PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers will be one of the NBA’s highest-profile teams this season after adding LeBron James and Jaylen Brown to a roster that already included Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe.

And they’re being treated as such as the league announces its schedule. That started with the opening week slate and marquee meetings on Tuesday, including opening night and Christmas Day. The Sixers will travel to face the Knicks in the season opener on Oct. 20, returning home two nights later to host the Cavaliers in the home Philly debut for James and Brown.

The Sixers will reportedly play in 30 national TV games in the 2026-27 regular season, starting on opening night against the defending champion Knicks.

The marquee matchups keep coming on Christmas Day as the Sixers are slated to face a Los Angeles Lakers team James decided to leave this offseason.

The matchup against the Knicks speaks to the outsized expectations for this new iteration of the Sixers. While the Sixers and Knicks have shared recent history, including a 2026 second-round sweep as the Knicks marched to a title, New York has gotten the better of that rivalry. But the Sixers have since fired former president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and hired Mike Gansey, traded for Brown and signed James to a two-year, $8 million deal. They also added depth in the offseason, with Anfernee Simons, Dean Wade, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Labaron Philon Jr. all figured to feature heavily in the rotation.

The prominent scheduling of the matchup against the Lakers was almost a foregone conclusion. Christmas Day, which some consider the unofficial open of the NBA season, is as good a day as any. James decided to leave Los Angeles as the franchise prioritized younger players in the offseason, with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves both playing on max deals.

More games against rivals come early as the Sixers will see the Boston Celtics twice in the NBA preseason. That means we will get an early preview of Brown against his former team and running mate Jayson Tatum in some form, with the real games coming later. The Sixers’ three preseason games will be played at the Brooklyn Nets on Oct. 8 and in a back-to-back against the Celtics on Oct. 10 and 16.

James spent the previous eight seasons as a member of the Lakers, delivering a title in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He kept the Lakers in contention for the rest of his tenure, including last season when he averaged 20.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists in his 23rd season. James also served as the offensive engine in the postseason at age 41, delivering a surprising first-round defeat of the Houston Rockets with Doncic and Reaves dealing with injuries. The 2025 champion Thunder ended the Lakers’ run in the second round.

Brown played his entire 10-year career with the Celtics, winning Eastern Conference finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP as he helped lead the franchise to a title in 2024. An All-NBA performer in 2025-26, Brown is fresh off one of his best individual seasons. He averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists as the Celtics outperformed expectations and landed the second seed before falling in seven games to Embiid, Maxey and the Sixers.

James and Brown will join a Sixers franchise big on talent. Maxey has blossomed into an All-NBA performer, Embiid is a former MVP and Edgecombe finished third in a competitive Rookie of the Year race last season.

The Sixers’ opening night matchup against the Knicks is part of a tripleheader that starts with a matchup between the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons, followed by Sixers-Knicks and Spurs-Thunder. The week continues with Oct. 21 meetings between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Miami Heat, followed by a meeting between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers. The next night, which is headlined by Sixers-Cavs, will also feature the Thunder against the Denver Nuggets.

Christmas Day, the league’s vaunted quintet of games will start at noon with an NBA Finals rematch between the Knicks and Spurs and run deep into the night, with the final showing, a West Coast game between the Nuggets and Warriors, kicking off at 10:30 p.m. ET. Heat-Celtics, Sixers-Lakers and Thunder-Timberwolves will fit in between those games.

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Philadelphia Inquirer Sixers beat reporter Gina Mizell contributed to this report.

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