You can soon start making plans to watch your favorite NBA team.The league announced Monday that it will unveil some “signature” games of the 2026-27 schedule Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today.” If the league follows its blueprint from last season, we can expect the Christmas slate, opening night games and a few other nationally televised opening-week matchups to be revealed.The NBA Cup schedule will be released Wednesday, and full schedules for all 30 teams will be unveiled Thursday afternoon. A mid-August reveal is consistent with last year’s timeline, even though this summer brought some uncertainty surrounding one key free agent.“Where LeBron (James) plays affects the schedule,” commissioner Adam Silver said July 16 while speaking on a panel at the CNBC/Boardroom Game Plan event at Fanatics Fest 2026. “I would like him to make his announcement already so we can finish the schedule, because, as you might imagine, the teams are calling us, the networks are calling us, and everybody wants to lock in the schedule. But it will influence how we set the schedule, how we set opening week, Christmas Day, etc.”
A week later, the 41-year-old James announced his intention to join the Philadelphia 76ers, and it seems like a near certainty that we’ll see James, Jaylen Brown and company featured prominently throughout the season.Why Philly will be LeBron's hardest testDavid Aldridge and Johnny SweetThis will mark the second year of an 11-year, $75 billion national television contract for the league. Last season was the first to feature a new partnership with Amazon and a reunion with NBC.Longtime broadcast partners ESPN and ABC will carry the Christmas games as usual, but they will face stiff competition from the NFL, which has three games (Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills vs. Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams vs. Seattle Seahawks) scheduled for Christmas and one (Houston Texans vs. Philadelphia Eagles) planned for Christmas Eve.The NBA already announced in June that NBA Cup group-play games will begin Oct. 30, with the championship game set for Dec. 11 at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. That will be the first in-season tournament title game not to be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The semifinals of the NBA Cup are also moving from Las Vegas to home sites. Those will take place Dec. 8 or Dec. 9.This story will be updated.
