NBA Schedule 2016-17: League Releases Official Regular-Season Slate

After a busy and notable free-agent period, the NBA continues to whet the appetite of its fans by releasing the schedule for the 2016-17 season. 

NBA.com unveiled the entire schedule for the 2016-17 season, featuring all 2,460 regular-season matchups.

The first day of action will take place on October 25, with three games that will be highlighted by the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers taking on the New York Knicks. 

As is always the case with the NBA schedule, Christmas Day features five huge games, including the Cavaliers taking on the Golden State Warriors in an NBA Finals rematch and the Los Angeles Clippers vs. the Los Angeles Lakers. 

The most anticipated game on the schedule features Kevin Durant’s return to Oklahoma City as a member of the Golden State Warriors on Feb. 11.

There were small rumblings last season about the Warriors being a potential landing spot for Durant, but it always seemed like the Thunder would present too many good reasons for him to leave the franchise he helped turn into an NBA power. 

When LeBron James originally left Cleveland for the Miami Heat after the 2010 season, he spurned a city that worshiped him in the worst possible way by using the now infamous and quickly overused line about taking his talents to South Beach. 

Durant did not make that kind of spectacle out of his decision to leave, even praising Oklahoma City in his article that ran on the Players’ Tribune:

I’m from Washington, D.C. originally, but Oklahoma City truly raised me. It taught me so much about family as well as what it means to be a man. There are no words to express what the organization and the community mean to me, and what they will represent in my life and in my heart forever. The memories and friendships are something that go far beyond the game. Those invaluable relationships are what made this deliberation so challenging.

It really pains me to know that I will disappoint so many people with this choice, but I believe I am doing what I feel is the …

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