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10 Opponents the Orlando Magic should get a national TV game against

With the Olympics coming to a close, the excitement for the 2025 NBA season is beginning to build. The league should release its schedule within the next two weeks. Orlando Magic fans are eager to see if the league finally features them on national TV.

By Philip Rossman-Reich

The Orlando Magic should get more national attention this year and more national TV appearances than the one they got last year.
The Orlando Magic should get more national attention this year and more national TV appearances than the one they got last year. / Mike Watters-USA TODAY Sports
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The NBA's offseason is about to come to a screeching halt once the Olympics Men's Basketball Tournament ends on Saturday. Everyone will put the basketballs away until training camp begins at the beginning of October.

There is still one piece of news left to fill for the NBA. Perhaps the one fans are most eagerly awaiting to make the upcoming NBA season feel real.

It is usually this time of year when the NBA releases its schedule—usually in mid-August. We are all expecting it to drop within the next week or two and raise the excitement levels for the 2025 season.

That event not only allows Magic fans to map out their lives and know which holidays and weekends they will not be around friends and family from now until April (block off the end of April and early May for the playoffs), but it also gives everyone a sense of which teams the NBA prioritizes and believes will be part of the larger story of the season.

To say the least, this aspect of the schedule has been much-debated among Magic fans.

Despite having the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft in Paolo Banchero, who grew into an All-Star in his second year, Orlando had only one national TV appearance in the last two years before the playoffs. Even the Magic's playoff series saw three games relegated to NBATV until the league was forced to put their Game 7 on ABC—the first time the Magic had been in front of a national network audience since Dwight Howard was on the team.

To say the least, Magic fans are hungry for some national attention and to be put into the spotlight. They feel they have deserved at least a few games. Making the Playoffs should help that argument and should get the Magic at least a few more games—is five too many to ask for?

While Banchero deserves his flowers and deserves the league putting some attention on him, and while the Magic deserve at least some time in the spotlight, they are still going to have to make in-roads and get attached to a team that is more easily sellable to a public that often is not paying attention to the league.

The Magic will be on national TV more when the schedule comes out in a few weeks. And Magic fans will be eagerly looking to see which games ESPN and TNT have selected to feature the team when the 80-game schedule (remember two games will be added after NBA Cup group play finishes) is released.

So who should the Magic play when they get their chance on national TV? We have a few answers:

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