Nuggets will make opening night statement in Golden State to Steph Curry and NBA

The 2025-26 NBA schedule continues to leak out piece by piece, and the latest shoe to drop is the opening night schedules for NBA on ESPN, which will be Wednesday, October 22nd and Thursday, October 23rd, and feature the Nuggets traveling to take on the Golden State Warriors.

The season will open up that Tuesday, the 21st, on NBC, but the Nuggets were snubbed as the opening night doubleheader will feature Rockets at Thunder followed by Warriors at Lakers. But now we know the Nuggets will open their season two nights later on national television.

Not getting one of the Tuesday or Wednesday night games shows that the league is sleeping on Denver, choosing instead to showcase veteran-laden teams that aren’t true contenders in the Warriors and Lakers, and up-and-coming teams like the Mavericks and Spurs.

Nuggets should come out with chip on their shoulder

But luckily, the Nuggets won’t have to wait long for their chance to prove the league made a bad decision. By going into Chase Arena and spanking the Warriors in their own building, with the entire world watching, would be quite the opening statement.

You’d think the NBA would want to showcase a team with the best player in the world, the third-best odds to win the title, and that just “won” the offseason, but apparently not. Hopefully, this just fuels the fire in Denver and motivates them to come out and send a message, putting the league on notice very early on.

Is it crazy that nine different teams will appear on national TV before the Nuggets this season? Absolutely. In the grand scheme of things, does it matter? Not at all.

Flying under the radar a positive for Nuggets

While it’s frustrating for fans not to see their team properly respected, it’s probably for the best. The Nuggets have a great team, and they know it, even if the rest of the league may not. They are going to come out very hungry this season and have a lot to prove.

All of these minor slights along the way should only add ammo for them. There are plenty of fans and media members to fight the narrative battle on behalf of the team while they just focus on taking care of business on the court.

At the end of the day, everyone plays 82 games. Half of them will be at home and half will be on the road. The best teams will make the playoffs and settle this on the court like always. Let teams like the Lakers and Warriors win the P.R. battles; the Nuggets have bigger, more ambitious goals.