Karaban's Sacramento Kings and Reed's San Antonio Spurs have four games against each other, however.
Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed Jr. have moved on from their time as a member of head coach Dan Hurley’s UConn Huskies.
Both are NBA rookies and first-round draft picks, with Karaban a member of the Sacramento Kings, Reed with the San Antonio Spurs.
Their new home arenas – Golden 1 Center in Sacramento and the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio – are nearly 2,000 miles apart, but Karaban and Reed will be seeing plenty of each other between now and Thanksgiving.
The NBA issued its 2026-27 schedule on Thursday, and the Kings and Spurs are set to meet four times in the regular season – three times before the end of November.
When does the NBA season start?
Reed’s Spurs are part of a season-opening tripleheader on Oct. 20, the final game of the day. They open with the Oklahoma City Thunder at 9:30 p.m. ET in a rematch of the 2025-26 Western Conference finals, won in seven games by the Spurs.
Karaban and the Kings will open the following night, Oct. 21 at 10:30 p.m., at the LA Clippers in Inglewood, Calif.
Karaban vs. Reed
Karaban gets a double dose of Huskies against the Spurs, with former teammate Stephon Castle a starting guard in San Antonio. The matchup will occur on these dates:
Oct. 27, 8 p.m. ET, at San Antonio
Nov. 6, 10 p.m. ET, at Sacramento
Nov. 23, 10 p.m. ET, at Sacramento
April 6, 8 p.m. ET, at San Antonio
It won't be difficult to watch Reed and the Spurs on television this season. They have been slated for a TV game – without a subscription to NBA League Pass – 34 times, given the interest in young San Antonio superstar center Victor Wembanyama.
When are they playing in the Northeast?
Let’s define the teams in the Northeast as the Boston Celtics, NBA champion New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors. If any UConn fans want to try to watch either Karaban or Reed as pros in person, opportunities are limited.
The Kings will be in the region four times, the Spurs six.
The Kings in the Northeast
Karaban won’t be venturing to the region until 2027. The Kings will be in Philadelphia to meet LeBron James and the 76ers on Jan. 27 (7 p.m. ET). They head east again in March for three games in four nights, beginning in Karaban’s Boston on March 16 (7:30 p.m.), where he undoubtedly will have lots of requests for tickets against the Celtics.
They will conclude their trip with a March 17 contest against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden and a March 19 trip to Toronto to face the Raptors. Both games are set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
The Spurs in the Northeast
The Spurs will play a trio of games in the Northeast in December and three more in March. The December schedule: Dec. 16 (7:30 p.m.) at Toronto, Dec. 23 (7:30 p.m.) at Brooklyn and Dec. 25 (noon) at the Knicks.
The Knicks traditionally host a game on Christmas Day. The matchup with the Spurs will lead off a slate of five holiday games.
The March schedule: March 7 (7:30 p.m.) at the Knicks, March 21 (7:30 p.m.) at Philadelphia and March 24 (7:30 p.m.) at Boston.
Will Dan Hurley and the Huskies watch the alums play?
It would take Herculean efforts for the team's travel coordinator or a convenient Big East schedule in late January to figure out how to squeeze an NBA game into the schedule this season.
During the stretch in March that the Kings and Spurs are in the region, the Huskies should have other things to do. The first round of the NCAA Tournament will be played March 18 and 19, with the second round March 20 and 21.
The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds follow the next weekend.
