The NBA’s multiday reveal of its 2026–27 schedule continued Wednesday, with the parameters of a new-look NBA Cup and its presence in a particularly crowded sports calendar now fully known.
Group play in the fourth edition of the league’s in-season event will begin Oct. 30 in the same way as season-opening night 10 days earlier: with a high-profile game between the defending champion Knicks and the LeBron James-led 76ers.
The two regional rivals will be the opener of a primetime doubleheader to begin the NBA Cup on Amazon Prime Video, with the nightcap involving the newly sold Lakers and Warriors. The NBA Cup will then continue over the subsequent six weeks, culminating with the Dec. 11 championship game at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The league is staging the conclusion of the 2026 tournament at that historic venue after ending the first three iterations at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Full Calendar
The NBA Cup will again span a loaded part of the overall late-fall sports calendar. Among the latest periods of multisport confluence now in play:
- That Fri., Oct. 30 opener of the NBA Cup coincides with the scheduled date for Game 6 of the MLB World Series, if necessary.
- ESPN is airing an NBA tripleheader on Thanksgiving Eve, with that slate going up against a newly slotted NFL game on Netflix that evening featuring the Packers and Rams.
- Amazon will once again stage a massive sports tripleheader on Black Friday, beginning with an afternoon NFL game between the Broncos and Steelers, followed in primetime by an NBA doubleheader that will close out NBA Cup group play. The Heat and Knicks will start the evening, followed by a game between the Lakers and Spurs. Amazon had massive success with its day-long sports strategy last year for Black Friday, including a 21% bump in its NFL audience and more than doubling the audience for its NBA Cup games during the holiday bonanza.
- The Sat., Dec. 5 date for part of the NBA Cup quarterfinals will compete against college football conference championship games for the ACC, Big Ten, and SEC.
The Fri., Dec. 11 date for the NBA Cup championship, however, is much more open, and will be free of competition from the NFL or college football. That game will be streamed on Amazon. The Knicks are the defending NBA Cup winners, the first team to claim that trophy and the NBA Finals in the same season.
The NBA, meanwhile, said Wednesday it is planning a quadrupleheader on Mon., Dec. 15, which will be Presidents’ Day and the day after Super Bowl LXI in Los Angeles. NBC Sports and Peacock will air all four of those NBA games, and the slate will be led in part by newly acquired Timberwolves star LaMelo Ball returning to Charlotte to face his former Hornets team. The league will once again have a full slate on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, with four national games, all of which will be on NBC Sports and Peacock.
The league will release the full 2026-27 schedule Thursday afternoon.
