LeBron James will play his first game with the 76ers against champion Knicks on NBA opening night

Members of the New York Knicks accept the best team award at the ESPY Awards in the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

2026-08-11T12:16:07Z

NEW YORK (AP) — LeBron James will play his first game with Philadelphia 76ers on the NBA’s opening night against the NBA champion New York Knicks.

The Oct. 20 game at Madison Square Garden will be part of a tripleheader, when the Knicks raise a banner to celebrate their first championship since 1973 and James then kicks off the final stop in his career.

He will return to face the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas, after Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs are back in New York for an NBA Finals rematch to open a five-game schedule.

The NBA unveiled those games Tuesday morning as what it called a “sneak peek” at the 2026-27 schedule. The full schedule will be released Thursday.

The season begins with the Boston Celtics visiting Detroit in a rare 3 p.m. EDT start for a midweek game. The tripleheader is capped by the Spurs hosting Oklahoma City in a rematch of the Western Conference finals.

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BRIAN MAHONEY Mahoney is an editor on the AP Sports desk. He also is a pro basketball writer, primarily covering the two NBA teams in New York. twitter mailto

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