Trae Young gives a brutally honest explanation about the NBA not playing in Atlanta on MLK Day

The 2024-2025 NBA schedule was released yesterday, and fans of all teams began picking the games they were most excited about and wanted to watch. The NBA hosts games on Christmas Day and MLK Day every year, and the Atlanta Hawks usually host a game on MLK Day.

That changed this year.

Instead of hosting a game on MLK Day, the Hawks will travel to Madison Square Garden to face the New York Knicks. It was a big surprise and Hawks fans immediately noticed and voiced their discontent on social media. Today, Hawks superstar Trae Young also commented on the Hawks not being allowed to host a game in Atlanta on MLK Day:

It is very disappointing that the NBA has done this and hopefully they can play games in Atlanta again on MLK Day.

The Hawks will have only two nationally televised games this season, both games against the Spurs. One will be broadcast on TNT and the other on ESPN. Atlanta's games will also be broadcast six times on NBATV.

In mid-November, the Hawks will embark on their first West Coast tour of the season, including games in Portland (Nov. 17, 6 p.m.), Sacramento (Nov. 18, 10 p.m.), Golden State (Nov. 20, 10 p.m.) and Chicago (Nov. 22, 8 p.m.).

As announced on Tuesday, August 12, the Hawks will participate in four group games as part of the 2024 NBA Cup in November – November 12 in Boston (7 p.m.), November 15 against Washington (7:30 p.m.), November 22 in Chicago (8 p.m.) and November 29 against Cleveland (2:30 p.m., NBA TV).

Other notable home opponents at the start of the season include the defending Western Conference champions, Dallas Mavericks (November 25, 7:30 p.m., NBA TV), Dejounte Murray and the New Orleans Pelicans (December 2, 7:30 p.m.), LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers (December 6, 7:30 p.m.) and Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets (December 8, 6 p.m.).

In mid-December, Atlanta plays at San Antonio (Dec. 19, 9:30 p.m., TNT) before four home games (Memphis, Minnesota, Chicago, Miami). After that, the Hawks will embark on their longest road trip of the season, a 12-day, six-game trip from Dec. 29 to Jan. 9 that includes games at Toronto (Dec. 29, 6 p.m.), Denver (Jan. 1, 9 p.m.), the Lakers (Jan. 3, 10:30 p.m., NBA TV), LA Clippers (Jan. 4, 10:30 p.m., NBA TV), Utah (Jan. 7) and Phoenix (Jan. 9, 9 p.m.).

In total, Atlanta will play ten away games in January, including an MLK Day game in New York (January 20, 3:00 p.m.).

On February 5, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs will come to Atlanta for their only visit of the season (7:30 p.m., ESPN).

The 2025 NBA All-Star Game will take place on February 16 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

After the break, the Hawks will play ten of twelve games at State Farm Arena, including matches against Miami (February 24, 7:30 p.m.), Shai-Gilgeous Alexander and Oklahoma City (February 28, 7:30 p.m.) and two against Indiana (March 6 and 8, 7:30 p.m.). Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors will visit State Farm Arena on March 22 (7 p.m.).

Atlanta finishes the regular season with three of four away games and closes with a game against Orlando at State Farm Arena (April 13, 1 p.m.).

The Hawks will play 16 back-to-back games this season, including four home/home, five home/away, four away/home and three away/away. Aside from NBA Cup games, Atlanta will play each Western Conference team twice and each Eastern Conference opponent four times, with the exceptions of Indiana, Philadelphia and Toronto (two home/one away) and Boston, Brooklyn and Cleveland (one home/two away).

Bally Sports Southeast's broadcast schedule will be announced at a later date. All games will be broadcast on the Hawks' radio station, Sports Radio 92-9 The Game, and the Hawks Radio Network, with Steve Holman as the voice of the Hawks and Mike Conti as pregame, halftime and postgame host.