Category: Sports News

We have finally hit Day 3 of the NBA’s schedule release. We already knew that the Spurs would open at home against the Thunder on October 20 and get hosted by the Knicks on Christmas, as well as their NBA Cup schedule, and now we have the complete regular season schedule.

Observations

• 34 games will be nationally televised or streamed on NBC/Peakcock, ESPN or ABC and Prime, and a whopping 25 of them come in the second half of the season (game 42 or later). If you’re like me and use League Pass for local broadcasts, make sure you get to know whoever the Spurs new announcer is early, because you won’t hear him and Sean Elliott much after that.
• I count 12 back-to-backs, which isn’t bad. I also see four miniseries: their two Europe games against the Pelicans in mid January at Paris and Manchester, both games at Golden State at the end of January/beginning of February, and a home-away against the Nuggets at the end of February/beginning of March (with the “home” game being in Austin), and both home games against the Phoenix Suns at the end of March.
• Is it just me, or does it look like more away games than home? Those at’s stand out dramatically, especially since they’re so clumped together thanks to several long road trips. There are three four-game road trips plus the 8-game Rodeo Road Trip, with the Memphis and Denver games on Feb. 26 and 28 being in Austin. There’s also a 9-road-in-12-games stretch from December 15 through January 3, as well an 8-in-12 streak from March 14 to April 4.
• On the other hand, the Spurs only have two streaks of four or more home games in a row, with a streak of five January 2o through the 27th, and four straight to close the regular season. Speaking of which, the last three games are all against should-be playoff teams in the Cavaliers, Nuggets and Trail Blazers, which is notable assuming they’re in another battle for the top seed, which they barely missed out on last season.
• The Rodeo Road Trip itself will be no cakewalk either, with every game also being against playoff contenders except the two Memphis games. That March four-game road trip is also a bruiser as at least on paper, it could very well be against the four of the six playoff teams out of the East.

Other than that, not much stands out. It’s amazing the difference in looking at the schedule from a contender’s perspective compared to being a bubble or bad team. Fewer teams or stretches look “daunting”, and you just expect to win every game (knowing full well you won’t). What else stands out to you, Pounders?

It was a move that has left the NBA world in shock. And the deal was done astonishing quickly. The Los Angeles Lakers' record $12.5bn (£9.3bn) sale was agreed in the space of a weekend.

News broke on Wednesday that Josh Kushner, the brother of US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared, and former Disney chief executive Bob Iger were buying the controlling interest in one of the world's most iconic sports teams.

Kushner moved fast to get the deal done.

Only last Friday, he approached Mark Walter over the majority stake he purchased only last year. They got to work instantly to hammer out an agreement.

If approved by the NBA's board of governors, the deal will become the most expensive sports team sale ever reported - and Walter will have made a $2.5bn (£1.9bn) profit on his investment in next to no time.

Walter had not actively been looking to sell his majority stake in the NBA franchise, while Kushner's move was not influenced by the collapse of Fifa's controversial World Cup investment plan.

Thrive Eternal, an American venture capital firm founded by Kushner, had been expected to lead the proposed investor group for the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal before it was abandoned.

The speed of the Lakers agreement has added to the level of surprise surrounding the sale in the United States.

When ESPN broke the story on Wednesday, it sparked a flurry of reaction and comment. NBA executives, insiders and other figures within the sport were all stunned.

The Lakers were valued at $10bn (£7.4bn) in June 2025 - then a record for a sports team.

So where does this deal rank in world sport? And will the deal be a good thing for the Lakers?

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A record breaking sports deal

Walter said after the sale was announced that owning the Lakers had been "one of the great honours" of his life and described it as an "extraordinary investment".

Reasons for the sudden sale are unclear. Walter is facing an ongoing federal investigation into his company Delaware Life - but there is no suggestion that the Lakers sale was prompted by that investigation.

The numbers involved in the Lakers deal underline why it has caused such a stir.

It surpasses not only the Lakers valuation when Walter bought his stake in 2025, but also the $6.1bn (£4.5bn) valuation of the Boston Celtics when their controlling stake changed hands last year.

It is more than three times the value set for the Phoenix Suns when they were sold to Mat Ishbia for $4bn (£3bn) in 2023.

In addition, it beats the $9.6bn (£7.1bn) for which the NFL's Seattle Seahawks was sold last month.

The deal is also worth significantly more than those involving leading Premier League clubs.

Todd Boehly's consortium paid £2.5bn to buy Chelsea in 2022, although the overall deal amounted to£4.25bn ($5.7bn).

