NBA Season About to Tip Off With New TV Deal—but No LeBron James

The start of the 2025–26 NBA season is also the beginning of a new era. The league’s 11-year, $77 billion media-rights deal comes with two new media partners, NBC and Amazon, meaning a slew of games across new platforms—including the NBA’s first exclusively streamed games on Peacock and Amazon Prime Video.

But the start of the season will also look different for another reason: For the first time in what is about to be a record 23-year NBA career, LeBron James will not be available to play on opening night.

Last week, the Lakers announced that James has been ruled out for at least 3–4 weeks due to sciatica, a nerve-related injury, on his right side. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday that James, who turns 41 in December, is expected to return in mid-November, and he will be taking a “patient approach” to his return.

Still a Ratings Magnet

While James has not won a championship since 2020, he is still one of the league’s most popular players. That showed in the ratings last season, when viewership numbers were a hot topic, especially following a slow start.

But with James out to start the year, the NBA’s new broadcast partners may feel the hit.

The Lakers are scheduled for the second game of opening night, the first NBA on NBC games since the 2002 NBA Finals—a year before James was drafted. The doubleheader will also air on Peacock, the first regular-season NBA games on NBC’s streaming network.

Los Angeles, which is tied with a league-leading 34 national games, is also scheduled to play Oct. 24 on Prime Video in the league’s first exclusively streamed doubleheader.

The Lakers are scheduled to play eight national games until the end of November, not including games on NBA TV:

• Oct. 21 vs. Warriors (NBC/Peacock)
• Oct. 24 vs. Timberwolves (Prime Video)
• Oct. 29 at Timberwolves (ESPN)
• Oct. 31 at Grizzlies (Prime Video)
• Nov. 5 at Spurs (ESPN)
• Nov. 12 at Thunder (ESPN)
• Nov. 25 vs. Clippers (NBC/Peacock)
• Nov. 28 vs. Mavericks (Prime Video)

The aging star has missed a chunk of time in the past. He played 70 games last season—when he had declared before the season that his goal was to play all 82 games. He has not played more than 71 games since the 2017–18 season, when he was with the Cavaliers.

However, with James out, the start of the season will also be a preview of life after the retirement of one of the league’s greatest players. 

The question of when James will retire has loomed over the past few years, but it’s likely to be at an all-time high with James injured to open the season. He already teased his retirement last week with “The Second Decision” on Instagram, one that turned out to be an ad.