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.
That decision, which comes in the wake of the league announcing back in September that this would be the last season both the semifinals and championship game will be played at a neutral site, is a recognition that the neutral-site approach has lacked the energy and enthusiasm, at least to this point, the league initially hoped it would.
The event, now in its third season, has largely accomplished the objectives the NBA had for it when commissioner Adam Silver championed its creation. It has led to an increase in attention for the league in the early part of the season, when football dominates the calendar. And players have bought into it -- if for no other reason than the more than $500,000 at stake for each player on the winning team.
"I think it's registering well," Washington Wizards guard CJ McCollum, the former president of the National Basketball Players Association, told ESPN last month. "I think there's excitement around it. There's a clear difference in those games. I think you understand magnitude of it, not just because of the [prize] money, and the significance of that, but I think it's the court, the ball, the jerseys ... the NBA has bought into, obviously sponsors have bought into it, the players have obviously provided outstanding performances. Look at the last two years, those games have come down to the wire, they've been competitive, there's a different feel than the monotony of the regular-season games."
The one thing that hasn't necessarily clicked, however, are the neutral-site games played in Las Vegas. There have been empty seats for most of the eight games that have been played in Vegas across the last three seasons, and the atmosphere hasn't been the same as the home games played in the quarterfinals -- which is what led the league to announce that change for next season back in September.
