{"id":2065312,"date":"2026-07-28T12:05:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2065312"},"modified":"2026-07-28T12:05:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:05:54","slug":"nba-to-release-schedule-on-time-despite-lebron-james-extended-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2065312","title":{"rendered":"NBA to release schedule on time despite LeBron James\u2019 extended free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<p>When LeBron James finally chose the Philadelphia 76ers last week, perhaps no one outside of Philadelphia was happier than the NBA\u2019s scheduling team. Just as the teams waited on the NBA legend to make his last decision, so did the league office.<\/p>\n<p>As NBA commissioner Adam Silver pointed out earlier this month, on Day 16 of James\u2019 indecision, the NBA was waiting on its star to pick a destination.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid1\" data-position=\"mid1\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhere LeBron plays affects the schedule,\u201d Silver said July 16 while speaking on panel at the CNBC\/Boardroom Game Plan event. \u201cI would like him to make his announcement already so we can finish the schedule, because, as you might imagine, the teams are calling us, the networks are calling us, and everybody wants to lock in the schedule. But it will influence how we set the schedule, how we set opening week, Christmas Day, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With James <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7417464\/2026\/07\/24\/lebron-james-contract-76ers-free-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">choosing Philadelphia on Friday<\/a>, the NBA can get to work in finalizing its 2026-27 schedule. Even at 41 years old, he remains a key component of the NBA\u2019s broadcast plans. While James\u2019 delayed decision slowed down NBA business, the league still expects to announce its schedule in mid-August as it historically has, according to a league spokesperson. But it seems that it has at least impacted the process.<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"wzGtQBjQ47rSplM\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI VideoHost_Portrait__XBaJC\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Title__npf3B\">Why LeBron James couldn&#8217;t retire<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Authors__jxyYV\">Shakeia Taylor and Jeshua Kidd<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_VideoWrapper__Xgp47\">{&#8220;@context&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/schema.org&#8221;,&#8221;@type&#8221;:&#8221;VideoObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/wzGtQBjQ47rSplM\/&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/wzGtQBjQ47rSplM\/&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;Why LeBron James couldn&#8217;t retire&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Sometimes it&#8217;s hard to step away from the game you love. LeBron contemplated retirement, before ultimately deciding to join the Philadelphia 76ers.  &#8220;,&#8221;uploadDate&#8221;:&#8221;2026-07-25T01:11:26.054Z&#8221;,&#8221;duration&#8221;:&#8221;PT59S&#8221;,&#8221;thumbnailUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-media.theathletic.com\/video-stream\/auto-thumbnail\/wzGtQBjQ47rSplM\/aCW3UliHl7it.0000000.jpg&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/video.nyt.com\/athletic\/streams\/wzGtQBjQ47rSplM\/aCW3UliHl7it\/aCW3UliHl7it.m3u8&#8243;,&#8221;transcript&#8221;:&#8221;Why is it so hard for great players to leave the game? Tom Brady, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and now LeBron James. When James, age 41, explained his decision on his X account, he said, I thought I was done when the season ended, before adding, I still truly love this game and I have more to give. Ending a career with a championship is a legacy defining moment. For most of James&#8217;s career, he&#8217;s been compared to Michael Jordan. With this latest move to join the Sixers, James adds a new layer to the discussion. Is this move weirder than MJ to the Wizards? He isn&#8217;t ready to walk away. Jordan didn&#8217;t win another ring while with the Wizards. And while we don&#8217;t know when James will decide to leave the NBA, we&#8217;ve got at least 2 years to see him try to win 1 more and end his career on top. Will his final chapter be more like Brady? Or Jordan&#8221;,&#8221;ineligibleRegion&#8221;:[&#8220;BI&#8221;,&#8221;BY&#8221;,&#8221;CD&#8221;,&#8221;CF&#8221;,&#8221;CU&#8221;,&#8221;IQ&#8221;,&#8221;IR&#8221;,&#8221;KP&#8221;,&#8221;LB&#8221;,&#8221;LY&#8221;,&#8221;ML&#8221;,&#8221;NI&#8221;,&#8221;RU&#8221;,&#8221;SD&#8221;,&#8221;SO&#8221;,&#8221;SS&#8221;,&#8221;SY&#8221;,&#8221;UA&#8221;,&#8221;VE&#8221;,&#8221;YE&#8221;,&#8221;ZW&#8221;],&#8221;publisher&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;NewsMediaOrganization&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/#publisher&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/&#8221;,&#8221;foundingDate&#8221;:&#8221;2016-01-25&#8243;,&#8221;logo&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;ImageObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;creditText&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;height&#8221;:&#8221;60&#8243;,&#8221;width&#8221;:&#8221;435&#8243;},&#8221;publishingPrinciples&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/edit-guidelines\/&#8221;,&#8221;sameAs&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Athletic&#8221;},&#8221;author&#8221;:[{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;Person&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;Shakeia