The History of the NBA Cup

By: Daniel Sorotzkin

On October 21, 2025, the 2025-26 NBA season officially began. One difference between this season and most others, though, was that this season was hosting the third instance of the Emirates NBA Cup. 

The NBA Cup is a multi-stage tournament consisting of a group stage and then a playoff-type elimination bracket with 3 groups consisting of 5 teams, each for each conference. Each team would play 4 group stage games. The top team from each group, as well as one wildcard team from each conference, would advance to the quarter finals. 

The semifinals and finals would be played in a venue in Las Vegas. As a reward for making the playoffs, players would be rewarded more money the farther their teams progressed in the rankings, and those who won the cup would each win around $500,000.

The first NBA Cup took place during the 2023-24 NBA season. In the quarterfinal round, the number one seed in the east, the Milwaukee Bucks, took on the wildcard team, the New York Knicks, while in the west, the Los Angeles Lakers played the Phoenix Suns. The Number two seed Indiana Pacers would play the Boston Celtics in the other East matchup, and the Sacramento Kings would play the New Orleans Pelicans in the West. 

With Indiana beating Milwaukee in the East Semifinals and the Lakers beating the Pelicans in the West, the finals matchup was set: the Indiana Pacers versus the Los Angeles Lakers. In a hard-fought battle, the Lakers came out victorious in a 123-109 victory with LeBron James being named Cup MVP.

In the second edition of the NBA cup, only two of the teams that made the first playoffs made the second, those being the Knicks and Bucks. In some tough quarterfinals matchups, the Bucks won against the Orlando Magic, and the Knicks lost to the Atlanta Hawks. 

In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder overpowered the Dallas Mavericks, and the Houston Rockets squeezed past the Golden State Warriors with a clutch Jalen Green free throw to take the lead with four seconds left.

 In the semifinals, the Bucks managed to win against the Hawks, and the Thunder had no trouble beating Houston. The finals were a challenging battle for both teams, but in the end, the Bucks persevered, and Giannis Antetokounmpo was named the second-ever Cup MVP.

Then came the 2025 Cup. Going into it, the Oklahoma City Thunder were looking like the clear favorites to win it all, as they had 68 wins the previous season and the reigning MVP and Finals MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. It certainly looked like they were going to win it all, as they blew out the Phoenix Suns by 49 points. 

One big surprise was the San Antonio Spurs easily dealing with the Lakers and advancing to the semis, even without their star player Victor Wembanyama. However, in the east, the Magic came back against the Heat, even though they found themselves down 15-0 in the first 4 minutes of the game. In the other East matchup, the Knicks took down the Toronto Raptors with 35 points from Jalen Brunson.

In the semifinals, the Knicks took down the Magic in a dominant fashion, but in the West matchup, there was a big surprise awaiting. The Thunder, who were 24-1 at that point, got handed their second loss of the season with the Spurs' best player, Victor Wembanyama, on a minutes restriction. 

With the finals matchup set, the Knicks and Spurs both showed up to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on December 16, 2025, to decide the winner of the 2025 NBA Cup. In a spectacular matchup, the Spurs were defeated by the Knicks 124-113, and Jalen Brunson was named Cup MVP.