Manchester United's Glazer family were reported to want £10bn ($13.5bn) to sell the club, but that was an asking price rather than a completed transaction. Sir Jim Ratcliffe instead bought a 27.7% stake for about £1.3bn in 2024.

Magic Johnson backs the sale

Kushner and Iger are coming in at a time when the Lakers are in transition.

The Lakers have not won an NBA title since 2020, when LeBron James and Anthony Davis led them to their 17th championship.

With James confirming his exit at the end of June and Luka Doncic the team's leading man, the Lakers are facing another fresh start. Doncic is preparing to work under his fifth different owner across just the two NBA teams he has played for.

"I've gotten used to big changes over these last few years," he wrote on social media, before adding that he looked forward to "building something special in LA together".

Kushner and his company have been looking at investing in the NBA for some time, although the sale still brings uncertainty over how the Lakers will be run.

Basketball legend Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, a five-time NBA champion with the Lakers, backed the deal, though.

"Lakers fans, you couldn't have two better owners. I've known Bob personally for over 40 years," he said on social media.

"He has always loved the Lakers and basketball and he will bring championships back to LA."

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The Toronto Raptors have released their game schedule for the 2026-27 NBA season, and it looks like it’ll be starting off with a bang. The Chicago Bulls, who defeated the Raptors in the play-in in 2023, are coming to Toronto to show the 6ix their new-look lineup.

That first match on October 21st will have Caleb Wilson, Norm Powell, and Josh Giddey come to Toronto to test their mettle. The homecoming for Norm Powell will be an opportunity for Chicago to attempt to restart their blazing hot beginning to the season, as they had last year. Then, Toronto will hit the road for a game against the Wizards, getting a first look at what first overall pick AJ Dybantsa can do. Overall, our season begins with some opportunities to check out new-look teams with a trifecta of Chicago, Washington, and Minnesota, with the opportunity to pick up some easy wins against Orlando, who we play twice in October. November boasts a much harder schedule, with may premier teams from both East and West on the docket, with December looking not much lighter until its end. February and March are the beginning of some less stressful matches, as well as an exciting back-to-back on the road against Miami, where we’ll get to really see how well Giannis fares in South Beach.

The Raptors will get a nine day home stand in January, while road tripping for eleven days in March. With the Raptors playing their divisional opponents the most contention with the monstrous lineups in Philadelphia and New York start early, with three games back to back against the two teams in November, with the rest of the matches spread out through the year. Toronto’s last game will be the same as last year’s, a matchup against the Brooklyn Nets on April 11th, what will hopefully be a nice way to ease into the postseason. The NBA Cup will see four games played against Orlando on October 30th, Milwaukee on November 6th, Detroit on November 20th, and Brooklyn on November 27th. All together, a very manageable roster in my opinion, a perspective shared by our Editor-In-Chief, Kristian Cuaresma.

Raptors announced their NBA Cup Group games.

There’s a fun litmus test against the Pistons, but overall, a winnable group assuming Kawhi is on the team.#WeTheNorth@RaptorsHQpic.twitter.com/wCl8DsgkJn

— Kristian Cuaresma (@kriscuaresma_) August 12, 2026

I agree wholeheartedly that Kawhi’s presence would be the nail in the coffin for most of these teams, but that even without him, we proved to be able to manage all of these teams last year, winning every season series save for the one against Detroit. However, with Jalen Duren likely off the team, Motor City is looking much more manageable, and I believe we’ll be real contenders in the Cup this year.

The picture of the 2026-27 season is still up in the air for the Raptors due to the Kawhi Leonard debacle and the league’s sloppy and overly secretive handling of the investigation, which has left Raptors fans grasping at whispers and rumours rather than able to make full assessment of the team’s circumstances. Many NBA teams have gotten considerably better this past year, through massive trades, free agency, and last year’s stacked draft. That means that the Raptors will just have to push even harder, and hopefully, secure Leonard’s play for this season, as he’ll be a weapon I don’t think we can afford to leave at the gunshop if we want any chance of contending this year. While it’s difficult to say what exactly the Raptors will look like at this standpoint, building around Scottie Barnes has been working thus far, and with the right pieces, I can see the regular season schedule mattering little enough, as fans can shift their focus to the playoffs with certainty.

LeBron James has moved back to the Eastern Conference, but the Lakers remain a major box office draw for the NBA.

With an almost brand new rotation after a busy offseason that elevated Luka Doncic to the team’s unquestioned leader, the Lakers have the maximum amount of nationally televised games in the NBA this season with 34, according to the league schedule released Thursday. The Lakers open the season against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21 on ESPN.

