Author: Monojit Mandal
The upcoming 2023-24 NBA season will be a little different from usual, as the league will launch the long-awaited In-Season Tournament. The tournament will include all 30 teams, making it an annual event designed to liven up the regular season. The event, which includes group games, knockout rounds, semi-finals and a championship game, offers fascinating action for basketball fans around the world. Notably, the games in the knockout rounds will count as regular season games, but the championship game will not.
While fans await the NBA schedule for the 2023-24 season, the league has yet to release an official date. Based on recent years, it is likely to be revealed in the weeks before the start of the season. For example, the NBA released the full schedule for the 2022-23 season on August 17, 2022, just a few days before the publication date of the previous season. The 2020-21 season schedule was released on December 4, 2020, although this was due to the late start of the season in December, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the full schedule is still unclear, the NBA has already released some important dates for the 2023-24 season, giving fans an idea of what to expect:
- Teams taking part in pre-season games outside North America start training camp on September 30.
- The training camp for the other teams begins on October 3.
- Pre-season starts on October 5th.
- The pre-season ends on October 20th.
- The regular season starts on October 24, 2023-24.
- The NBA In-Season Tournament began on November 3.
- The semifinals of the NBA In-Season Tournament will be held on December 7.
- The finals of the NBA In-Season Tournament will be held on December 9.
- NBA All-Star Weekend 2024 is scheduled for February 16-18.
- The 2023-24 regular season ends on April 24.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the calendar suggests that the 2023-24 season would start six days after the previous season and end 15 days later. However, there have been allegations that the NBA notified clubs that the season could end on April 14, 2024, resulting in a five-day discrepancy.
The NBA was created in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA), but merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949 and took on its current name. The league is divided into two conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, with each conference having three divisions. The regular season runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 matches.
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The top eight teams from each conference compete in a single-elimination tournament to decide the final champion, ending in the renowned NBA Finals. The Golden State Warriors are the reigning NBA champions, having beaten the Boston Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals.
The NBA has produced a number of legends, including LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and Wilt Chamberlain, who have left indelible marks on the history of the sport.
The NBA is a global phenomenon with fans all over the world. The league’s popularity extends far beyond the United States, with broadcasting deals with ESPN and TNT in the US, as well as several international broadcasters.