Take a look at the NBA schedule, and you’ll notice a bit of an oddity this week. After a full, 15-game schedule on Monday, there are no games on Tuesday, Nov. 8. That’s no accident. The league made the intentional decision not to hold games on Election Day, instead encouraging fans to vote.
Instead of holding games Tuesday night, the NBA has a slate of content focused around the importance of voting, like this video of LeBron James talking about the importance of being educated on the issues to make a change:
The NBA and NBPA also held a virtual roundtable discussing the importance of voting with the executive director of the the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, James Cadogan, the co-founder of I Am A Voter, Natalie Tran and Sacramento Kings forward Harrison Barnes.
The NBA’s official website also includes information on finding the polling place in your area, a link to finding the issues you’ll be voting for as well as a Q&A between NBPA president and New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum and Cadogan.
The byproduct of not holding any games on Election Day was a loaded slate on Monday, Nov. 7, to compensate for the loss of Tuesday. All 30 NBA teams played on Monday, and the schedule was rather unorthodox with a new game tipping off every 15 minutes. from 7 p.m. ET to 10:30 p.m. ET.
It was quite the eventful evening, with several nail-biting games over the course of the night, including a game-winning, buzzer beater by Josh Hart to lift the Portland Trail Blazers over the Miami Heat. There was also Stephen Curry’s 47-point explosion to carry the Warriors to a win over the Kings, and a miraculous comeback by the Clippers led by Paul George to beat the streaking Cavaliers.
One of the theoretical motivators behind the league’s decision to stagger the start times on Monday could be for the sake of its relatively new “CrunchTime” show, which jumps from game to game to highlight the night’s closest matchups. By staggering starts like this, the league ensures that there will almost always be a game ending, and if those games are close, the “CrunchTime” show can highlight it. It is similar in structure to the NFL‘s “RedZone” channel, but without a basketball concept that directly relates to the NFL’s red zone, the NBA’s alternative is reliant on exciting finishes. It certainly delivered Monday night with five games being decided by three or fewer points, and five additional games being decided by 10 or fewer points.
After taking the day off on Election Day, the NBA will return to a normal schedule on Wednesday, Nov. 9, with 13 games set to be played.
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Read More: Election Day 2022: NBA schedules no Tuesday games after all 30 teams play Monday