Key dates for the 2024-25 NBA season
From the 82-game regular season to the NBA Cup, trade deadline, playoffs and more, here are the most important dates for the 2024-25 NBA season.
Basketball
The NBA is back! From opening night on 22 October to the start of the Finals on 5 June, the world's top men's basketball players will embark on a nine-month quest to win the coveted Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.
Between now and then they will have to contend with an 82-game regular season schedule, the Emirates NBA Cup, trade deadline, All-Star break, international games, Play-In Tournament and finally the Playoffs and Finals themselves.
Below we list all the key dates of the 2024-25 NBA season and brief explainers for certain events where relevant.
2024-25 NBA season key dates
2024
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22 October: Start of the 2024-25 NBA regular season
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2 November: NBA Mexico City Game 2024
The first international game of the season between the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards will take place at the Arena CDMX in Mexico City on Saturday 2 November. Per the NBA, the matchup will mark the league’s 33rd game in Mexico since 1992 – more than any country outside of the U.S. and Canada – and coincide with traditional “Día de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) celebrations locally. -
12 November: Emirates NBA Cup begins
The Emirates NBA Cup is an annual in-season competition between all 30 teams in the league. The NBA Cup consists of two stages (group play and knockout rounds), with a prize pool allocated to the players on the teams that participate in the knockout rounds; allocations increase depending on how far a team progresses in the tournament. -
10-11 December: Emirates NBA Cup quarter-finals
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14 December: Emirates NBA Cup semi-finals (Las Vegas, NV)
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17 December: Emirates NBA Cup Championship (Las Vegas, NV)
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23 & 25 January: NBA Paris Games 2025
Five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs and hometown hero Victor Wembanyama take on the Indiana Pacers in two games at Accor Arena.
2025
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6 February: NBA trade deadline
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14-16 February: NBA All-Star 2025 (San Francisco, CA)
NBA All-Star weekend features a host of events, including the annual Slam Dunk and 3-point contests, the NBA Rising Stars showcase, and the All-Star game itself (featuring the top players of the season as voted by a panel of media members and coaches) on Sunday 16 February. -
13 April: NBA Regular Season ends. All 30 teams to play.
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15-18 April: SoFi Play-In Tournament
Teams that finish number 7-10 in the standings of the Eastern and Western conferences will compete for the final two playoff seeds in each conference (i.e. seeds 7 and 8). -
19 April: NBA Playoffs 2025 begin. The playoffs feature the 12 teams with the best records from the regular season (the top six teams from the East and West); four additional teams are added to the playoffs through the Play-In Tournament, which determines the 7th and 8th seeds.
Each round of the playoffs (first round, second round, semi-finals, finals) uses a best-of-seven series format. The winner of the Eastern Conference faces the winner of the Western Conference in the Finals to determine the NBA champion for the season.
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5 June: NBA Finals 2025 begin