NBA Commissioner Adam Silver yesterday at the league's BOG meeting said that the competition committee is considering creating a mid-season tournament that could potentially be held in Las Vegas. Silver said, “One of the things the competition committee talked about and seemed excited about is potentially some sort of mid season tournament. Very early days in the discussion of that, but we're looking at other opportunities in the league to create excitement. As one of our general managers said at the meeting, there's very few things that you can win in the NBA. I mean, when you think about European soccer, for example, they have the FA Cup and they have other tournaments throughout the season, so ... if we were to look at some sort of mid season tournament I would imagine doing something in Vegas. This would be a terrific neutral site location" (John Lombardo, Staff Writer). In L.A., Mike Bresnahan notes Silver also "envisioned a postseason NBA awards show to be held in Las Vegas" (L.A. TIMES, 7/16).
UPON FURTHER REVIEW: Silver said that the league’s new centralized replay system will be "put into use beginning with WNBA games in September and in preseason games in October." Silver added that he "expected it to be fully operational by the start of the NBA season." Silver: "It’ll give our officials the assistance of a replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey, where they will be able to queue up the plays for the officials who will then review them. The decision will still lie with the officials at the game on the court. They will have the ultimate decision on every call.” In N.Y., Tim Bontemps notes the goal for the new system is to "try to streamline the process and speed it up in order to try and limit the amount of time spent waiting for the officials to make decisions on calls" (N.Y. POST, 7/16). SI.com's Ben Golliver noted for years, "instant replay decisions have fallen to the three game referees, who must go over to a courtside monitor and review their own work." Generally speaking, the TV monitors available for reviews "aren't that large, and there have also been questions as to whether the referees have every pertinent replay angle available to them on their feed" (SI.com, 7/15).
QUEEN'S FEAST? In Charlotte, Rick Bonnell notes Silver reiterated that the Hornets' chance of hosting a future NBA All-Star Game is "contingent on the city approving various upgrades to Time Warner Cable Arena." Silver said that there have been "no recent discussions on this matter, but he has assured Hornets owner Michael Jordan and team president Fred Whitfield he'd love to bring the All-Star Game back to Charlotte" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/16).
