NBA unveils special new Celtics court for in-season tournament
This year features the first ever in-season tournament in the NBA. While the event has been met with a range of reactions, the league is clearly going all-out to make it special for the teams and the fans.
One differentiator for the tournament was announced on Monday. Each team will have a special floor design it will use for the tournament games. Across the league all the floor designs follow a similar pattern with colored wood and a stripe down the middle and the in-season tournament trophy in the middle, but feature little details unique to each team.
“The courts, which will be used for Group Play and the Quarterfinals, showcase a bold and distinctive design scheme league-wide, making it instantly clear to fans when a game carries NBA In-Season Tournament implications,” the league shared on NBA.com.” The unified look represents the first time that the league has implemented an alternate court for all 30 teams and the first time that any NBA team has played on a fully painted court with no woodgrain details. This will also mark the first time that the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Trail Blazers will play on an alternate court in the history of the franchises.”
As mentioned there, this will be the first time the Celtics play a home game on a floor other than their iconic parquet. The Celtics’ floor is dark green with a tan stripe down the middle. An alternate ‘Celtics’ wordmark sits at halfcourt, above Red Auerbach’s signature and Bill Russell’s No. 6.
The first of the new NBA courts will debut this Friday when play in the in-season tournament begins. Boston won’t see the Celtics’ new court until Nov. 10, when the C’s host the Brooklyn Nets in the first of four Group Play games in the month.
Introduced this season, the in-season tournament was added by the NBA to add more meaning to regular season games. Teams were split up into six groups of five for Group Stage play, leading up to a final single-elimination tournament with four teams from each conference (the three group winners and the second-place team with the best record). All in-season tournament games will count towards regular season records with the exception of the championship.
For this first year the Celtics are in Group C in the Eastern Conference. They’re joined by the Nets, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, and Chicago Bulls. The five teams combine for the highest collective 2022-2023 season winning percentage of any group in the tournament.
Alex Barth is a writer and digital producer for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Looking for a podcast guest? Let him know on Twitter @RealAlexBarth or via email at [email protected].
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