The 2024–25 NBA season is the 79th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The regular season began on October 22, 2024, and ends on April 13, 2025.[1] The NBA plans to stage an in-season tournament for the second consecutive year, now called the Emirates NBA Cup.[2] The 2025 NBA All-Star Game is on February 16, 2025, at Chase Center in San Francisco.[3] The play-in tournament is scheduled to be played from April 15 to 18, 2025, followed by the playoffs the next day, and concluding with the NBA Finals in June.
On July 2, 2024, Kemba Walker announced his retirement from professional basketball.[4] He joined the Hornets as a player enhancement coach the next day.[4][5]
On August 15, 2024, Joe Harris retired from professional basketball.[8]
On September 26, 2024, Derrick Rose retired from professional basketball. He played for six different teams in his 16-year career, and was named the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2011 with the Chicago Bulls.[9]
On September 29, 2024, AJ Griffin announced his retirement from professional basketball to pursue a career in ministry.[10]
On October 10, 2024, Danny Green retired from professional basketball. Green played with six different teams in his 14-year career, and is one of the four players to win NBA championships with three different teams.[12]
On October 29, 2024, Rudy Gay announced his retirement from professional basketball.[13][14]
The majority of the regular season was released on August 15, with those group play games counting as part of the in-season tournament, now branded as the NBA Cup, announced two days earlier on August 13. The two games that are dependent on the results of the in-season tournament, along with the knockout round schedule, will be announced at a later date (see details below).[38][1]
The NBA Cup, formerly the In-season tournament, will return for the 2024–25 season, with the same structure:[41][42][38]
All games except the championship final counting towards the regular-season standings.
Six intraconference pools of five (three pools per conference).
Tuesdays and Fridays Between November 12 and December 3 feature group games against each of the other teams in their pool (two at home and two on the road). These games still count as regular season games.
The winners of each pool (three teams per conference) and two wild-card teams (one team per conference) advance to a single-elimination tournament.
The semifinals and championship game will once again be played in Las Vegas.
Players for the tournament champion will each receive $514,971.
To compensate, the NBA's regular season scheduling formula was modified so only 80 games for each team were initially announced during the offseason. The first two rounds of the in-season tournament would then count as regular-season games 81 and 82. The championship game would then be an extra 83rd game that would not count toward the regular season. Teams that did not qualify for the in-season tournament knockout round, or were eliminated in the quarterfinals, would be scheduled additional games against other teams that were eliminated in the same conference (if possible) and round to reach 82 games.
The Los Angeles Clippers have moved to the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.[49] The team played at the Crypto.com Arena for the past 25 years in Downtown Los Angeles, California, since the 1999–2000 NBA season. As a result, for the first time since the 1998–99 NBA season, every team will have their own home venue.
The Brooklyn Nets promoted their secondary logo to their primary and introduced a new secondary logo.[50]
The Los Angeles Clippers unveiled a new logo and uniforms to coincide with their move to Intuit Dome. The team's new logo features a stylized clipper ship with basketball seams on its hull, surrounded by points of a compass and a navy blue "C" in a white circle. The new uniforms are modern versions of the script uniforms previously wore between 1987 and 2015. The white uniform features a "Clippers" modernized script wordmark in navy blue along with red numbers, the navy blue uniform features the "Clippers" script in red along with white numbers, and the alternative red uniform features a "Los Angeles" script wordmark in navy blue along with white numbers.[51]
The Toronto Raptors unveiled a logo to commemorate their 30th anniversary.[53]
The Memphis Grizzlies unveiled a logo and classic uniforms to commemorate their 30th anniversary.[54]
The Utah Jazz began a two-season long transition to a modernized version of their 1996–2004 uniforms, with new "City" and "Statement" uniforms debuting this season, and new "Association" and "Icon Edition" uniforms debuting next season.[55]
The Washington Wizards have a new "Statement" uniform, with the phrase "The District of Columbia" on the front of the jersey.[56]
This is the last season of a nine-year deal with the ESPN family of networks, TNT Sports, and NBA TV, before new 11-year deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime Video begin in 2025–26. The 2024–25 season thus marks the end of TNT airing live NBA games since 1989 respectively, and TNT Sports' overall relationship since 1984 on TBS.[57][58] The NBA rejected TNT Sports' matching rights offer for Amazon's package, claiming TNT was unable to fully match the terms of Amazon's all-streaming contract. TNT then filed a lawsuit against the league in a Manhattan New York state court, seeking to delay the new media deals from taking effect and to rule that TNT's offer matched Amazon's deal.[59] In November, the two parties agreed to a settlement, with TNT retaining some international live game rights, as well as domestic non-game rights on NBA TV and the NBA's digital platforms. In a separate sublicensing agreement, TNT's Inside the NBA studio show will move to ESPN/ABC in 2025–26.[60][61]
ESPN has Wednesday and Friday night games during most of the 2024–25 regular season, a doubleheader on Monday March 17, an afternoon game on Saturday January 25, and select Sunday games from February to April.[62] TNT's schedule includes Tuesday night games during most of the regular season, and Thursday nights during opening week and the second half of the season.[63]ABC has NBA Saturday Primetime games on eight selected Saturdays between December and March (including a tripleheader on January 25), and NBA Sunday Showcase games on five selected Sunday afternoons (including three doubleheaders) in February and March.[62] ESPN/ABC and TNT may also feature simulcasts or alternative broadcasts of selected games on ESPN2 and TruTV, respectively.[64] NBA TV televises games primarily on Mondays all season, Saturday and Sunday nights for most of the season, Thursdays during the first half of the season, Fridays during the second half of the season and when the other national broadcasters are not airing games.[65]
For the NBA Cup, TNT and ESPN has selected group stage games as part of their regular Tuesday and Friday coverage, respectively, while NBA TV has a tripleheader on Friday, November 29.[62][63][65][66] During the knockout stage ESPN will have one quarterfinal on December 11 in the early window, TNT will have three quarterfinals (two on December 10 and one on December 11 in the late window) and one semifinal on December 14, ABC/ESPN+ will have one semifinal on December 14 and the championship game on December 17, both in primetime.[67]
During NBA Cup weeks, ESPN and NBA TV will continue to air other regular season games on Wednesdays and other days when no other national broadcasters are airing games.
