The 2026/27 National Football League (NFL) preseason is now in full swing, and while the gridiron fans are having their annual appetizer for the upcoming regular season, the National Basketball Association (NBA) jumped into the spotlight with the announcement of their league schedule on Tuesday, with the opening games creating an electrifying buzz in sports discussions.

While JustBet started offering odds for the eventual winners of both the NFL and NBA a few weeks ago, only odds for the opening NFL games could be offered, because the schedule for the NBA games had not been announced; that dynamic has now changed. The mouthwatering matchups for October 20, 2026, along with those for the first weekend of the season, are now available on the JustBet platform and NBA fans are salivating.

Summer 2026 saw some seismic shifts across the NBA: Ja Morant from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Portland Trail Blazers; LaMelo Ball from the Charlotte Hornets to the Minnesota Timberwolves; Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Miami Heat; Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics to the Philadelphia 76ers; and most recently, LeBron James from the Los Angeles Lakers to partner with Brown in Philadelphia. Plus, the league waits with bated breath to see if Kawhi Leonard will be heading back to the Toronto Raptors, which all adds to the intrigue of the upcoming season, but let’s look at opening night.

The NBA will tip off its 2026/27 season with a massive triple-header. The reigning champion New York Knicks will host Philadelphia in the marquee event, and LeBron, in his 24th season, will make his debut with his new team at Madison Square Garden, the same night the Knicks will (more than likely) receive their championship rings. JustBet currently has the Knicks as favourites to win the matchup, but that may change depending on the chemistry in the new look 76ers, especially between LeBron and Jaylen.

The Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics will start the day with an afternoon game, with JustBet offering the Pistons as early favourites (albeit slightly), but the nightcap game will be a Western Conference Finals rematch between the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder, which promises fireworks. The Spurs edged the Thunder in seven games in the Final series, and JustBet gives them a very narrow edge again, but revenge is surely on the card, and the Oklahoma squad must be chomping at the bit for this contest. If nothing else, the NBA got this opening night right, and with all three games set to air on NBC, the ‘peacock’s’ feathers will be on full display.

Add that to the fact that the Knicks, 76ers, Spurs, Celtics, and Thunder will all have three games within the first six days of the new season, on national television, including LeBron, in Philadelphia’s first home game, playing the Cleveland Cavaliers — with whom LeBron has a small bite of history — on October 22, and the opening week becomes more highly anticipated.

Also announced by the NBA, to compete with the NFL viewership, are the slate for the Christmas Day games on ABC/ESPN, and two games in particular merit special attention. The games begin with a rematch of last season’s finals between the Spurs and Knicks which, if one can remember, was not short on drama, and should be enough to fill every Christmas stocking. But there’s more. LeBron and the 76ers will tip off against the Lakers, for whom LeBron played from 2018 through last season, and may even see a matchup against his son Bronny, who is still on the Lakers’ roster. LeBron will play on Christmas Day for a 20th-straight year this season, following on his Christmas debut as an 18-year-old rookie. Add Minnesota hosting a Christmas Day game for the first time in franchise history, up against Oklahoma City, and the viewership challenge to the NFL is definitely on, with the Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills at Denver Broncos, and Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks, vying for the public’s attention. Way too early to choose, but zero complaints from the fans are anticipated.

Switching to a very sombre note, the NBA lost a legendary figure last weekend, as announced by his family. Don “Nellie” Nelson, a five-time NBA champion with the Celtics as a player and one of the winningest coaches in league history, died Sunday at 86. The Hall of Fame coach sits second in NBA coaching victories with 1,335, trailing only Gregg Popovich (1,390), and only Lenny Wilkens (2,487) coached more games than Nelson (2,398).

Nellie was a really good role player from 1962 to 1976, on five championship teams, then from 1976 until 2010, he was an NBA coach. He was an assistant in Milwaukee in 1976, for 18 games into the season, before assuming the head coaching role, and remained there until 1987, with a 544-340 record in his tenure. A year later, he went to the Golden State Warriors, had a brief stop with the Knicks (1995/96), then a long stint with the Dallas Mavericks (1997-2005), before returning to the Warriors to finish his career, which included coaching Stephen Curry as a rookie.

He never won a championship as a coach and he never even reached the NBA Finals, but he helped set the stage for Dirk Nowitzki becoming one of the greatest scorers in NBA history. The three-time Coach of the Year was a true basketball ambassador, an all-time great coach, and was always touted as a basketball innovator. The game was better because of his contribution, and the respect he commanded can be seen in the reactions around the league. Walk good Nellie.

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