The slate is highlighted by a much-anticipated Christmas Day reunion with James that will be televised at 2 p.m. on ABC. The matchup at Crypto.com Arena will be James’ return to L.A. after the four-time NBA champion signed with the Philadelphia 76ers this summer following eight seasons with the Lakers. James will play on Christmas Day for the 21st time in his 24-season career, and the Lakers will play on the holiday for the 28th consecutive time.

The Lakers don’t meet James in his new home until March 4, when they finish a four-game trip in Philadelphia.

The Lakers have a frantic start to the season, playing 13 games in the first four weeks. They have three back-to-back sets during the busy stretch from the opener to the end of a three-game trip in Milwaukee on Nov. 11.

The traditional Grammys trip begins in Indiana on Jan. 28 followed by a back-to-back set in New York (Jan. 30) and Charlotte (Jan. 31). The Lakers then continue the seven-game trip by circling back north from Charlotte to Boston (Feb. 2) and Brooklyn (Jan. 4), then heading West with stops in San Antonio (Feb. 6) and Phoenix (Feb. 8).

Read more:Bob Iger, Joshua Kushner to buy Lakers from Mark Walter's ownership group for $12.5 billion

The reigning NBA champion New York Knicks, Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs and James’ 76ers each have 34 nationally televised games. The final two games of the 82-game season will be determined in December as the NBA Cup midseason tournament plays out.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter on all things Lakers.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green didn’t hesitate to call out the hypocrisy of basketball fans.

On his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show,” Green asked fans, “Why is it that Russell Westbrook has to announce his retirement unexpectedly to finally see the love that he deserves?”

Green opened the segment by telling basketball fans, “Y’all suck,” as he went on to defend Westbrook, who released a video on his social media Wednesday to make his retirement announcement.

“Because for the last 8 to 10 years, all this guy has heard is how bad he sucks, how he stat pads, and how he messes up teams,” Green said.

The four-time NBA champion continued to call out fans by addressing the nickname “Westbrick,” which was coined for Westbrook during the 2018–2019 season when his free-throw percentage dropped from 73.7% the year before to 65.6%.

“The moment he steps aside, ‘Oh man, y’all did Russ wrong. Can’t tell me he couldn’t be on a team. Wow, how he played the game. Gonna miss him,” Green said of NBA fans.

Westbrook had an 18-year career and at one point was considered a future Hall of Famer when he was leading the Oklahoma City Thunder, alongside Kevin Durant and James Harden.

During his time with the Thunder, Westbrook was the league’s MVP in 2017; he was selected as a nine-time All-Star and was the leader in triple-doubles.

At 24 years old, Westbrook led the Thunder to the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance, but would ultimately end up falling to a LeBron James-led Miami Heat team through five games.

Harden would depart from the Thunder in the following offseason, and Durant would also end up leaving the team to join Green in the Golden State in 2016.

Westbrook would stay with the Thunder until 2019 and play for six more teams.

As a member of the Sacramento Kings last year, Westbrook averaged 15.2 points with 6.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds.

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The Nets will open the 2026-27 NBA regular season by hosting the Charlotte Hornets on Oct. 21, the league announced on Thursday.

Brooklyn, coming off a rough 20-62 season, has just two games on national television for the season: a visit to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Nov. 23, in JuliusRandle's first game after arriving in an offseason trade, and when they host the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 20. The Nets will also play 16 back-to-back games.

The Nets will lock horns with their defending champions from across the river four times, playing the first two games at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 2 and Dec. 27. They will host the Knicks on Feb. 1 and April 2. 

In the NBA Cup, New York will face Detroit (Oct. 30) and Orlando (Nov. 20) at home and travel to Milwaukee (Nov. 25) and Toronto (Nov. 27) in group play. The knockout round games will be on Dec. 4, 5, 8, 9, and the title game on 11, if they advance that far.

LeBron James and the new-look 76ers will visit Brooklyn for the first time on Nov. 16 and Feb. 25. The Nets will travel to face the Sixers on Jan. 14 and Feb. 8. 

The Nets will have a tough stretch toward the end of the season when they play just twice at home during an 11-game stretch, which includes five straight on the road from Feb. 27 through March 7 against the Bulls, the Nuggets, the Suns, the Clippers, and the Lakers.

They will have a stretch of seven of eight games at home, including six straight games at Barclays Center starting in mid-December. 

