NBA Schedule Tweaks Focus on Load Management 

The NBA is making another proactive attempt to address load-management issues by adjusting its schedule. 

All 30 NBA teams announced their regular-season schedule for the 2024–2025 season Thursday, and Associated Press writer Tim Reynolds noted the league cut the average back-to-backs per team by 23%, removed instances of four games in five nights and eight games in 12 nights, and made sure that teams will not play a day before or after “high-profile national TV games.”

The criteria for “high-profile national TV game,” Reynolds later pointed out, are games on Christmas, ABC on Saturday night, TNT on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and national TV opening-week games—except for Friday. While these restrictions are more stringent than in years past, they do not completely absolve teams playing national TV games from back-to-backs.

For example, the Lakers face the Spurs in San Antonio on ESPN on Nov. 15, then travel to New Orleans to play the Pelicans in a regionally televised game the next day. And, on Jan. 28, the Lakers will face the 76ers in Philadelphia on TNT one day after playing the Hornets in Charlotte.

The NBA’s moves to address load management come even after the league already signed its next media-rights deal worth $77 billion with ESPN, NBCUniversal, and Disney last month. 

NFL Steals Christmas

NBA social-media teams took a page from the NFL’s book by pulling off creative schedule announcements, such as the Suns’ thread of memes or the Magic’s Spider Verse–inspired video.

But the NBA is facing pressure from the NFL continuing to schedule games on Christmas Day, a holiday that has traditionally been exclusive to the NBA. The NFL has aired a tripleheader for the last two years on Christmas—and while the NBA saw a viewership increase of 5% in 2022, that was driven by all five games simulcasting on ABC. In 2023, when only two of the five games aired on ABC, the NBA slate averaged just 2.85 million viewers, a 23% year-over-year dip, and the league’s lowest Christmas Day viewership on record. 

The NBA is continuing with its five-game slate this Christmas, with three games on ABC, highlighted by a matchup between the Lakers and Warriors. The NFL is pushing through with a doubleheader—even if Christmas Day falls on a Wednesday—and it will be exclusively streamed on Netflix, the first time the streaming giant will livestream any major U.S. sport.