Five Christmas Day games are scheduled for this season. Originally, it was announced that only the middle three games would be ABC/ESPN simulcasts, and the first and last contests would only be on ESPN.[62] In October 2024, it was announced that all five games will be ABC/ESPN simulcasts like in 2022.[68] In November 2024, it was further announced that ESPN2, ESPN+, and Disney+ will show an alternate broadcast of the first game, San Antonio–New York, that will use Hawk-Eye and other Sony-owned technology to render a live animated version of the contest portrayed by Mickey Mouse universe characters. Disney+ and ESPN+ will also stream the traditional broadcasts of all five games.[69]
TNT again have the NBA All-Star Weekend (except for the Celebrity game which continues to air on ESPN) for the 23rd and final year.[63]
On the final day of the regular season, Sunday, April 13, two games with playoff implications will be flexed into ESPN's afternoon doubleheader.[62]
ESPN television analyst Hubie Brown announced his retirement at the end of the season. Brown has called games for ESPN since 2004 and previously called games for USA Network, CBS and TNT.[70]
This is the second, and last, season that the streaming service Max will have live access to TNT's games on its Bleacher Report Sports Add-on tier.[63]
NBA League Pass continues to offer out-of-market games, live access to NBA TV, and on-demand replays of every game.[65]
The Portland Trail Blazers and Root Sports mutually agreed to end their television agreement prior to the season.[73] On September 23, 2024, the Trail Blazers announced that they had signed a multi-year agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group to be their new broadcaster. Under the deal, KATU and KUNP were named as the flagship stations, the group of over-the-air stations carrying games across the team's broadcast territory was branded as the Rip City Television Network, and games stream locally on a new direct-to-consumer streaming service named BlazerVision.[74]
This is the first season that the Gotham Sports App, owned by a joint venture between MSG Networks and YES Network, became the exclusive streaming home of the Knicks and Nets. The app will not change the television rights for these teams.[76]
Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of the regional sports network chain FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports), has been under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since March 2023. As part of the bankruptcy, on August 23, 2024, Diamond Sports signed a long-term agreement with thirteen of the NBA teams that it holds rights to, committing to broadcast their games through at least the 2024–25 season, but with a 30 to 40 percent reduction in their rights fees. Despite being a long-term deal, if Diamond Sports is unable to get a bankruptcy plan approved by the court, the agreement will expire following the end of the season.[77][78]
On June 27, 2024, Bronny James was selected 55th overall in the 2nd round of the 2024 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Being the son of current Lakers player LeBron James, they marked the first father-son duo to play together in league history.[86]
They would officially make their regular season debut together on October 22, 2024, in a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves.[87]
On July 1, 2024, Jayson Tatum signed a five-year, $314 million contract extension with the Boston Celtics, the largest in league history.[88]
The NBA cut the average back-to-back regular season games per team by 23 percent to help curb "load management", when teams rest more than one healthy star player on any given night. Teams no longer play four games in five nights, eight games in 12 nights, nor play on the day before or after "high-profile" nationally televised games.[89]
On October 22, 2024, the Boston Celtics tied the record for the most three-pointers made in a single game with 29 in a win over the New York Knicks.[90]
On October 25, 2024, the Golden State Warriors became the first team in NBA history to open their season with two wins by at least 35 points.[citation needed]
On October 26, 2024, LeBron James became the oldest player, aged 39 years, 301 days, to lead both teams in points, rebounds, and assists in a game.[93]
On October 28, 2024, Kevin Durant became the 8th player to score 29,000 points.[94]
On November 8, 2024, the Cleveland Cavaliers became the first team in NBA history to win their first ten games while scoring at least 110 points in each game.[97]
On November 9, 2024, Victor Wembanyama became the first player in NBA history to have multiple games with at least 20 points, 5 three-pointers, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks.[98]
On November 13, 2024, LeBron James became the oldest player, aged 39 years, 319 days, to record three consecutive triple-doubles.[99]
On November 13, 2024, Chris Paul became the third player to record 12,000 assists.
On November 17, 2024, James Harden passed Ray Allen for 2nd on the league's all-time three-pointers made list.[100]
On November 19, 2024, the Cleveland Cavaliers settled for the second-longest winning streak to start a season, after losing to the Boston Celtics 120–117.[101]
On November 19, 2024, Dalton Knecht tied the league record for the most three-pointers by a rookie in a single game, with nine.[102]