Here's the rest of Brooklyn's 2026-27 schedule:

Nets’ 2026-2027 regular-season schedule: pic.twitter.com/c29Tfs5iBA

— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) August 13, 2026

After a relatively quiet offseason for the Pistons and a pretty large Jalen Duren-sized elephant in the room yet to work itself out, it is time to generate some excitement with the release of the 2026-2027 schedule. We are now a couple months away from the return of NBA basketball! The biggest takeaway is that the Pistons play every team in the league once again. Here is the full schedule:

Here’s the full preseason and regular season schedule, and theme nights. Pistons have 12 games on ESPN or NBC and seven on Peacock or Prime. Essentially 1/4 of the schedule will air nationally pic.twitter.com/ODnVH4fvLU

— Omari Sankofa II (@omarisankofa) August 13, 2026

In all seriousness, there are a few standouts with the schedule. First off, the first four games of the season are pretty brutal with the 3 pm home opener against the Boston Celtics followed by three road games against likely-playoff teams in the Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, and New York Knicks.

The Pistons are a good team now, so I don’t think you need to anticipate an 0-4 start like you would have during the dark days a few years ago, but it will definitely be a challenge early-on. They do follow up that difficult stretch with a few winnable games, so there is an opportunity to get back on track if they struggle early.

The Pistons will have 19 games in total on National Television with 12 on ESPN or NBC and 7 on Peacock or Prime. This is far and away the most they have had in recent memory, which also comes with the territory of being a good team. There is also a likelihood they get more National TV games added as the season plays out as long as they continue to build off the momentum of last season.

There’s only so much analysis you can do with a schedule in which you play every team in the league, but there are a few other things that stand out to me. The Pistons group for the NBA Cup is very favorable with Brooklyn, Orlando, Milwaukee, and Toronto. They have failed to make it out of the group stage since the introduction of the NBA Cup, so maybe this is the year it finally happens.

Another standout with the schedule is that all of the games against the New York Knicks will be on some National TV platform. The Knicks got the last laugh with winning the NBA Championship last season, but this is definitely a matchup from the East that the NBA is trying to heavily promote after their heavily contested playoff series a couple years ago.

We will have more analysis on the schedule and all things Pistons as we get closer to the start of the season, but it is nice to have something to look forward to and build hype during the dog days of the Summer.

The NBA is out with its 2026-27 schedule and the Brooklyn Nets will open at Barclays Center on October 21 vs the Charlotte Hornets. Game Time: 7:30 p.m. ET. The two teams opened last season as well with the game in Charlotte.

Here’s the details…

There will be two nationally scheduled games, same as last year as well. The Nets will face the Timberwolves on November 23, the return of Julius Randle to the Twin Cities on Peacock and the Bulls in Brooklyn on January 20, Nic Claxton’s reunion. With two games, the Nets are one of five teams with the minimum number of nationally televised slots. The others are the Pelicans, Bucks, Grizzlies and Kings. By comparison, the Knicks, 76ers, Spurs and Lakers will have 34.

As noted Wednesday, the Nets Emirates Cup games will take place October 30 vs. the Pistons; November 20 vs. the Magic, both at home, and the Bucks November 25 and the Raptors on November 27, both away. (The Magic game will be the first time Nets newcomer Moe Wagner will face his brother Franz in the NBA.)

The Nets will face their crosstown rivals, the defending NBA champion Knicks, four times:

—November 2 at MSG

—December 27 at MSG

—February 1 at Barclays Center

—April 1 at Barclays Center.

Three of the four will be 7:30 p.m. starts with December 27, a Sunday game, starting at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Some hightlights of the schedule release:

• The opening 10 games will be brutal, featuring some of the league’s top teams. In addition to the aforementioned Knicks game at MSG on November 2, the Nets will face the Cavaliers with James Harden and Donovan Mitchell on October 24 in Cleveland; the Pacers with a healthy Tyrese Haliburton on October 25 at home, then again on November 1 in Indianapolis; the Celtics with Jayson Tatum and Paul George on October 27 in Boston and the Mavericks with Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving on November 8 in Dallas.
• The 76ers with LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey will make their Brooklyn debut on November 16. Other superstars making their Brooklyn debut in new uniforms will include Ja Morant with the Trailblazers on December 21, Giannis Antetokounmpo with the Heat on January 7, Kawhi Leonard with the Raptors on January 23.
• Victor Wembanyama (Spurs) will play his only game in Brooklyn this season on December 23, Luka Doncic (Lakers) on February 4 and Steph Curry (Golden State) on March 29. Kevin Durant plays his only game on the Barclays Center court January 9.
• As for rookie clashes, Mikel Brown Jr., the No. 6 pick, will face off against Keaton Wagler of the Clippers, the No. 5 pick on January 29 and Darius Acuff of the Kings, the No. 7 pick on March 21. The overall No. 1 pick, A.J. Dybantsa, will first show up in Brooklyn with the Wizards on December 20.
• Brooklyn will host 15 of its home games on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday which includes four Sunday afternoon contests on December 13 and 20 and March 21 and 28.

