The NBA opened its 2026-27 season Tuesday with a historic tripleheader of marquee games broadcast live on NBC and Peacock, as the Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder all won their openers.
The afternoon tip featured the Pistons defeating the Boston Celtics 121-113. In the most anticipated matchup of the day, the 76ers spoiled the New York Knicks’ season debut with a 106-100 victory at Madison Square Garden. The nightcap saw the Thunder top the San Antonio Spurs 116-104.
It marked the first time a network has ever aired three NBA Tip-Off games on the traditional late-October Tuesday start date. The broadcasts are part of the second year of the NBA’s 11-year, $77 billion media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video.
“We kind of challenged the NBA,” Byczek 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 viewers reported that local NBC affiliates in markets including Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Columbus, Ohio; Omaha, Neb.; and Madison, Wis., preempted the games for regular programming, according to Awful Announcing. Those unable to watch on the main local channel could stream the games on Peacock or catch them on a station’s auxiliary digital channel.
An NBC spokesperson told Awful Announcing that the vast majority of stations carried 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.”