Rumors

NBA on Prime: The NBA is coming to Prime this October 24th! The Emirates NBA Cup tips October 31st on Prime 🏀

x.com

Full schedules will be announced in August, coinciding with the rest of the NBA's schedule rollout for the 2025-26 season. The groups: East Group A - Cleveland, Indiana, Atlanta, Toronto, Washington. East Group B - Boston, Detroit, Orlando, Brooklyn, Philadelphia. East Group C - Milwaukee, New York, Chicago, Miami, Charlotte. West Group A - Oklahoma City, Minnesota, Sacramento, Phoenix, Utah. West Group B - L.A. Lakers, LA Clippers, Memphis, Dallas, New Orleans. West Group C - Houston, Denver, Golden State, Portland, San Antonio.

ESPN

Adam Zagoria: The NBA announced the Groups for the Emirates Cup which runs Oct. 31- Nov. 28 The Knicks are in a group with the Bucks, Bulls, Heat and Hornets

x.com

Tim Reynolds: Wednesday: Amazon exclusively reveals groups for Emirates NBA Cup 2025. Video with NBA on Prime analyst Blake Griffin and Chet Holmgren of the NBA champion Thunder posts at Noon ET at @NBAonPrime across X, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Facebook. Also: 'Sports on Prime' YouTube.

Twitter

Rylan Stiles: Kenrich Williams said he thinks the NBA Cup “helped us a lot” to prepare for this moment

Twitter

Yet they played for the NBA Cup and advanced to the conference finals last season, and now they’re four wins from a championship. Rarely have teams beaten a pair of 60-win teams to win a title. The Houston Rockets were the last to do it, in 1994. If they conquer the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Pacers will become the first team in NBA history to beat a pair of 64-win teams en route to a ring. They already eliminated the 64-win Cavs in the second round, and the Thunder won 68 games this season.

New York Times

Mark Tatum: “In the new top-tier league, we might get the two top teams from the Basketball Champions League to qualify, and a tournament for the rest of the open spots. And the top two teams of the new league in the future may end up playing in the NBA Cup. And when we have supersonic travel down the road, we might get a European division. So all this is very exciting”.

EuroHoops.net

Multiple sources have indicated to ESPN throughout the season that Antetokounmpo remains happy in Milwaukee, that he deeply respects Lillard and was pleased with the progress they made as a duo this season, when they were the highest-scoring twosome in the NBA, averaging 58.4 points per game, and helped rally Milwaukee from 2-8 to win the Emirates NBA Cup in December. Still, the Bucks and Antetokounmpo are scheduled to meet after the season to discuss both his future and the future plans for the team, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania. It's an annual meeting between the two sides, but one that carries a different tone heading into the summer after the Bucks failed to win a playoff series even with their star putting up a dominant performance.

ESPN

Arash Markazi: The NBA Cup champion loses in the first round in five games for the second consecutive season.

Twitter

Sam Amick: When they came through town, and I was around them at the NBA Cup, and then again recently—I’ll say this: I feel better about possibly voting for him. I’m a sucker for what kind of spirit you bring to your group. Shai is leading this young group in an incredibly impressive way. His demeanor, his mentality—he's lifting everybody up around him. If you take him out, they’re not even close to the same team. I mean, it’s obviously really hard to specifically gauge value, as much as we want to think the analytics nail it. But they’re both incredible."

YouTube

Giannis Antetokounmpo: Listen, the MVP discussion is great. I’ve been in the MVP discussion, what, like the last seven years? Yeah, probably the last seven years — top three, top four, top three, top four. It’s good. It’s a great compliment. But at the end of the day, winning is a different feeling. I was able to live it once (with the 2021 title). Then I don’t know if people feel like it counts or it doesn’t count, or whatever it is, but winning is winning, so is the NBA Cup. It was like, wow, this feeling, man, it’s like — it’s better than intimacy (laughs).

New York Times

“With more time, in theory, in between the games, there will be more time for preparation, more film study, more reps on the court, more player development on the court (in practice). I think the players would be improving. I think availability of the players would be higher and the quality of the product itself, night in and night out, will be … higher.” There are two impediments, history being the first. One league source said the NBA is beholden to its history and would be very surprised if it ever moved away from 82-game seasons for that reason. The league even made it so the NBA Cup is part of the 82-game schedule, with the tournament final not counting in league stats or standings. Likewise, stats in the Play-In Tournament are neither counted as regular season nor playoff stats.

New York Times

Kirk Goldsberry: One of the people at the NBA told me, 'We came up with the NBA Cup as a way to help the owners compensate for the loss of regular-season inventory.' When confronted with the idea—'Hey, let's go down to 70 or 74 games'—the league added this in-season property to compensate. They planned to sell it to a media partner. But the owners, of course, came back with, 'Well, why don’t we do 82 games AND the in-season tournament, so we don’t lose any money?'

YouTube

So far in February — likely due to the furious activity at the Feb. 6 trade deadline — NBA viewership is up double-digits over January. Before Christmas, national telecasts on ESPN, ABC and TNT were averaging roughly 1.4 million viewers, a drop of 19% year-over-year. Industry experts said there was a confluence of factors: No early season Lakers-Warriors games, a Yankees-Dodgers World Series, a Laker-less NBA Cup and no 7-foot-4 novelty like Victor Wembanyama.

Sports Business Journal