The NBA will release its 2022-23 schedule on Wednesday, but one day is already known to be a blank slate—November 8. As in, Election Day. The league announced Tuesday that no teams will play that day in order to encourage people to vote, reports Politico. Instead, all 30 teams will play the night before as part of a themed "civic engagement night," per the New York Times.
"We don’t usually change the schedule for an external event," James Cadogan, executive director of the NBA’s Social Justice Coalition, said on MSNBC. "But voting and Election Day are obviously unique and incredibly important to our democracy." The move syncs with the growing presence of players in both the NBA and the WNBA in social justice causes in recent years, notes the Times. Many NBA arenas were turned into polling locations for the 2020 election. (More NBA stories.)