In mid-January, LeBron James could become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

The league announced its schedule for the 1,230 regular season games on Wednesday, between October 18 and April 9, 2023. They will cover four countries, with Mexico and France hosting regular season games alongside the United States and the Canada.

There are the usual days that stand out – Stephen Curry and Golden State will raise their championship banner on day one, as part of NBA Monarch privileges, plus five matchups again on Christmas Day. This year brought a radical change: no games will be played on the day of the midterm elections.

And now that the schedule has been released, it looks like James could overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the final two weeks of January – assuming LeBron doesn’t miss a game and scores at his usual pace. James will start the season in second place, 1,325 points behind Abdul-Jabbar.

Teams will travel less, 5% fewer air miles on average than last season.

The NBA made this possible by adding fewer trips to road games, which will happen 88 times this season, up 66% from the previous year.

In total, NBA teams will run 50,000 fewer miles this season.

“There was a component of player health, also durability,” admitted Evan Wasch, a member of the team that makes the calendar.

Another timeline reveals:

INTERNATIONAL REACH

The NBA is expected to broadcast 45 live games in Europe, the Middle East and Africa on Saturdays and Sundays.

INTERNATIONAL GAMES

San Antonio will be the “local” against Miami in Mexico City on December 17. Detroit will “welcome” Chicago to Paris on January 19.