The NBA In-Season Tournament might be Adam Silver's best decision as commissioner
This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Thanks so much for reading the Morning Win today! We appreciate you.
Adam Silver needs to call for an emergency press conference at some point today and just do the Gladiator thing the entire time. “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?” Because that man deserves to take a victory lap around the success of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament.
Adam Silver has done a lot of good things for the NBA. Players are raking in obscene amounts of cash now. The league is making more money than ever before. He’s also managed to ditch not just one, but two, problematic owners through his tenure as commissioner.
But, as far as basketball goes, the In-Season Tournament has got to be Silver’s crowning jewel as a commissioner. Whenever he chooses to step down, this tournament will be the thing he leaves behind.
There’s something about single-elimination sports tournaments that just works so well. Every single time. There are automatically stakes and drama, even without an extra $500,000 on the line.
Oh, and by the way, enough with saying the players won’t care about that. Look at how excited some of these dudes on the Pacers’ bench are knowing they’re about to advance. Tell me they don’t care about that money.
look at that bench. the Pacers have 10 players on the books who make less than $3 million in salary this season (3 two-way contracts). $500k per player to the winner of the tournament. get nuts. https://t.co/B4jPrZlPuR
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) December 5, 2023
The courts are wonky. The jerseys are goofy. But this basketball is good, man. It was great to watch Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers get excited about cooking against one of the best defenses in the league. It was fun to watch the Pelicans put together a complete win without an incredible game from Zion Williamson. That’s the stuff the fans need to see. It’s the most important function of this tournament.
RELATED: Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers just put the NBA on notice
Earlier in October when the season started, Adam Silver said he wanted to change the way the NBA is covered. There wasn’t enough talk about the game — at least not compared to all the fluff around it.
This tournament changes that. It brings the focus back to basketball again. Honestly, watching it has been extremely refreshing.
I don’t know how the rest of this thing is going to go throughout this week. But I’m confident enough in what we’ve seen already to say this: The NBA In-Season Tournament works.
When this is over, can we do this again in March? Please, NBA?
Jake Browning just earned himself a contract, didn’t he?
I had no idea who Jake Browning was before last night, but I absolutely know who he is now. And so does the NFL after his stunning performance against the Jaguars on Monday night.
RELATED: Here are all the NFL’s backup quarterbacks
Browning kept the Bengals’ playoff hopes alive in a 34-31 win over the Jags that came down to a last-second field goal. Browning was brilliant in this one, completing 32 of his 37 passes for 354 yards and a touchdown. He’s the first undrafted player to put up numbers like this at quarterback since 1967, per ESPN.
Per ESPN Stats & Info: Bengals QB Jake Browning is the first undrafted player since 1967 (Common Draft Era) to throw for 350 passing yards and complete 85% of his passes in a game.
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) December 5, 2023
Like I said, the NFL knows who he is now. It’s just one game, so he’ll have to keep this up. But I totally expect this dude to get the Matt Flynn treatment down the line.
Speaking of backup QBs, the Jaguars seem to have a situation on their hands now with Trevor Lawrence spraining his ankle. C.J. Beathard is the current backup and seemed decent. But will he be able to keep the Jaguars afloat at the top of the division? We’ll see.
If not, here are other options presented by our Christian D’Andrea.
What’s up with the Jets?
Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Apparently, the Jets want to name Zach Wilson the starting quarterback for the team. But, in a wild twist, he doesn’t appear to want the job? Even after Aaron Rodgers tried to convince him to take it, he said no.
It’s weird, man. Robert Zeglinski has more.
“The New York Jets made their bed. Zach Wilson thinks they should lie in it.
As the Jets’ 2023 season finishes spiraling down the drain, news that they wanted to turn back to Wilson as their starting quarterback caused a major fervor on Monday. The development was unsurprising given how poor Tim Boyle has been and that Aaron Rodgers really won’t play this year.
But Wilson — outside of contractual obligations, of course — owes the Jets nothing. Never mind that at seemingly every turn, they’ve been determined to undermine the former No. 2 overall pick: why would Wilson want to play and risk his personal health for a team that’s demonstrated it probably doesn’t care all that much about him?”
It’s hard to blame Wilson here, honestly. He stinks. We know that. Wilson playing won’t make a difference. His future isn’t with this team and we learned that when Robert Saleh went in a different direction with Tim Boyle. From Wilson’s perspective, that’s the choice the organization made and it’ll have to live with it now.
That’s tough, Jets. But, hey! Look on the bright side. At least Aaron Rodgers can practice again.
Quick hits: NFL Power Rankings are here … Put the Pacers on national TV more … and more
— Here’s Christian D’Andrea and Robert Zeglinski with your weekly NFL power rankings. The 49ers look like the real deal, man.
— NBA fans think Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers should be on national TV more and, yeah, I agree. Bryan Kalbrosky has more.
— Tua Tagovailoa doesn’t think FSU got a fair shake with the College Football Playoff. Cory Woodruff has more.
— Darvin Ham is speaking on the Ime Udoka and LeBron James beef and, yeah, you’ll want to hear what he has to say. Meghan Hall has more.
— Is…Is Jordan Love good now? Christian D’Andrea seems to think so.
— Here’s Tyler Nettuno with the takeaways from Conference Championship weekend in College Football.
That’s all, folks! Thanks so much for reading TMW today. We appreciate you. Let’s chat again tomorrow. Peace.
-Sykes