OKC Thunder New Year's Eve Tradition Continues

The Oklahoma City Thunder are going to be must-see TV this season. Get your popcorn –– and streaming services –– ready.

On Thursday, the NBA released the 2025-26 regular season schedule for all 30 teams. Already, the Thunder faithful knew Oklahoma City would be on its marquee dates of Opening Night, Christmas Day and MLK Day. Being granted the former by way of winning its first Larry O'Brien with opening night representing ring night and dropping an NBA championship banner. The latter was gifted to the Thunder thanks to having the league's deepest and most talented roster.

The Thunder will be in the spotlight all year, tying the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors for the most National TV games in the league this season at 34 such contests of the 82 game slate.

Each year when the NBA schedule is announced, locally a big topic of conversation is a special Bricktown tradition. Since relocating to OKC, the Thunder have made a habit of playing a home game on New Years Eve. This has been part of families traditions to ring in the New Year together and be in the midst of the party in downtown Oklahoma City.

OKC Thunder Keep Tradition Alive

This season, the Thunder will keep that tradition alive on New Year's Eve in Bricktown, playing host to the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers are on two different ends of the NBA spectrum. The Thunder are competing for a championship while the Trail Blazers are play-in hopefuls. However, this is not a game to discount.

Portland proved a year ago that they are a scrappy young team capable of beating anyone on any given night by way of its rare regular season intensity. The Trail Blazers hope to be much improved this season and a tilt against the title winners will serve as a good measuring stick game just before the calendar flips to 2026 to see where Portland stacks up in the playoff race.

Oklahoma City should be able to handle the spunky Blazers in this game, one that has became a beloved part of the NBA experience in Bricktown and that the Thunder enjoy putting on for its fans.

December will be a busy month for the Thunder after hosting the San Antonio Spurs on Christmas Day just a week earlier. This game is slated to be on local TV, FanDuel Sports Oklahoma for in-market viewers and NBA League Pass for out of market fans.