If the New Orleans Pelicans win the NBA’s first-ever In-Season Tournament, forward Naji Marshall knows what he would do with the prize money.
“I would build my own gym,” Marshall said. “For real.”
The Pelicans face the Sacramento Kings on Monday in the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals. The winner of that game earns a trip to Las Vegas, where the semifinals and championship games are being held.
Each player from the team that wins the In-Season Tournament championship on Saturday will receive $500,000. If the Pelicans hoist the NBA Cup, a segment of their fanbase will get a nice payday, too.
In August, the Pelicans announced that they would give away $1 million to 100 different fans — what amounts to $10,000 each — in the event that the Pelicans won the In-Season Tournament. The Pelicans are one of eight teams whose hopes are still alive. Fans who attended either of New Orleans’ group stage games in November at Smoothie King Center are eligible to win.
“We started thinking about what’s in it other than a trophy?” Ben Hales, the Pelicans senior vice president of marketing and business, said. “Players get a pretty good bonus out of it. We are asking the fans to help us win the games. We ought to reward the fans if we win. That was the genesis of ‘If We Win, You Win.’ “
Each NBA team was placed in one of six divisions as part of In-Season Tournament group play. The Pelicans won West: Group B despite blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead to the Houston Rockets in their first group stage game.
The Pelicans needed to go undefeated in their final three games of group play to advance. They did that by beating the Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers.
Williamson scored 32 points in the Pelicans’ win over the Clippers last month. Williamson was unable to suit up in the playoffs when New Orleans faced Phoenix in a first-round series in 2022 due to health. Monday’s game against the Kings will be one of the most consequential games he has played in since his time at Duke.
“I think I live for stuff like that,” Williamson said. “In those moments, it’s one of those, ‘There ain’t no tomorrow. You’ve got to figure this out right now.’ I think that’s when you see the best come out of people.”
The NBA has gone to great lengths to differentiate In-Season Tournament games from a marketing perspective. Each team wears alternate uniforms for In-Season Tournament games, and home teams have special courts.
The Pelicans’ black “Skelican jerseys” with neon green trim are a nod to New Orleans at night.
“That’s been something we have been working on for years,” Hales said. “The whole inspiration for that was how do we do something completely different? What makes New Orleans kind of uniquely different? This concept came up of New Orleans at night. That kind of gritty, surreal atmosphere where almost anything can happen. Not necessarily spooky but mysterious.”
Later this season, the Pelicans will debut a new home court that is different than their primary court and their purple In-Season Tournament court that complements the “Skelican” uniforms.
The Pelicans have already beaten the Kings twice this season. Both of those wins came at home.
Beating the Kings again in an unfriendly atmosphere will be a challenge, but Williamson seems up for it.
“For us, we haven’t won nothing,” Williamson said. “I think that would be a starting step to try to go and win that.”
