Mavs-Knicks, NBA's Full Martin Luther King Jr. Day Slate on 2025-26 Schedule Revealed
The NBA will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day next January with four marquee matchups.
The holiday will start out with a matinee contest between the Milwaukee Bucks and host Atlanta Hawks, followed by a visit from the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The day will continue as the Dallas Mavericks take on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, followed by an evening matchup between the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons.
The schedule means Atlanta, where King was born in 1929, will resume hosting a game for the holiday for the first time since 2023.
The franchise had previously hosted MLK Day games every year since 1994, exception 1998 and 2017.
The Hawks headed to San Antonio for the 2024 edition of the MLK Day game, in part because the College Football Playoff national championship game was taking place that weekend at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Memphis Grizzlies are not slated to play on the holiday. The franchise had previously hosted an MLK Day in every year since relocating to Memphis in 2001, excepting 2002 and 2017.
The holiday schedule will also feature 2025 top pick Cooper Flagg's first trip to Madison Square Garden, according to NBA.com's Brian Martin.
The NBA has played 378 games on MLK Day since the holiday was first celebrated in 1986, per Martin.
The Knicks have been on the MLK Day schedule all 37 times the league celebrated the holiday. This January will mark the franchise's 36th time hosting an MLK Day game, Martin reported.
The NBA also released its Opening Night and Christmas Day schedules on Tuesday ahead of the Oct. 21 tip-off of the 2025-26 campaign.
The league's 80th season will begin with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the reigning champs raising their banner against the visiting Houston Rockets.
The opening night doubleheader then wraps up as LeBron James, Luka Dončić and the Los Angeles Lakers host Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
Christmas Day features a staggered five-game schedule that begins with the Knicks hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Thunder then host the San Antonio Spurs, followed by the Mavericks visiting the Golden State Warriors, the Rockets taking a trip to meet the Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks closing out the night against the Denver Nuggets.
The full schedule for all 30 NBA teams will be released by the league on Thursday.
