{"id":2020336,"date":"2026-06-30T23:01:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2020336"},"modified":"2026-06-30T23:01:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:01:25","slug":"nba-cup-championship-game-moving-to-butlers-hinkle-fieldhouse-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2020336","title":{"rendered":"NBA Cup championship game moving to Butler\u2019s Hinkle Fieldhouse next season"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<p>Leaving Las Vegas? The NBA Cup championship game is doing exactly that.<\/p>\n<p>After being held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for its first three years, the championship game for the league\u2019s in-season tournament will be held in Indianapolis at Butler University\u2019s Hinkle Fieldhouse next season, the league announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid1\" data-position=\"mid1\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The game is set for Friday, Dec. 11, and group-play games will take place on \u201cCup Nights\u201d from Oct. 30 to Nov. 27. The league also announced on Tuesday the respective groups for next year\u2019s tournament:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>East Group A:<\/strong> Detroit, Toronto, Orlando, Milwaukee, Brooklyn<\/li>\n<li><strong>East Group B:<\/strong> New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Miami, Indiana<\/li>\n<li><strong>East Group C:<\/strong> Boston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Washington<\/li>\n<li><strong>West Group A:<\/strong> Denver, Houston, Phoenix, Dallas, Utah<\/li>\n<li><strong>West Group B:<\/strong> Oklahoma City, Minnesota, the LA Clippers, New Orleans, Memphis<\/li>\n<li><strong>West Group C:<\/strong> San Antonio, the Lakers, Portland, Golden State, Sacramento<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6892544\/2025\/12\/16\/nba-cup-future-las-vegas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Athletic<\/em> reported in December<\/a> that the league was not under contract with T-Mobile Arena to host the NBA Cup championship in 2026, and the league was \u201cunderwhelmed by the on-the-ground enthusiasm for the event.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before last season\u2019s NBA Cup final, commissioner Adam Silver also said the league was considering moving the championship. He added that \u201csome storied college arenas\u201d were suggested in conversations with Amazon Prime, which broadcasts NBA Cup games as part of the most recent media rights deal. The league had announced in September that the semifinals of the in-season tournament would be held at home sites. In years past, those also took place in Las Vegas. Next season, those will take place Dec. 8 or Dec. 9.<\/p>\n<div id=\"top-league-content-root\"><\/div>\n<p>    {&#8220;endpoint&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql&#8221;}<\/p>\n<p>Despite the move,\u00a0the NBA maintains a strong relationship with Las Vegas. In March, the league\u2019s Board of Governors voted to approve exploring new franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle. Las Vegas has also hosted the league\u2019s primary summer league competition since 2004.<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-pickem\">\n<p>The New York Knicks won last year\u2019s NBA Cup, beating the San Antonio Spurs in the championship game. Six months later, New York won its first NBA championship in 53 years by beating the Spurs again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to give the NBA credit,\u201d Knicks coach Mike Brown said in December. \u201cEverybody naturally fights change or wants to say something against change. I was one of those guys when they came up with the Cup idea, I was like, \u2018Oh, man, for what? In the middle of the season? We are trying to do this and that and practice and blah, blah, blah.\u2019 And as time goes on, you have to give \u2014 starting with Adam, you have to give him a lot of credit for being innovative when it comes to things happening in the NBA, and this is one of them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a really, really neat thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2014 Joe Vardon contributed to this story.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leaving Las Vegas? The NBA Cup championship game is doing exactly that. After being held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for its first three years, the championship game for the league\u2019s in-season tournament will be held in Indianapolis at Butler University\u2019s Hinkle Fieldhouse next season, the league announced on Tuesday. Advertisement The game is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2020336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2020336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2020336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2020336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2020336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}