The schedule for the 2025-26 NBL regular season has been released, with an in-season tournament and HoopsFest woven into a fixture that seemingly has a rivalry everywhere you look.
The opening game of the new season features a rematch of the 2023 Championship Series, with the Tasmania JackJumpers hosting Melbourne United on September 18, in what will be Milton Doyle's first game in Hobart as a visiting player.
That's the first of a multitude of games where a star player will face his former team; Bryce Cotton, now a member of the Adelaide 36ers, will first face his former team of eight years, the Perth Wildcats, in Round 8 on November 9. Kendric Davis, a former 36er who's now a member of the Sydney Kings, will head to Adelaide for the first time in Round 4 for an October 11 matchup.
"We've built a schedule stacked with intensity, storylines, and some of the best rivalries in Australian sport," the NBL's Chief Operating Officer & Head of Basketball Operations, Vince Crivelli, said.
"What makes this season so compelling is how personal so many of these matchups are. Fans are going to feel the tension and the emotion every single round. Whether it's Bryce Cotton going head-to-head with the Wildcats and the Red Army, Matthew Dellavedova returning to Melbourne, or Kendric Davis lining up against the 36ers; these games aren't just about competition, they're about legacy, pride and proving a point."
None of the Sydney Kings, Adelaide 36ers, or Illawarra Hawks will play in Round 1 of the regular season. The Kings and 36ers will be playing exhibition games in Sydney, going up against Panathinaikos BC AKTOR and KK Partizan in the Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament. The Hawks will be in Singapore competing in the 2025 FIBA Intercontinental Cup.
The New Zealand Breakers' new ownership group will have an opportunity for their team to open the season at home, facing the Bullets in Round 1 on September 19 in Stu Lash's first game as head coach for the Brisbane franchise.
Round 2 is where a lot of the real action begins, with some of the NBL's rivalry games being played. The first Throwdown of the season will take place on September 25, with United taking on the South East Melbourne Phoenix. The following day, the Bullets and Cairns Taipans face off in the first 'Sunshine Stoush' of the new campaign.
This regular season will see a continuation of Christmas Day games, with the Kings hosting their fourth in a row; once again, against the Hawks at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena.
The holiday season will be an extremely busy period of NBL basketball. From December 17 to January 5, there will be 20 straight days of scheduled basketball, with 26 games set to be played over that period of time.
HoopsFest will then take place, with all 10 NBL teams and eight WNBL teams playing regular season games in Perth from January 15-18.
Each NBL team will play 33 games over the course of the season, thanks to the addition of the Ignite Cup - the league's new in-season tournament - which will feature a game every Wednesday from October 8. Those in-season tournament games will count toward each team's regular season record.
There will be two FIBA windows over the regular season, with NBL basketball coming to a halt from November 24 to December 2, 2025, and then again from February 23 to March 3, 2026 as the 2027 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers get underway.
The NBL playoffs are set to take place in March.
Top 5 Games to Watch Over the 2025-26 NBL Season
Bryce's return to Perth
This should be at the top of everyone's list.
The Adelaide 36ers -- who've, once again, spent big on high-level talent, including Bryce Cotton -- will travel to Perth on December 7 to face the Wildcats, and all eyes will be on the five-time MVP.
The sight of Cotton in a non-Wildcats jersey will be triggering in itself, but watching him play against the Perth team he played eight seasons with, in front of a crowd that venerated him, will be must-watch basketball.
Cotton and the Wildcats didn't have the cleanest split either -- the eight-time scoring champion was given a deadline to sign by, which he took some issue with - so there will naturally be a bit of tension going into the matchup.
The regular season hasn't even begun and this game already has the feel of a 'Bryce will look to score 50' type of contest.
Kendric's return to Adelaide
It's another return game, and this one could be spicy.
Here's the background. When Kendric Davis rejected an offer to return to the 36ers, only to sign with the Sydney Kings, it just looked like another example of one team poaching talent from another. Standard stuff in the NBL.
Well, since then, Davis has claimed the 36ers "ghosted" him during their negotiations and then offered a lesser contract -- the team vehemently denied all of those assertions -- which has suddenly created a heap of tension between the two parties.
That friction should make for a grab-your-popcorn type matchup the first time the Kings face the 36ers on October 11, with Davis likely set to go out there to prove a point against his former team whose front office he now has some animus toward.
The Championship Series rematch
When two teams go at each other in a back-and-forth, tense five-game Championship series, those emotions don't just go away.
That's why it's worth keeping an eye on the first matchup between the defending champions Illawarra Hawks and Melbourne United, which is set for November 5 in Wollongong.
The Hawks will have made some tweaks to their roster but have the same local core, while United has had a major overhaul of talent, but these two teams still project to be among the best in the NBL, so this should be a highly entertaining, competitive game.
Battle of the top-10 picks?
It's early days, but the most recent 2026 NBA mock draft by our ESPN experts has the New Zealand Breakers' Karim Lopez at No. 6, and Melbourne United's Dash Daniels at No. 9.
That's extremely high praise for the pair of Next Stars, who'll have the eyes of every NBA team on them every time they step on the floor.
Lopez is a 6'9 Mexican wing who is long, athletic, guards multiple positions, and played with an impressive level of toughness as a 17-year-old last NBL season; a Swiss army knife type of player who NBA teams are really enamoured by. Daniels is the brother of Dyson, and is a slashing point guard who's unbelievably impressive on the defensive end, and whose jump-shot has seemingly taken some big strides.
The first matchup between the two projected top-10 picks will take place in Round 1 on September 21, and there's a good chance we'll see some NBA personnel travel to Australia for the game to get eyes on the pair of teenagers.
Christmas Day
There's always something extra that comes with the NBL's now-annual Christmas Day game, and this one will once again feature the Hawks travelling to Sydney for a matchup with the Kings.
Last season's game saw Hawks head coach Justin Tatum, as well as star guard Tyler Harvey don Grinch-themed clothing, before defeating the Kings in Qudos Bank Arena.
The 'Freeway Series' already comes with some natural friction, and the pomp of it being on Christmas Day only adds to that. Throw in the fact that the Hawks are the defending champions and were 4-0 against the Kings over the 2024-25 season, and Brian Goorjian's team will, no doubt, be desperate to show their might against the smaller-market NSW franchise.