WE LOVE THE VIBRANT COURTS, BUT WHY IS THE NBA PLAYING THIS NEW EVENT?

Other than slight attention and media money, the league isn’t attracting much from its first In-Season Tournament, unless you’re Tyrese Haliburton and impressing the world from Hawaiian-blue Indiana

     The new courts have rizz, oozing charm and seduction as an Internet-generated slang word. So keep them, with a contrasting splash of throbbing colors from lane to lane, sort of looking Hawaiian-blueish in Indiana and purplish in Utah to traditional themes of gold in Los Angeles and green in Boston and dynasty red in Chicago.

     Everyone adores the look of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament, which needs a nickname but — far more importantly — a purpose beyond a Dec. 9 championship that will be forgotten Dec. 10. We know why commissioner Adam Silver has moved forward, trying to gain more billions from streaming services when massive media bids are announced next year. He’s trying to squeeze something from the calendar when America is locked into college football melodrama and the NFL season.

     “We’re looking to create a new tradition here,” Silver said, “and as the saying goes, new traditions aren’t created overnight.”

     The question is whether anyone is watching beyond fans who like cool designs and hear louder broadcasting voices. The new competition is contrived and hollow, giving us a nice taste of Tyrese Haliburton because he’s playing on national TV for the first time — but also making us wonder if the Pacers will sizzle in May because they are in late autumn. As a soccer fan, Silver is trying to replicate what they do in Europe, where the Champions League features Real Madrid against Arsenal. Or, closer to the truth, he desires an FA Cup challenge featuring knockout action in the English Premier League. But here in the United States, the tournament’s first final could be another Bucks-Lakers game, this weekend in Las Vegas, which strikes me as another “NBA Saturday Primetime” posing as a trumped-up event. If the players view this as an indifferent experience, why should we see it differently?

     “We’ve gotten used to the Larry O’Brien being the main trophy that everybody wants,” said Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, the league’s reigning MVP.

     He’s right, as awarded in mid-June, to the real NBA champion.

     “The end award is what we’re all shooting for, getting to the Finals, getting back there, drilling it and being the best we can,” Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis said. “This is nice, but all our minds are focused on what can happen in June.”

     So the In-Season Tournament doesn’t mean much? The NBA Cup is a schlub? “I don’t think we’re really looking at it that way,” conceded Anthony Davis of the Lakers. “I mean, obviously it’s a big game as far as the tournament goes, but we’re taking it as just another game. Obviously, you want to get to Vegas and have a chance to win it all, but we’re not putting too much stress on or too much pressure on ourselves that this is an end-all, be-all type of game.”

     The motive is to encourage writers to address these moments when I normally would write about NIL or Mike McDaniel. Silver has succeeded in gaining attention by splitting 30 teams into six groups, with semifinals arriving Thursday night. For Haliburton, this is a masterpiece appearance, showcasing the league’s only player to average at least 26 points and 11 assists a game. His team is fun to watch, not an item we’d notice in normal times. “I just want to win. I’m tired of being a loser. I’ve got to do a better job of finding ways to win,” he said. “You don’t play on national TV if you don’t win games. The more we come out here and prove that, on a night-to-night basis, that we can win games, it’s gonna change. And that’s all that we’re about right now, changing how this organization is viewed and how we are as players viewed.”

     To win the clash — and the sterling silver trophy, coated with 24-karat gold — means something dramatic to the Pacers. For the Lakers and Bucks, who have won titles in recent seasons, it’s a chance to fly to Vegas and make $500,000 per player for winning and $200,000 for making the final. A championship would mean more to a team that hasn’t accomplished much, the New Orleans Pelicans, who have made the semis. “That’s something that you can give to family members or whatever you plan on doing with it. I think that’s good motivation,” Zion Williamson said. “But also, for us, we haven’t won nothing. So, I think that would be like a starter step for us, trying to go and win that.”

     “I’m sure,” said Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton, “that the richest guy in the world would be happy to get $500,000.”

     Unless your name is LeBron James, who makes $47 million this season and around $500,000 a game anyway. No matter what he says if he wins, he’s mostly trying to position the hot-and-cold Lakers as a postseason contender. “Some of the courts looked a little funky, but I think it's great in the sense of the league spicing things up,” James said.

     The gambling offshoots are outrageous on television, as predicted, with Silver shutting down all particulars to a possible gambling scandal. Bet here! Would a city actually plan a parade for an In-Season Tournament champion? The Wall Street Journal asked Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, whose spokesman said, “If the team wants a parade, we’re happy to work with them on that kind of celebration.” Yep, call us if you win, and we might help you move some cars on Kilbourn Avenue.

     One major problem arrives in the point-differential category. If the tournament were significant to the world, why would the Celtics keep starters in a blowout game — and play hack-a-Drummond with the Bulls center — when they had win by at least 23 points to reach the quarterfinals? Why did the New York Knicks pound on Charlotte, with Josh Hart saying, “It messes with the integrity of the game.” Said Golden State coach Steve Kerr: “Um, I’ll let Adam Silver answer. He gets to decide what we should do. I don’t know. We will be trying to win the damn game.”

     But in downtown Indianapolis, where the court glowed and the fans were aglow, the event works. “I haven’t seen that kind of energy in this place in the last three, four years,” Myles Turner said of Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

     “It’s not just about being here. It’s about winning,” Haliburton said. “We’re excited to get out to Vegas.”

     In June, players will be excited to reach Denver or Boston. Those are the whereabouts of champions. But they can keep the new courts, please.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.