The Portland Trail Blazers are 0-1 in the Emirates NBA Cup Group Play round, after losing Friday night to the Los Angeles Lakers 124-118. Although do you care any more about the loss because it dropped the Blazers to 4th out of 5th place in their group? I didn’t think so.
After three seasons of the Emirates NBA Cup Tournament, I’d love to see a collective fan survey of what they think about it. If your team advances to the knockout round, you might start paying attention to the watered down in-season
tourney. Every team gets a special court for the Cup games, some of which are better than others. The Lakers court was so bright yellow, it looked as if the teams we’re playing on a sea of Minions.
Other than the Emirates airline company getting a ton of marketing messaging (like this right now) for the millions they pay to sponsor the event, it’s still hard for fans to care much about what feels like the regular season version of a summer league championship. I suppose if your team gets to the final four, your excitement ticks up to where you’re like, “Well, now we gotta win it. Let’s Goooo!” For Portland Trail Blazer fans, that should be exactly what they are hoping for.
History has been kind to most of the teams that have made the Cup Championship. The inaugural tournament in 2023-24, saw the Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers as Lebron James won the tournament MVP. A marketing fairy tale result for the league, but the real story is about the Pacers. They would roll into the final game against LA as a team barely above .500, but then went on that season to win 47 games and make it to the Eastern Conference Finals. A mid-season trade for Pascal Siakim was a boost to their roster afterwards, but Tyrese Haliburton became a breakout star during that NBA Cup run, and sparked the Pacers making the NBA Finals in 2024-25.
Which segues to the following season, as the Giannis Antetekounmpo and Damian Lillard led Milwaukee Bucks went on to win the 2024-25 Cup, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder would go on to win the NBA Championship that June, and make it back to the Western Conference Finals in 2025-26.
Speaking of last season, what a crystal ball the Emirates NBA Cup was. The veteran New York Knicks defeated the rapidly up and coming San Antonio Spurs, which became a preview of the NBA Finals.
The final tally out of the six teams who’ve played for the Cup:
- OKC and New York won the NBA Championship in the same season.
- San Antonio went to the NBA Finals in the same season.
- Indiana made the Eastern Conference Finals the same season, following it up with a NBA Finals appearance.
Sure you can point to OKC and San Antonio as title favorites regardless, but in the tournament’s short history, two-thirds of its finals participants have gone on to play deep into May and June. The Spurs once again humbled Rip City with a dominating win on its home floor, so we can still clearly see the difference in hierarchy.
The Blazers will live to fight for their Cup life another day, when they travel to Sacramento to take on the Kings this Friday. With Lillard a Cup Champion, and seeing the small market franchise success as a result of getting to the tournament final, perhaps the Portland faithful should follow the current Cup chase with more exuberance?
