The NBA Cup knockout rounds are on the horizon, and soon, one of those eight remaining teams will become the third NBA Cup winner, which is starting to hold a bit more meaning around the league.
However, while winning the NBA Cup is a great accomplishment that is being chased by more teams and players every season now, it also may carry a curse that makes you question if winning it is worth all the extra effort.
Teams have played hard during the NBA Cup Tournament over the past few years, and while winning it could be seen as a sign of good things to come later in the season during the NBA Playoffs, it’s actually been a sign of something else.
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Is Winning The NBA Cup A Curse?
Since its inception in 2023, the NBA Cup has been a great success for the league, as it was intended to create more meaning for what were otherwise referred to as “meaningless and unimportant regular season games.”
It’s safe to say that regular-season games through November and December have absolutely thrived under the new NBA Cup format, with some games being eerily similar to playoff settings.
The intensity from the players and teams is there, and the passion from the fans is there; it has been a great sight to see.
But winning the NBA Cup has come with a caveat, at least so far.
The caveat? You are probably going home in disappointing fashion in the NBA Playoffs, but hey, at least you won the NBA Cup and had a nice trip to Vegas.
Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers were the first team to win the NBA Cup, taking it home in 2023. It was another notch on the belt for LeBron James, and because he and his team were the inaugural victors of what many thought would be a stupid tournament, and they celebrated as if they had won the NBA Championship, it greatly helped raise the prestige of the event and, more importantly, winning it.
After winning the NBA Cup, the Lakers landed the 7-seed in the NBA Playoffs but unfortunately drew the defending NBA Champion Denver Nuggets.
Instead of replicating their NBA Cup success by running through the NBA Playoffs and winning the Finals, they were thoroughly defeated in five games by Denver in round one, who at the time was like a thorn in the side of Los Angeles.
Milwaukee Bucks
In the second-ever NBA Cup, the Milwaukee Bucks shockingly ran the table and won it all even though everyone expected them to be a team that was bound to fall apart due to drama surrounding the future of Giannis Antetokounmpo with the franchise.
The Bucks, despite a lot of drama, would go on to secure the 5-seed in the 2025 NBA Playoffs and actually have a lot of hype around them possibly making a deep run, due to many believing that Giannis was about to go on a 2018-LeBron-type run and carry his team.
However, the Bucks were quickly taken out by the eventual Eastern Conference Champion Indiana Pacers in five games in the first round, prematurely ending their run and marking the second year in a row that the NBA Cup Champion was taken out in round one of the playoffs.
Teams Remaining In The 2025 NBA Cup
Orlando Magic
Miami Heat
Toronto Raptors
New York Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder
Phoenix Suns
Los Angeles Lakers
San Antonio Spurs
So ask yourself, given what you know about the first two NBA Cup winners, do you feel as if it’s worth it to go for the win in this year’s NBA Cup?
Maybe that’s a dumb question, but it is an interesting thought.
If there truly is an NBA Cup curse, then one of those eight teams listed above is going to be very happy in mid-December but very disappointed after round one of the playoffs this season.