Could Rupp Arena be the future host site of the NBA Cup Championship?
It’s something the league’s commissioner, Adam Silver, could seriously consider in the near future. Ahead of Tuesday night’s NBA Cup Championship between the Knicks and Spurs, Silver sat down with the Prime Video crew to talk about the state of the association. One of the topics that came up was moving the location of the championship game of the NBA Cup, which is in its third year as the league’s in-season tournament, away from Las Vegas starting in 2026.
One potential option is taking the game to popular college town arenas.
“We’ve loved our experience in Vegas,” Silver said in an appearance on the NBA on Prime pregame show. “We’re talking with Amazon Prime about whether it makes sense to maybe go to some unique locations for the final game. They’ve suggested, for example, some storied college arenas. So we’re just looking at other ways to do this.”
Rupp Arena in Lexington is certainly a “storied college arena” as the longtime home venue for Kentucky men’s basketball.
In The Athletic’s article on Silver’s comments, writer Jason Jones even suggested Rupp Arena as a potential host site for the NBA Cup final. Fans might remember when the NBA held preseason games at Rupp back in 2013, 2015, and 2016. The 2013 game featured the Pelicans (Anthony Davis, Darius Miller) and Wizards (John Wall), while the 2015 game included the Pelicans (Davis) and Kings (DeMarcus Cousins, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Rajon Rondo). The 2016 game brought back the Wizards (Wall) and Kings (Cousins, Cauley-Stein, Skal Labissiere).
Having multiple Kentucky alums on the rosters certainly helped draw in fans, but even still, just under 15,000 people came to watch the preseason game in 2013. A little over 19,000 fans showed up for the contest in 2015. And these were games that didn’t count for anything in the record books.
Now imagine if this year’s NBA Cup championship between the Knicks (Karl-Anthony Towns) and Spurs (De’Aaron Fox, Keldon Johnson) was played in Rupp Arena — there would be significant interest both locally and nationally to see that game in person. Towns went for 16 points and 11 rebounds as the Knicks beat Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, 124-113, to win the in-season title. Compared to most college arenas, Rupp would be well-suited to host a major event like the NBA Cup championship.
The NBA has already announced intentions to move the semifinal round to home arenas as opposed to the neutral site in Las Vegas. However, Silver still wants the championship game to be held at a neutral location. That might just be in Lexington.