On October 20, LeBron James begins his 24th NBA season, now wearing a 76ers jersey, and the league has made sure everyone will be watching. The full schedule, released Thursday, confirms James and Philadelphia open the year at Madison Square Garden against the defending champion Knicks, one of three marquee games kicking off the NBA’s 81st season.
Boston hosts division rival Detroit, while Oklahoma City and San Antonio run back last year’s grueling Western Conference finals, a seven-game battle the Spurs won behind Victor Wembanyama despite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP-caliber season for the Thunder.
From there, the schedule reads like a roadmap to a franchise betting everything on redemption. Philadelphia hasn’t won a title since 1983, and this year’s roster overhaul, anchored by James’s arrival and the addition of 2024 Finals MVP Jaylen Brown from Boston, signals just how serious that pursuit has become. Fans in Philly get their first home look at the new-look Sixers on October 22, fittingly against James’s original team, Cleveland.
Election Day, November 3, is dark league-wide, though all 30 teams play the night before. The NBA Cup crowns a winner December 11 at Indianapolis’s Hinckle Fieldhouse. The trade deadline lands February 11, followed by All-Star festivities February 21 in Phoenix. Every team closes the regular season together on April 11.
Christmas Day brings its usual spectacle, five games this year, headlined by James facing the Lakers, the franchise he left behind in free agency, on their home floor. Elsewhere, Miami visits Boston, where the Celtics have dominated the rivalry in recent seasons; Minnesota hosts Oklahoma City; Golden State welcomes Jokic and Denver; and the Knicks get a Finals rematch against Wembanyama’s Spurs.
San Antonio barely gets a break after that. A New Year’s Eve trip to Charlotte leads into a New Year’s Day game at Washington, then international travel: Paris on January 14 against New Orleans, followed by a rematch in Manchester three days later. Denver and Indiana kick off the league’s global slate even earlier, meeting in Mexico City on November 7.
Two reunions stand out amid the 82-game grind. Giannis Antetokounmpo, traded to Miami in June, returns to Milwaukee on January 28. And Brown makes his own homecoming to Boston on January 21, this time in a Sixers uniform.
