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 in April 2026. The third edition of the in-season NBA Cup tournament is planned to be held in November and December 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 in April 2026 followed by the playoffs the next day, and conclude with the NBA Finals in June.

• 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]

The 2025 NBA draft took place on June 25–26 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.^[3]

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 April 14, 2025, the Phoenix Suns fired head coach Mike Budenholzer after one season with the team.^[4]
• On May 1, 2025, the Sacramento Kings hired Doug Christie as their full-time head coach.^[5]
• On May 2, 2025, Gregg Popovich stepped down as Spurs head coach after 29 seasons with the team.^[6] Assistant coach Mitch Johnson was named the head coach.^[7]
• On May 2, 2025, the Memphis Grizzlies hired Tuomas Iisalo as their full-time head coach.^[8]
• On May 22, 2025, the Denver Nuggets hired David Adelman as their full-time head coach.^[9]
• On June 3, 2025, the New York Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau after five seasons with the team.^[10]
• On June 6, 2025, the Phoenix Suns hired Jordan Ott as their head coach.^[11]
• On July 7, 2025, the New York Knicks hired Mike Brown as their head coach.^[12]

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 Wells Fargo Center, the home of the Philadelphia 76ers, will be renamed to Xfinity Mobile Arena on September 1, 2025, under a new naming rights deal with Xfinity Mobile, a subsidiary of Xfinity.^[17]

• 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.^[18]

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.^[19][20]

• ESPN continues to air Wednesday night games throughout the regular season, but ESPN's Friday schedule has been reduced to only selected weeks. NBA Saturday Primetime and NBA Sunday Showcase continue on ABC, with games on selected weeks between January and March. ABC and ESPN will also continue to have the Christmas Day games and the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game.^[20][21]
• NBC will carry Tuesday night doubleheaders, scheduled at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT, with NBC affiliates showing one or both games. NBC will also have an eight-game Sunday Night Basketball^[22] package after the NFL season (carrying on from Sunday Night Football). Games on opening night, Veterans Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, as well as NBA All-Star Weekend (except for the Celebrity game) will also be on NBC.^[20][23]
• 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 with operations moving from TNT's Atlanta studios to the league's offices in Secaucus, New Jersey.^[24]

• Amazon Prime Video will stream up to 66 regular season games, including Friday night games throughout the regular season, Thursday night games carrying on from Thursday Night Football after the NFL season, and select Saturday afternoon games. The streaming service will also have the entire knockout round of the NBA Cup.^[20][25]
• ESPN+ and Disney+ will continue to stream select ABC and ESPN games.^[21] ESPN also plans to launch a new direct-to-consumer service of the same name in late summer 2025 that will stream all ESPN-produced games.^[26]
• Peacock will exclusively stream a package of Monday night games, as well as air both games of NBC's Tuesday night doubleheader and all other games on NBC.^[20][23]
• The league-owned NBA League Pass will continue to offer out-of-market games.

• ESPN and ABC will air approximately 18 games in the first two rounds of the playoffs along with a conference final this season. ABC will remain as the exclusive broadcaster of the NBA Finals, which it has aired exclusively since 2003.
• NBC and/or Peacock will air between 22 and 34 games in the first two rounds of the playoffs, with at least half of them airing on NBC. Per a two-year rotation with Prime Video, NBC will also air a conference final this season.
• Prime Video will televise all NBA play-in tournament games, and between 9 and 17 first round playoff games and between 5 and 9 second round playoff games.^[27]

• 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.^[28]
• NBC's new team includes play-by-play announcers Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle; color commentators Reggie Miller, Jamal Crawford and Grant Hill; studio hosts Maria Taylor (Tuesday and Sunday) and Ahmed Fareed (Monday); studio analysts Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter; and special contributor Michael Jordan.^{[29][30][31][32][33][34]}
• 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.^{[29][35][36][37][38][39][40]}

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.^[41]

• 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.^[25]
• 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 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).^[42]

• On July 6, 2025, the largest trade in NBA history was completed, involving thirteen players and seven teams, headlined by Kevin Durant being traded to the Houston Rockets.^[43]