2025–26 NBA season

The 2025–26 NBA season is the upcoming 80th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The regular season is scheduled to begin on October 21, 2025, and end on April 12, 2026. The third edition of the in-season NBA Cup tournament is planned to be held from October 31 through December 16, 2025. The 2026 NBA All-Star Game is scheduled for February 15, 2026, at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.^[1] The play-in tournament is scheduled to be played from April 14 to 17, 2026, followed the next day by the opening of the playoffs, which will conclude with the NBA Finals starting June 4, with a possible game 7 scheduled for June 21.

• On June 29, 2025, Bojan Bogdanović announced his retirement from professional basketball, citing recurring foot injuries. He played for six teams in his ten-year NBA career.^[2]
• On August 18, 2025, Marco Belinelli announced his retirement from professional basketball. He spent 13 seasons in the NBA and won an NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014.^[3]
• On August 19, 2025, John Wall announced his retirement from professional basketball. He played for three teams in his 13-year career.^[4]

The 2025 NBA draft took place on June 25–26 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.^[5]

Free agency negotiations began on June 30, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. ET. Players may be signed after the July moratorium on July 6 at 12:00 p.m. ET.

• On July 6, 2025, the largest trade in NBA history was completed, involving seven teams and 13 players, headlined by the Houston Rockets acquiring Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green.^[6]

• On April 14, 2025, the Phoenix Suns fired head coach Mike Budenholzer after one season with the team.^[7]
• On May 1, 2025, the Sacramento Kings hired Doug Christie as their full-time head coach.^[8]
• On May 2, 2025, Gregg Popovich stepped down as Spurs head coach after 29 seasons with the team.^[9] Assistant coach Mitch Johnson was named the head coach.^[10]
• On May 2, 2025, the Memphis Grizzlies hired Tuomas Iisalo as their full-time head coach.^[11]
• On May 22, 2025, the Denver Nuggets hired David Adelman as their full-time head coach.^[12]
• On June 3, 2025, the New York Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau after five seasons with the team.^[13]
• On June 6, 2025, the Phoenix Suns hired Jordan Ott as their head coach.^[14]
• On July 7, 2025, the New York Knicks hired Mike Brown as their head coach.^[15]

In addition to regular preseason games hosted at NBA teams' own arenas, the NBA often hosts neutral site preseason games (either in domestic non-NBA markets or foreign markets) or against non-NBA teams. Listed below are only those neutral site or preseason games.

The NBA released the regular season schedule on August 14, with select games announced in advance of the full schedule release.^[20]

The Spurs played two alternate-site games at the Moody Center at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas in February, when the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo took over Frost Bank Center.

The NBA Cup returns for the 2025–26 season, with the same basic structure:^[24]

• All games except the championship final counting towards the regular-season standings.
• Six intraconference pools of five (three pools per conference).
• This season, the group games against each of the other teams in their pool (two at home and two on the road), will be held primarily on Fridays between October 31 and November 28. Group games will also be played on Tuesday, November 25 and Wednesday, November 26.
• The winners of each pool (three teams per conference) and two wild-card teams (one team per conference) advance to a single-elimination tournament held on December 9, 10, 13 and 16.
• To compensate, the NBA's regular-season scheduling formula was modified so only 80 games for each team were initially announced during the offseason. The first two rounds of the tournament counted as regular-season games 81 and 82. The championship game was an extra 83rd game that did not count toward the regular season. Teams that did not qualify for the in-season tournament knockout round, or were eliminated in the quarterfinals, were scheduled additional games against other teams that were eliminated in the same conference (if possible) and round to reach 82 games.
• The semifinals and championship game will be held at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada for the third consecutive season.

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Notes

• z – Clinched home court advantage for the entire playoffs
• c – Clinched home court advantage for the conference playoffs
• y – Clinched division title
• pi – Clinched play-in tournament spot (locked into a play-in spot but not able to clinch a playoff spot directly)
• ps – Clinched postseason (at least a play-in spot but can still clinch a playoff spot directly)
• x – Clinched playoff spot
• * – Division leader
• o – Eliminated from postseason contention

• The Wells Fargo Center, the home of the Philadelphia 76ers, was renamed to Xfinity Mobile Arena on August 14, 2025, under a new naming rights deal with Xfinity Mobile, a subsidiary of Xfinity.^[25]
• PHX Arena, the home of the Phoenix Suns, will be renamed prior to the start of the season.^[26]

• The Orlando Magic unveiled a new logo and uniforms, taking inspiration from the team's original look from 1989 to 2000. The "shooting ball with stars" logo returned with an updated look while the wordmarks were updated with a star replacing the letter "A" in the words "Orlando" and "Magic", which are reflected in their new uniforms. The team's "Icon" uniform was changed to a blue color while the "Statement" uniform was changed to a black and blue pattern inspired by the team's original warmup gear.^[27]

This will be the first year of new 11-year deals with the ESPN family of networks, NBC Sports and Amazon Prime Video. The ESPN networks renewed their contract with a modified schedule. NBC and Prime Video both replace TNT, with NBC returning to televising the NBA for the first time since 2001–02, and Prime Video signing its first U.S. national contract with the league.^[28][29]