Taylor and Jeshua Kidd&#8221;}]}<\/p>\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_root__AKv5b\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16;max-height:min(100%)\">\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_inner__86C_2\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16\">\n<div class=\"VideoStreamPlayer_GridStack__2H0p2\"><video preload=\"metadata\"><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Last season, James and the Los Angeles Lakers tied for the most national TV appearances of any team. James remains the league\u2019s most bankable star. He will turn the 76ers into TV stars, too. The 76ers were scheduled for just 14 national broadcast appearances last summer when the NBA dropped its schedule; expect the NBA and its media partners \u2014 NBC, ESPN and Amazon \u2014 to max out their games this upcoming season.<\/p>\n<p>So why does the NBA care where James plays next season? All 30 teams play 82 games, after all.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/3518700\/2022\/08\/18\/nba-2022-23-schedule-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NBA goes to great lengths to construct its schedule<\/a>, and the process begins with its marquee days and nights. Those are the first set of games the league figures out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll generate, again, hundreds of potential Christmas Day drafts,\u201d Evan Wasch, the NBA\u2019s executive vice president for basketball strategy and growth, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/3518700\/2022\/08\/18\/nba-2022-23-schedule-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told <em>The Athletic<\/em> in 2022<\/a>. \u201cThe different teams you could feature, the different matchups, the different time slots, and then we\u2019ll just start conversations with ESPN. See what they have in mind. Try to find middle ground and usually we\u2019re pretty aligned with sort of the general structure and we might have some sort of disagreement on small pieces of the schedule, but we navigate those fairly easily.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid2\" data-position=\"mid2\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s obvious that the NBA would want James on those big stages. They tend to not only be some of the highest-rated games of the season for the league but also when it puts its best foot forward.<\/p>\n<p>Like Santa, James has become a Christmas Day tradition. He made his debut as an 18-year-old rookie for the Cleveland Cavaliers and has played on Christmas Day every year since 2007. Whichever team he chose likely needed to be slotted in for the schedule that day.<\/p>\n<p>But the league also figures out Christmas in conjunction with opening week. NBC hosted its opening night last season with two games on a Tuesday, ESPN took the next two nights with four games total, and Amazon closed off the week with two Friday-night matchups. Last season, the 76ers didn\u2019t play a nationally broadcast game until Halloween but will likely not have to wait that long this upcoming season. James and the Lakers played once on NBC and once on Amazon during opening week.<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-pickem\">\n<p>The impact on any team he chose would have been immense. The Miami Heat were scheduled for just five national TV games last season, while Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks had 18 scheduled. The Cavaliers were scheduled for 24 last season. Either of those two franchises would have had a much bigger spotlight with James on their roster.<\/p>\n<p><span><br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"inline-graphic\">\n<p>        a.showcase-link-container {<br \/>\n  display: flex;<br \/>\n  gap: 20px;<br \/>\n  flex-direction: column;<br \/>\n  align-items: center;<br \/>\n  padding: 20px 0px;<br \/>\n  border-top: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);<br \/>\n  border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);<br \/>\n  text-decoration: none;<br \/>\n  color: #121212;<br \/>\n  cursor: pointer;<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-franklin;<br \/>\n    font-size: 14px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 700;<br \/>\n    line-height: 13.8px;<br \/>\n    letter-spacing: 1.1px;<br \/>\n    text-transform: uppercase;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-image {<br \/>\n    border-radius: 8px;<br \/>\n    object-fit: cover;<br \/>\n    width: 200px;<br \/>\n    height: 150px;<br \/>\n    margin: 0px;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      width: 120px;<br \/>\n      height: 120px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-inner-content {<br \/>\n    display: flex;<br \/>\n    flex-direction: row;<br \/>\n    gap: 16px;<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-text-content {<br \/>\n    display: flex;<br \/>\n    flex-direction: column;<br \/>\n    