Basketball is a competition. The NBA is an entertainment machine.
It is an important distinction. The players are fighting and scrapping to be the last team remaining and lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy in the early summer.
The league is trying to make the most of that competition, promoting its players and telling the stories that will get fans to show up in the stadiums and tune in to games and make their sponsors and TV executives happy.
The NBA has begun that process for the 2026 season with the slow release of its schedule. The schedule is not a time for any novel news -- every team plays 82 games at the end of the day. However, one of the major stories that emerges from the schedule release is the national TV schedule.
The league begins writing the story it wants to tell about the upcoming season.
That process has already begun with the release of the league's opening night schedule, Christmas Day schedule and Martin Luther King Day schedule. It will continue when the league announces its broadcast schedule for the NBA Cup group games.
What has been released so far is only part of the story. It is clear the Orlando Magic will not be the lead of this story -- that will remain LeBron James, Stephen Curry, the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder and, in the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks.
The Magic do not have the household stars that demand constant attention and are not quite championship contenders in everyone's mind.
But what has changed this offseason is that the Magic are not too far removed from the story. They are in the mid-card at the very least, with a real chance of competing for the big belt. And the NBA must recognize that.
The Magic moved into the conversation
National TV games are not the end-all, be-all of contention. After all, that is still determined on the court more than anywhere else. What everyone cares about is who plays the best in the spring.
The national TV appearances are a point of pride. It is a statement of which teams have arrived at contention. Or at least, which teams the NBA believes have arrived and are worth sharing with a wider audience.
The Orlando Magic are not a team like the Los Angeles Lakers. They do not have the history and gravitas that merits attention even when they are struggling. National TV games are still a rare occurrence for them.
For fans, the games are rare enough that they feel bigger -- and the losses last year were disappointing for that reason.
But appearing on the national TV schedule is also a sign the team has arrived. Considering the Magic went so long without being anywhere near the Playoffs, let alone the championship picture, fans are eager to see this team get its due respect.
After their seven-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2024 first round, the Orlando Magic garnered more attention. They went from one national television appearance in the 2024 season to five in the 2025 (it became seven after two more were added through the course of the season).
Orlando had an early exit from the Playoffs in 2025. But they still have two of the league's most impressive young stars. And they made a major move to try to move up the standings. The Magic turned themselves into contenders.
The acquisition of Desmond Bane was one of the biggest moves of the summer. Even the national media are discussing the Magic as dark-horse title contenders.
FanDuel Sportsbook put the Magic's over/under at 50.5 wins. They are fifth in the odds to win the NBA title and the NBA Cup. They are third in the odds to win the Eastern Conference. And they are the favorite to win their NBA Cup group -- in a group that features the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons and Philadelphia 76ers.
Whether the league is ready or not, the Magic are at least a team they should be talking about. They are not a clear first-round exit. They are a team on the cusp of contention.
That means they are part of the story the league should be trying to tell.
Where will the league put its attention?
That is why one of the big questions as the schedule comes out is where the league will put its attention.
With bankable and proven stars like Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton out for most, if not all, of the upcoming season, the league is going to turn its attention elsewhere.
With the Eastern Conference games announced so far, that is evident.
The league has banked some of these games on the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks, two proven commodities and largely expected to be the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. They will be featured in ESPN's Opening Wednesday package and as the lone Eastern Conference matchup on Christmas.
The MLK Day schedule will feature the Milwaukee Bucks (with proven star Giannis Antetokounmpo) facing the Atlanta Hawks (a usual home team on that important day) and the Boston Celtics facing the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons will also host the Cavaliers in the first games exclusively on Peacock as part of the league's new TV deal.
That is an indication of two things: First, the East is not at the center of this year's story and, second, the league is looking for a young team to step up to the plate.
The Pistons have a lot working for them. Like the Magic, they are a promising young team with a burgeoning All-Star in Cade Cunningham. They are coming off a season similar to the Magic's 2024 season where they broke through and impressed in the Playoffs.
Detroit has earned more national TV time like Orlando did last year.
But the Pistons are not in the preseason conversations to win the East. Not in the same way the Magic are. If Detroit is getting this kind of attention -- even if it is an excess of those Peacock-exclusive games -- then Orlando is sure to get that attention too.
If the Pistons are part of the story the league wants to tell in this way, so are the Magic.
How many national TV games and how invested the league wants to be in them will be the mystery when the full schedule is released on Thursday. But Orlando should be there. The league should want to showcase the Magic more than they did last year.