The NBA Mid-season Championship is a new annual NBA championship, which was established in the 2023-24 season and all 30 NBA teams will participate. The NBA hopes to attract fans in a new way and attract more fans' interest in the early stage of the regular season.
Before the group draw, each team will be ranked according to last season's regular season ranking. The 15 teams in each league (East and West) will be divided into five grades. The first grade includes 1-3 in each league last season, the second grade includes 4-6, and so on until the fifth grade.
When drawing lots, a team will be drawn from each file to form a team in the league, so each team has teams from the first to the fifth file. Each team will play a group match with the other four teams in the group. A team's record in these four group matches will determine whether the team is qualified to participate in the knockout stage.
The rules of NBA mid-season championship;
The annual mid-season championship officially starts from 1 1.3. All 30 teams in the League will play in 6 groups according to the East and West, and 5 teams in each group will play in the group match. Each team will play a game against the other four teams in the group, which will be divided into two home games and two away games.
After four rounds of competition, the team ranked first in the group will advance to the knockout stage, and the second team with good record in the three groups of each league (East and West) will form the quarterfinals with the wild cards and the teams ranked first in the six groups.
During the mid-season championship, the number of matches (except the finals) and the relationship between victory and defeat will be included in the regular season, which means that only two teams participating in the finals need to play one more game than other teams.
After the mid-season, the NBA will select the most valuable player in the mid-season and the best team in the championship. The selection will be based on the performance of the players in the group stage and the knockout stage.