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“I wasn’t that excited about it,” Kyrie Irving admitted Friday. Three years later, Irving said he has gotten more comfortable with the idea of the NBA handing out a trophy prior to Christmas and sees value in gunning to win the NBA Cup. “I think I understand the concept of it now and what it means for the fandom of basketball,” Irving said. “And just getting your legs up underneath you. … The Knicks and the Spurs last year, we saw them in the Finals. I think there is some correlation to playing well early in the season and that leading to success later on down the line.”
Edwards tweaked his knee in the season opener against the Miami Heat, team and league sources said. He received an MRI exam earlier this week, and both the team and Edwards deemed surgery was the right measure to address the discomfort in his knee. A recovery timeline will not be available until after he has surgery on Thursday, but the initial belief is he will likely be out through the holidays, which includes Minnesota’s first-ever Christmas Day home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The iconic studio show “Inside the NBA” will appear on ESPN or ABC airwaves on 25 nights in the 2026-27 regular season, five more than it did in its inaugural campaign with the Disney property following the show’s split from Turner Sports. The list includes marquee regular-season nights like Christmas, but also includes seven appearances before the late-December holiday, up from four over that same time last season.
The Atlanta-based studio show — which continues to feature host Ernie Johnson and analysts Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal — will air on the first five ESPN dates this season, the two Opening Week dates and then the next three Wednesays, before its first week off. Then, it will return for ESPN’s Thanksgiving Eve tripleheader — which it skipped last season — and ABC’s “NBA Saturday Primetime” premiere in December, before the usual Christmas Day quintupleheader.
Will Guillory: Ime Udoka said at today’s practice that he believes the Rockets are being “overlooked” and he let the team know: “We pointed all those things out to our guys. … We played on Opening Night last year. We played on Christmas last year. Now, we’re not. That says it.”
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The NBA will increase its broadcast TV presence during the 2026-27 regular-season, with ABC and NBC combining for 90 games, up from 79 last season. In total, there will be 247 national games across ABC, ESPN, NBC, Peacock and Prime Video, even with last year and up from 172 two seasons ago. The league already rolled out its first opening day national tripleheader on NBC Sports, with streaming on Peacock, as well as its five-game Christmas Day slate on ABC/ESPN.
On Jan. 30, the NBA for the first time -- excluding Christmas Day -- will have four games on broadcast TV in a given day, as ABC has a quadrupleheader with 76ers-Heat (12:30pm ET), Nuggets-Thunder (3pm), Spurs-Warriors (5:30pm) and Lakers-Knicks (8:30pm).
Heat Central: Giannis Antetokounmpo says the Heat are going to win on Christmas Day and he’s going to put on a show 👀 “That’s going to be fun. I haven’t played on Christmas for a while now, NBA. C’mon now. I’m just excited to give fans a little excitement. I also enjoy being at home with my kids during Christmas but there’s nothing better than a little kid opening his gift and then turning on the TV watching NBA games. I’m exited for that and gonna put on a show. I’m going to get a win too”
Danny Emerman: "It could be really interesting to see how he comes back from that knee injury. I've heard that he's targeting, as early as Christmas, who knows how his rehab turns out. That is something that's obviously subject to change. If he comes back and he looks awesome, the Warriors might not want to trade him. They really love Jimmy Butler. And from what I've been told behind the scenes, they've constantly reassured him and his camp that they don't want to trade him, that they're committed to him."
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Adam Silver spoke at the 2026 CNBC Sport and Boardroom Game Plan Summit at Fanatics Fest in New York, where he revealed his eagerness for James to pick his next team. “We have to finish up the schedule and where LeBron plays affects the schedule… It will influence how we set the schedule — opening week, Christmas. So I need him to make a decision,” Silver said.
While some of the credit may belong to Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves — who have played in highly-viewed games in each of their past two playoff runs — the Spurs account for several high water marks this season. Prior to the playoffs, the most-watched game of the season was Spurs-Thunder on ABC/ESPN Christmas Day and the most-watched outside of broadcast television was the Knicks-Spurs NBA Cup Final on Prime.
Atkinson said Harden's addition has unburdened Mitchell, who was carrying the weight of the team's injury and inconsistency issues earlier this season. Mitchell's 32.8 usage rate this season is his highest since 2019-20, his final season with the Utah Jazz, and ranks fifth in the NBA. During his postgame interview session after beating the Knicks, Mitchell pointed to Cleveland's previous game against New York, on Christmas Day, as a measurement for how far the team had grown.
NBC, which is carrying NBA games for the first time since the 2001-02 season, is averaging 2.6 million per Nielsen and Adobe Analytics — up 97% from the comparable windows last year, which primarily aired on TNT. (Those averages do not include games that air exclusively on Peacock, which is not Nielsen rated.) ESPN/ABC is averaging 2.06 million, up 18%. The networks own five of the ten largest audiences this season, all on Christmas Day — including the top three, Spurs-Thunder (6.71M), Cavaliers-Knicks (6.37M) and Mavericks-Warriors (6.11M).