he National Basketball Association tipped off its 2026-2027 season in a big way on Tuesday with a trio of marquee games broadcast live on NBC and its Peacock streaming service.
The day started in mid-afternoon with a matchup between the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons, which was won by Detroit, 121-113.
Then it was on to Madison Square Garden with the most anticipated matchup between NBC champs New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76er’s. The Sixers spoiled the Knicks season debut with a 106-100 victory. The nightcap saw the San Antonio Spurs host the Oklahoma City Thunder with the Thunder winning 116-104.
Although the NBA traditionally starts their season on Tuesdays in late October, but to mark the second year of its 11-year, $77 billion deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime, this was the first time a network had ever broadcast three NBA Tip-Off games, according to NBC, which approached the network with the idea, according to NBC Sports Executive Vice President Justin Byczek.
“We kind of challenged the NBA,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “We think opening day should be expanded, and we’d love to be the network that gets behind it, and over the course of the next decade, let’s try to understand where opening day can get to.”
Some fans in certain markets reported that their local affiiates pre-empted the games in favor of their regular programming, according to Awful Announcing. Viewers in Memphis, Nashville, Columbus, Omaha and Madison Wis., among others, tweeted that they could not access the games on their local stations. Viewers in areas that could not access the games on their local stations could watch on one of station's auxiliary channels (aka "diginets") or on Peacock.
An NBC spokesperson told Awful Announcing that the vast majority of local stations did indeed carry the games live.
“Broadcast stations serving 99% of U.S. households aired the game either on NBC or an alternate local station,” the spokesperson said. “It was also available on Peacock.”
