NBA schedule release 2026-27: Date, time, known matchups and how to watch

The 2026 NBA Draft is behind us. So is the 2026 Vegas Summer League. On top of that, many of the big fish in free agency have already been caught.

Now, the next big event we have to look forward to (outside of the trio of restricted free agents signing new contracts) is the release of the 2026-27 NBA Schedule. But when is that happening? And what information do we already know?

When does the 2026-27 NBA Schedule come out?

As of right now, we do not have an exact date for when the 2026-27 schedule is going to be released. Typically, it comes out sometime in mid-August. Although, there was thought that this year's edition may not come out on time because LeBron James was taking awhile to make his decision, and the league front office was likely waiting to start the schedule making process for when its most renown star was officially rostered.

However, despite the chokehold James kept the NBA world in, it appears that there will be no such delay, and that the NBA schedule is going to come out around the same time frame it normally does.

The NBA has announced that it will release some the schedule for Christmas Day and other signature games on Tuesday, Aug. 11 on Good Morning America, with more to come.

For those wondering, last season's schedule came out on Thursday, August 14 at 3:15 PM EST. The 2024-25 schedule came out on Thursday, August 15. And the 2023-24 schedule came out on August 17 on, you guessed it, a Thursday.

Based on recent trends, so long as the James wrinkle didn't throw too much of a wrench into things, it looks like we can expect the 2026-27 schedule to be released on Thursday, August 13.

What do we already know?

Short answer: not much. We know that the league is going to try to get as many nationally televised games as possible for James, the New York Knicks, and the two superteams out West: the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder.

We also know the dates for when the Emirates NBA Cup will take place. We know that there will be preseason games played in China and Canada. The Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers will play in Mexico City on November 7. The game in Paris will be played on January 14 between the Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans, and those two teams will play again on January 17 in the NBA Manchester Game.

But other than those couple of tidbits, a lot is still unknown.

Where to watch the NBA

As usual, you will be able to watch your local team on your local broadcast (although, nowadays, you may have to pay for it), and if you are subscribed to NBA League Pass, you can watch every out-of-market, non-nationally televised game right as it happens. For the games that are in-market or nationally televised, you will have to wait a certian amount of time before you can access those games on League Pass.

Speaking of nationally televised games, the league's TV partners for the upcoming season include ABC/ESPN, Amazon, and NBC/Peacock.

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