Okay, here’s my blog post about figuring out the length of an NBA season:
So, I wanted to finally get a solid answer on how long a freakin’ NBA season is. It always feels like it lasts forever, but I needed the actual details. You know, for fantasy basketball and general bragging rights.
My Quest for NBA Season Length Knowledge
First, I just did a quick search. I mean, that’s what anyone would do, right? I typed in “how long is an nba season” and, boom, tons of info popped up.
The initial stuff I found was pretty basic:
- Each team plays 82 regular-season games. Okay, that’s a given.
- There are also preason games.
- There’s a thing called the “Play-In Tournament” now. Never really understood that.
- Then the Playoffs, which, yeah, can take a while.
But I was all, “This information is not useful. Give me the real stuff!” So I started to find the real date.
I dug a bit deeper and found that:
- Regular Season: This bad boy typically tips off in mid-to-late October. October, yep.
- Regular Season End: It wraps up around mid-April. Makes sense.
So, doing some very rough math in my head, that’s about 6 months for the regular season. Give or take, depending on the exact start and end dates, which I guess shift around a little each year.
Then, my friends, come the Playoffs. This is where things get… extended.
- Playoffs Start: Right after the regular season, so, mid-April.
- NBA Finals: These usually wrap up in June.
That means the Playoffs themselves can take a good two months. Again, give or take. Some series are quick sweeps, others go the full seven-game distance. It’s a whole thing.
The Final Verdict (Roughly)
So, adding it all up—the regular season, the Play-In Tournament (still not 100% on that), and the Playoffs—an NBA season, from the very first tip-off to the final buzzer of the Finals, stretches from around October to June. So that’s about 8 months to 9 months out of the year!
It’s almost a whole year! No wonder it feels like basketball is always on. That’s my not-so-scientific, but hopefully helpful, breakdown of how long an NBA season really is.
