Friday night marked a historic occasion not only for the Milwaukee Bucks, but for the rest of the league as well. It was the inaugural day of the much-talked-about In-Season Tournament, which has the Bucks pitted against the New York Knicks.
Friday’s 110-105 win counts double for the Bucks. It will take part of their regular-season record and has now also put them at 1-0 in the pool play stage of the in-season tournament.
Milwaukee Bucks Coach Adrian Griffin Speaks Out on Tournament Prize

The NBA is doing everything it can to drum up interest from the fans in this unprecedented tournament. However, this will only come to fruition if the players and the teams also buy in on the same.
One of the ways the league has incentivized the teams is by slapping a significant cash prize for the winners of the tournament. The champion team will receive $500,000 for the players, and the winning coach will also pocket a similar amount. That’s obviously a lot of money for an NBA coach.
Adrian Griffin is well aware of this money-driven incentive. The Bucks coach isn’t denying that this will add a bit more extra motivation for him but at the same time, he’s more interested in winning it for his team:
“I just want to win,” Griffin said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Obviously I’m not going to turn down any money but we’re all competitors and if there’s a trophy, we want to win it. The money is a good external incentive but we have some great character people in our locker room and just the competition itself is more than enough.

The trophy is all well and good, but you can be sure that Griffin is also going to be delighted if he’s able to take home half a million dollars as an added mid-season bonus.
The other three teams in Milwaukee’s group are the Miami Heat, the Washington Wizards, and the Charlotte Hornets. Miami secured a 121-114 victory over Washington to go 1-0 as well.
The Bucks’ next in-season tournament game is scheduled for November 17 against the Charlotte Hornets.

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