The new NBA In-Season Tournament is official, its schedule unveiled, its six groups set.
Now it's time to see if the optimism emanating from the NBA's league office, and some other corners of the league where there's cautious hope for the idea, will be backed by an eventual story of success, interest and, ultimately, player buy-in.
Even among some players and team officials who remain skeptical about the idea -- and they're out there -- it's more insouciance than annoyance that this is happening.
"We'll see," one general manager told CBS Sports. "I'm not wild about it. But I wasn't about the play-in tournament, either. And that worked."
The NBA's announcement Tuesday outlining the six groups, three from each conference, and the games to follow is the first chance for proponents of the in-season tournament to capitalize on a goal league officials have been talking about for several years, one commissioner Adam Silver pushed into reality: Borrowing from international soccer's slate of in-season tournaments during its normal domestic season.
Yes, there are certainly skeptics out there, and their doubts come in many forms.
Why would a star like, say, LeBron James, care about a $500,000 pay-day for winning this thing or winning the banner -- would even there be a banner? -- that hasn't existed until now in his storied career?
Will fans, most unaccustomed to this soccer-inspired format, tune in for November "group play" games and the subsequent tournament that will culminate in December in a semifinals and championship round in Las Vegas?
Should teams, in an age of player management, actually prioritize this thing when there's a long, grueling season still to come?
Does winning this make it more likely head coaches and GMs keep their jobs, and stars get bigger and better contracts next time around?
And what, exactly, have you actually got even if you do win this thing? A championship-light?
To which the in-season tournament's supporters might offer one of two answers: Why not? and Give it time.
The idea from the NBA is to proceed here with real patience. The thought it could take several years to get interest and buy-in where they'd like is baked into the plan. Maybe, the thinking goes, LeBron won't care, but perhaps a Victor Wembanyama or Scoot Henderson will.
Plus, as several NBA front-office officials said to CBS Sports, what's the harm in doubling up regular-season games as "group play" games in an effort to build interest in nights that tend to feel, too often to too many, as utterly meaningless?
League officials also believe pride alone can spur players to compete at a high level as these games become, in effect, elimination games, or close to it, later in the group play stages of the setup.
Take the Elam Ending the NBA introduced into the All-Star Game a few years ago. An event that seemed allergic to defense was transformed with a simple rule tweak. Playing into NBA players' inherent competitiveness and professional pride triggered riveting, defense-fueled, must-watch fourth quarters of what had been -- like the in-season tournament to some -- a joke.
A similar reality could play out in late November, when losing to Phoenix on national television on TNT or ABC and seeing his team eliminated from an actual competition might just motivate LeBron to treat the next 48 minutes like the most important on earth.
Or perhaps Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks threatening to get one over on the Miami Heat in a similar spot might just turn JImmy Butler in Playoff Jimmy several months ahead of schedule.
Will it work? Who knows. Those in the NBA rolling their eyes at this idea certainly speak to a contingency that, at least right now, don't care about the in-season tournament and its brand-new way of building the NBA's slate of meaningful games.
But Silver, and the league under his stewardship, is not afraid of experimentation, ambition and change. And so the long game -- setting out this tournament now with the plan it eventually will work -- very well might overcome whatever short-term squeamishness there is to trying something new.