The Nets will also play four preseason games from October 6 through 14. Only one of the four, vs. the Wizards on October 12 at Barclays Center.

• Brooklyn Nets Season Schedule – Brooklyn Nets
• Nets’ first look at ‘Aura Bros’ headlines brutal 2026-27 opening stretch ($) – C.J. Holmes – New York Daily News

The Philadelphia 76ers full regular season schedule for 2026-27 is out!

Earlier this week, a few key dates and matchups were announced by the NBA as a preview to the full schedule release. We learned that the Sixers will open their season on Oct. 20 at Madison Square Garden against the defending-champion New York Knicks and will host their home-opener on Oct. 22 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was also revealed that the Sixers will spend Christmas Day on the west coast with LeBron James and the squad visiting the Los Angeles Lakers that evening. Finally, we learned the Sixers’ NBA Cup group play schedule.

Now, we have the full picture, with the entire schedule below.

Here’s a few things that stand out immediately:

• The Sixers are a hot commodity for the league in 2026-27. They will feature in a maximum-allowed 34 nationally-televised games this season. Guess it comes with the territory of having Lebron James on your team.
• They will play in 13 back-to-backs throughout the season. Last year, they played in 16, tied with a handful of other teams for the highest in the league.
• Jaylen Brown will face off with Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics as a Sixer for the first time on Nov. 10 in South Philadelphia. Brown’s first game back at TD Garden as a member of the away team will not come until Jan. 21, 2027, which will be broadcast on Amazon Prime.
• Speaking of Prime, the Sixers will have 13 games this season that require paid streaming services to watch (Peacock, Amazon Prime).
• The Sixers’ annual west coast trip will take place around the Christmas holiday, including the aforementioned Christmas Day matchup visiting the Los Angeles Lakers. They will be on the road from Christmas Day through January 1st. Gotta get out of the way for Disney on Ice, people!
• Busiest months for the Sixers will be January and March, with 16 games in each.

This is a particularly exciting regular season schedule release with so much anticipation around the new-look Sixers in the wake of the additions of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown. Not only that, but it’s also one of very few summers that Joel Embiid has not been recovering from some sort of major injury or surgery — and he’s looking slimmer to say the least! The prospect of that trio playing alongside Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and the improved bench unit has fans around the city as excited as they’ve been about the team in… quite some time.

Six months (at least) of Sixers basketball awaits! Here’s the breakdown of each month of the upcoming campaign:

OCTOBER: 7 games (4 home, 3 away)

NOVEMBER: 14 games (7 home, 7 away)

DECEMBER: 13 games (5 home, 7 away, *2 to be scheduled)

JANUARY: 16 games (9 home, 7 away)

FEBRUARY: 11 games (6 home, 5 away)

MARCH: 16 games (7 home, 9 away)

APRIL: 5 games (2 home, 3 away)

The Washington Wizards have released their 2026-27 regular season schedule.

The Washington Wizards’ 2026-27 schedule: pic.twitter.com/HAJ7nG9rEe

— Greg Finberg (@GregFinberg) August 13, 2026

Washington opens the season at home against the Milwaukee Bucks on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m.

The Wizards will play six national TV games, which exceeds the five they’ve played over the previous five seasons. The additions of Trae Young and Anthony Davis, plus the popularity of AJ Dybantsa, have made Washington a team to watch entering the 2026-27 campaign.

ESPN (1): @ BOS

NBC (2): vs. BOS, @ PHI

Prime Video (1): @ UTA

Peacock (2): @ DET, @ PHX

AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson will meet for the first time at 1 p.m. on Feb. 27 in Utah on Prime Video. The 2026 No. 1 and No. 2 selections will face off in Washington on March 6.

Washington will play four preseason games — two at home and two on the road.

10/8: @ New York Knicks

10/10: vs. Detroit Pistons

10/12: vs. Brooklyn Nets

10/16: @ New Orleans Pelicans

I released a full breakdown of the team’s schedule on the latest episode of The Wizards Podcast: