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The NBA Board of Governors on Tuesday approved the decision to continue the play-in tournament for the 2021-22 season.
The tournament will maintain the same format that it had this year, meaning teams that finish the regular season with the seventh-highest through the tenth-highest winning percentages in each conference will compete to fill the seventh and eighth playoff seeds in each conference.
But household names in the league - including Lebron James, Luka Doncic and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban - won't be happy about the news.
After the Lakers suffered a 114-121 defeat to the Toronto Raptors on May 3, a frustrated James took a shot at the tournament.
James told ESPN's Dave McMenamin that 'whoever came up with that s--- needs to be fired'
LA Lakers stars Lebron James won't be too happy about the NBA's decision to keep the NBA play-in tournament for the foreseeable future
The Lakers' star's criticism came after Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic questioned the league's new postseason qualification format, which was introduced in 2019.
Back in early April when the Dallas Mavericks were the seventh seed of the Western Conference with a 30-26 record, Doncic criticized the league by saying he 'didn't see the point' of the expanded postseason format and that the Mavs could 'lose two in a row and you're out' after playing 72 games to earn a spot in the playoffs.
Cuban interfered soon afterwards saying that the new format was an 'enormous mistake' because it 'doubles the stress of the compressed schedule' and