Linear television

• ESPN wll air 57 games primarily on Wednesday (39 games) and Friday nights (10 games). ESPN will air an extremely limited number of gamed on Thursday nights (2 games during opening week), Saturdays (2 games) and Sundays (4 games).^[30] ABC will air 18 games on Saturdays (10 games) and Sundays (8 games). ABC and ESPN will continue to air all five Christmas Day games. ESPN will also air the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game and the 2026 NBA draft.^[29][31]
• NBC will air 58 games, primarily via Tuesday-night doubleheaders branded as NBA Coast 2 Coast Tuesday (42 games). These games are generally scheduled at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT, with NBC affiliates having the option to show one or both games. NBC will also air 11 Sunday Night Basketball games beginning on February 1 and continuing through April, carrying on from Sunday Night Football after the NFL season.^[32] Opening night (two games this season), games on Monday, December 29 (regional games), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (three games this season),^[20] as well as NBA All-Star Weekend (except for the Celebrity game) will also be on NBC.^{[29][33][34][35]}
• NBA TV will continue to air live games, but as part of the loss of their media rights, the network will no longer be run by TNT Sports. Instead, NBA TV will be run by the league. Operations for the network are moving from TNT's Atlanta studios to the league's offices in Secaucus, New Jersey.^[36]

Streaming

• Amazon Prime Video will stream 60 games primarily on Thursday nights (22 games, begins after the end of Thursday Night Football), Friday nights (28 games) and Saturday afternoons (8 games). In addition, the streaming service will air two NBA games being played in Europe and the knockout round of the NBA Cup, including the final.^[29][37]
• ESPN+ and Disney+ will continue to stream select ABC and ESPN games.^[31] ESPN will also launch a new direct-to-consumer service of the same name on August 21 that will stream all ESPN-produced games.^[38][39]
• Peacock will exclusively stream a package of Monday night games branded as Peacock NBA Monday (41 games)^[32], including one exclusive game on MLK Day, along with the NBA Mexico City Game. The service will also simulcast all games airing on NBC.^[29][33]
• The league-owned NBA League Pass will continue to offer out-of-market games, and live access to NBA TV.

Postseason

Beginning this season, all NBA play-in tournament games will stream on Amazon Prime Video.^[40]

The first two playoff rounds will then be split between Amazon Prime Video, ESPN/ABC, and NBC/Peacock. Amazon Prime Video will have between nine and 17 first-round playoff games, and between five and nine second-round playoff games. ESPN and ABC will air approximately 18 games in the first two rounds. NBC and/or Peacock will air between 22 and 34 games in the first two rounds, with at least half of them airing on NBC.^[40] All first-round games will now be nationally exclusive and each team's regional broadcaster will no longer be permitted to produce local feeds of these contests.^[41]

Per a two-year rotation with Amazon Prime Video, NBC will air a conference final this season (with this season being the Western Conference finals). ESPN and ABC will have the other conference final (which will be the Eastern conference finals this season)^[42]. ABC remains as the exclusive broadcaster of the NBA Finals, which it has aired exclusively since 2003.^[40]

Personnel

• ESPN signed a sub-licensing agreement to air TNT Sports' Inside the NBA studio show on select days, with TNT continuing to produce the program. ESPN's existing studio show, NBA Countdown, will also continue to air.^[43]
• NBC's new team includes play-by-play announcers Mike Tirico, Noah Eagle, Terry Gannon and Michael Grady; color commentators Reggie Miller, Jamal Crawford, Grant Hill, Austin Rivers, Derek Fisher, Brian Scalabrine, Robbie Hummel and Brad Daugherty; sideline reporters Zora Stephenson, Jordan Cornette and Ashley ShahAhmadi; studio hosts Maria Taylor (Tuesday and Sunday) and Ahmed Fareed (Monday); studio analysts Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady; front office insider Grant Liffmann; and special contributor Michael Jordan.^[a]
• Amazon's new team includes play-by-play announcers Ian Eagle, Kevin Harlan, Michael Grady and Eric Collins; color commentators Stan Van Gundy, Steve Nash, Dwyane Wade, Candace Parker, Brent Barry and Dell Curry; sideline reporters Cassidy Hubbarth, Kristina Pink and Allie Clifton; studio host Taylor Rooks; and studio analysts Dirk Nowitzki, Blake Griffin and Udonis Haslem.^[b]

Prior to the season, the Hawks, Cavaliers, Heat, Timberwolves and Bucks reached an extension with FanDuel Sports Network to keep their local games on the network until at least the 2026–27 season.^[59]

• In Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Prime Video will stream 20 additional regular-season games, along with the games being already aired in the United States, a conference final and the NBA Finals in 6 of the 11 years of the deal.^[37]
• ESPN will additionally air its slate of games in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and the Netherlands, and will air games through Disney+ in select markets in Asia and Europe.
• NBC will additionally air its slate of games on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Italy, and will distribute games in the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa.
• TNT Sports will air games internationally in Poland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Latin America (excluding Brazil and Mexico).^[60]
• NBA TV international will also air games in select countries worldwide.

• ESPN Radio has rights to select regular-season games, all playoff games and rights to the NBA Finals.^[61]
• This is the sixth season of the league's muti-year deal with SiriusXM and SiriusXM Canada to simulcast all 30 teams' local regular-season and postseason broadcasts.^[62]