This Wednesday evening, the NBA unveiled the full schedule for the 2022-23 NBA season as planned. And for the occasion, the Great League has decided to launch a nice new concept: the “Rivals Week”, in other words the week of rivals with some big posters on the program.
Among the many dates that you can already circle in red on your calendar, there is that of January 23, 2023. Because it is on January 23 that this “Rivals Week” will officially start. A week which will be made up of eleven meetings on national air between teams which do not really appreciate each other, for historical or geographical reasons or because they remain on several rather hot confrontations last year or during recent seasons. For example, we will be entitled to a Lakers – Clippers for the Battle of Los Angeles, a remake of the 2022 Playoff series between the Warriors and the Grizzlies, a Celtics – Heat which will recall both the last Eastern Conference Final but also the big duels of the early 2010s, without forgetting of course the classic Lakers – Celtics. If you want the full list, it’s just below.
The NBA officially launches “Rivals Week” this season, from January 24 to 28, 2023 with:
Lakers – Clippers
Celtics – Heat
Nets – Sixers
Warriors – Grizzlies
Nuggets – Sixers
Nets – Knicks
Hornets – Bulls
Grizzlies – Wolves
Raptors – Warriors
Mavs – Suns
Lakers – Celtics— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) August 17, 2022
Rivalries are obviously central to NBA history. It was a rivalry that saved the Great League when it fought to find a place in the US sports landscape after the 1970s, during which the NBA was marked by drug problems and popularity at most. down. If Magic Johnson and Larry Bird hadn’t arrived at the Lakers and Celtics in 1979 and then brought us several legendary matchups, the League probably wouldn’t be where it is today. This “Rivals Week” is thus a means of highlighting certain major oppositions of the past while trying to promote new ones.. Well we’re not going to hide it eh, the current NBA lacks great rivalries between franchises as we have seen in the past. Without wanting to play old c*n, it’s just a reality. The increased movement of star players over the past decade is likely one of the reasons for this, and the gradual sanitization of the 21st century NBA hasn’t helped develop rivalries like those that characterized the 1980s and 1990s. In the era of player empowerment which characterized the 2010 decade, we were more in buddy-buddy mode than in enemy mode, several superstars deciding to team up to increase their chances of winning the title. Fortunately, we still have a few phenomena like Ja Morant, Joel Embiid and Co. who could well revive all this, and the NBA would emerge from it.
Despite this lack of real rivalries in the current NBA, this “Rivals Week” promises to be attractive. The posters are beautiful and we could well be entitled to a few sparks in the middle of a long regular season. When we know that the January matches are rarely the most exciting, we validate the concept!
Source texte : NBA
Additional highlights for the 2022-23 season include:
▪️ No games played on Election Day (Tuesday, Nov. 8)
▪️ Debut of NBA Rivals Week (Week of Jan. 23)
▪️ Historic low for average miles traveled per team pic.twitter.com/WZgb5jmr2H
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) August 17, 2022