gap: 20px;<br \/>\n    justify-content: center;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      gap: 8px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-title {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-cheltenham;<br \/>\n    font-size: 24px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 500;<br \/>\n    line-height: 120%; \/* 24px *\/<br \/>\n    letter-spacing: 0.01px;<br \/>\n    text-overflow: ellipsis;<br \/>\n    overflow: hidden;<br \/>\n    display: -webkit-box;<br \/>\n    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;<br \/>\n    -webkit-line-clamp: 3;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      font-size: 16px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-excerpt {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-imperial;<br \/>\n    font-size: 16px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 400;<br \/>\n    line-height: 139%; \/* 19.46px *\/<br \/>\n    color: #323232;<br \/>\n    text-overflow: ellipsis;<br \/>\n    overflow: hidden;<br \/>\n    display: -webkit-box;<br \/>\n    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;<br \/>\n    -webkit-line-clamp: 4;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      font-size: 12px;<br \/>\n      line-height: 121%;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>.showcase-link-inputs {<br \/>\n  .showcase-link-input {<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n    font-size: 1rem;<br \/>\n    background-color: white;<br \/>\n    margin-bottom: 12px;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-indent {<br \/>\n    margin-left: 25px;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  option {<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {<br \/>\n  .native-mobile a.showcase-link-container {<br \/>\n    background-color: #121212;<br \/>\n    color: #f0f0ee;<br \/>\n    .showcase-link-excerpt {<br \/>\n      color: #c4c4c0;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>            \/\/ Remove all onclicks on imgs for apps to prevent image zoom on click<br \/>\n            document.querySelectorAll(&#8216;.showcase-link-image&#8217;).forEach((img) =&gt; img.removeAttribute(&#8216;onclick&#8217;));<\/p>\n<p>        <a id=\"showcase-link-7469211\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7469211\/2026\/07\/25\/lebron-james-decision-explanation-76ers-warriors-heat-timberwolves\/\" class=\"showcase-link-container in-content-module-link testbed-shortcode\" data-shortcode-id=\"101\" data-shortcode-string=\"showcase-link\" data-content-id=\"7469211\" data-content-post-type=\"article\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"showcase-link\">What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-inner-content\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/07\/24230812\/GettyImages-2250629100-scaled-e1784951236250.jpg?width=400&amp;quality=70\" alt=\"Inside LeBron\u2019s Philadelphia Decision: Why pretty much everyone was completely in the dark\" class=\"showcase-link-image\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-text-content\">\n<div class=\"showcase-link-title\">\n                  Inside LeBron\u2019s Philadelphia Decision: Why pretty much everyone was completely in the dark\n              <\/div>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-excerpt\">\n                  At no point throughout LeBron\u2019 25-day free agency was anyone confident about what he&#8217;d do. Here&#8217;s how it played out as a winding mystery.\n              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>In the past, the NBA has usually waited to sit down with executives from its media partners until the first half of July, then build out the rest of the schedule, Wasch told <em>The Athletic<\/em> years ago. It then relied on schedule-optimizing software to make schedules that could fit the parameters it needed. The number of options could initially stretch into the billions as the league winnowed down the choices.<\/p>\n<p>But the later a star player, let alone James, makes his decision on a team, the harder it gets for the league to finish the schedule.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the scheduling team\u2019s nightmare when that stuff happens late in our process,\u201d Wasch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/texas-sports-nation\/rockets\/article\/nba-schedule-2023-24-how-made-18296602.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">told the Houston Chronicle<\/a> in 2023. \u201cThe worst outcome is big superstar movement in late July. That will really push the process back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When LeBron James finally chose the Philadelphia 76ers last week, perhaps no one outside of Philadelphia was happier than the NBA\u2019s scheduling team. Just as the teams waited on the NBA legend to make his last decision, so did the league office. As NBA commissioner Adam Silver pointed out earlier this month, on Day 16 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2065312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2065312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2065312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2065312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2065312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}