The NBA has released its 2025–26 regular-season headline matchups for NBC, ESPN, Peacock, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The league's first two-game slate includes Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets facing off against reigning regular-season MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Followed up by Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors going head-to-head with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
While all 17 pre-set matchups will make for entertaining television — or streaming, depending on who you ask — one detail stands out from the rest: most of the featured teams are from the Western Conference.
The NBA is prioritizing one conference over the other with its TV schedule
It’s a statement fans have heard over and over again: “The Eastern Conference this year is wide open.” Previous contenders such as the Indiana Pacers, Boston Celtics, and Milwaukee Bucks have all taken a sizeable step back in terms of competition. Whether it’s the implosion of Boston’s roster due to salary restrictions or Indiana being without its two star players, the NBA is well aware the East simply isn’t worth paying as much attention to compared to the West.
Don’t believe it? Out of the league’s first four marquee matchups, only one features two teams from the East — the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks. Both finished at the top of the Eastern Conference last season, with Cleveland notching 60-plus wins while New York made its first trip to the conference finals in 25 years.
Thursday, October 23, features an NBA Finals rematch between OKC and Indiana, though it will be without the presence of both Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner — a complete 180 compared to last season. Monday, October 27, brings Cleveland and the Detroit Pistons in the first Peacock-exclusive game under the NBA’s new deal with NBC.
The NBA’s Christmas Day lineup — traditionally a showcase for the league’s biggest and brightest stars — includes just two Eastern Conference teams out of the possible 10. MLK Day is the only exclusive date that leans heavily toward the East, with six out of the possible eight teams featured in Peacock’s slate.
The league is clearly aware of the issue at hand, solving one problem while blatantly shoving another aside. There are more star players this year in the West, whether it’s the twilight years of LeBron James and Steph Curry or the younger generation led by Cooper Flagg and Victor Wembanyama. Although the East doesn’t feature as many headline names on paper, the NBA continues to give low-to-mid-market teams little chance to create future faces of the league.
Tyrese Maxey, Scottie Barnes, Paolo Banchero, and Bam Adebayo were all passed over in favor of Jalen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell. If the NBA truly hopes to find the next LeBron or Durant, it may want to reconsider its scheduling approach going forward.