NBA schedule to be released on ESPN at 4

It’s been well over three months since we’ve had any sort of NBA basketball to watch. And if you squint your eyes enough, that’s changing tonight.

At 4 p.m. PT, ESPN is unveiling the schedule for the NBA’s 2019-20 season resumption, which starts on July 30. The Golden State Warriors aren’t involved in any way, shape, or form, but it’s still basketball-adjacent TV programming, and I, for one, am excited.

Here’s the news from ESPN:

ESPN will televise NBA Countdown: NBA Schedule Release presented by Mountain Dew tonight, Friday, June 26, at 7 p.m. ET. The one-hour show will reveal the game matchups and the national television schedule for the NBA seeding games. The show features ESPN’s NBA Countdown team, including host Maria Taylor, analyst Jalen Rose and ESPN Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski, in studio. Analysts Paul Pierce and Jay Williams will appear remotely.

In addition to the schedule reveal, NBA Countdown: NBA Schedule Release presented by Mountain Dew will include expert analysis from the NBA Countdown team and an essay on the fight for social justice by Howard Bryant. The crew will also discuss what life will be like for NBA players on and off the court at the Walt Disney World Resort.

I, like all of you, wish we had Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the rest of the Dubs coming to us in July and August. But I’m still excited to watch LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. I’m still excited to watch the Portland Trail Blazers and New Orleans Pelicans try and sneak into the playoffs. I’m still excited to watch the Houston Rockets have a disappointing postseason showing.

Soon we can start choosing what games we want to see, and marking our calendars.

I’m excited, with or without the Warriors.