There’s an intensity to the Italian regular season that too often is missing from the N.B.A.’s long fall and winter games. And even if the quality of play in Italy is inferior, the interest in the February Coppa Italia far outstrips whether Team LeBron will prevail over Team Giannis at the N.B.A.’s All-Star Game. “Then you get the Coppa and anything can happen.” Diener, who spent several years in the N.B.A., won the M.V.P. American fans should try to imagine a similar midseason weekend tournament: What if the Bucks, Warriors, Raptors, Nuggets, Celtics, Pacers, Thunder and 76ers were playing in Charlotte this weekend for bragging rights to an American Basketball Cup? It would be a fresh take on a tired All-Star Game whose television ratings have declined by more than 50 percent since the Michael Jordan-dominated 1990s.

Source: New York Times February 16, 2019 14:26 UTC