The National Basketball Association outlined its first marquee dates under a new long-term media pact that returns the league to NBC for the first time since 2002. The 2025-26 season will open on Oct. 21 with a doubleheader on NBC and its Peacock streaming service: the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder will raise their banner before facing Kevin Durant’s Houston Rockets, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers hosting Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors. ESPN will begin its coverage a night later with Cleveland at New York and San Antonio at Dallas on Oct. 22, then Oklahoma City at Indiana and Denver at Golden State on Oct. 23. Peacock will get its own spotlight on Oct. 27, streaming a Monday-night twin bill of Cavaliers-Pistons and Nuggets-Timberwolves as the platform launches a weekly ‘Peacock NBA Monday’ franchise. The league also confirmed a five-game Christmas Day lineup featuring Cavaliers-Knicks, Spurs-Thunder, Rockets-Lakers, Mavericks-Warriors and Timberwolves-Nuggets. NBC and Peacock will carry a Martin Luther King Jr. Day quadrupleheader on Jan. 19, 2026, highlighted by Bucks-Hawks and Thunder-Cavaliers. In February, NBC will introduce ‘Sunday Night Basketball,’ complementing Coast-to-Coast Tuesday broadcasts already slated for the season. The staggered rollout underscores the NBA’s expanded 11-year domestic rights agreement, which keeps ESPN and adds NBC as a broadcast partner through 2036 while giving Peacock a steady slate of exclusive games.