How to Watch NBA 2023 Live Free: Watch Basketball Online From Anywhere
How to Watch NBA 2023 Live Free: Do you want to learn how to watch NBA games online? Keep reading to find the best NBA streaming services in the U.S., and how to watch them with a VPN if you’re outside the country.
The NBA is the undisputed number one basketball league in the world. Whenever the NBA season is on, thousands of fans flock to the arenas to cheer on their favorite teams. On the other hand, hoop junkies outside the U.S. turn to the web to watch live NBA games. However, what if you don’t know how to watch NBA games online?
Whether you want to watch nationally televised games or snack while watching NBA playoffs and the play-in tournament, we’ll walk you through a few ways to stream games online, from free streaming sites to Kodi to torrenting. For those options, we suggest investing in a respectable VPN.
Where Can I Watch the NBA Online?
If you’re in the U.S., services like AT&T TV, YouTube TV, Roku and Sling TV should allow you to stream games. If you’re outside the U.S., the international NBA League Pass is a nice option. You can also use a VPN to bypass geoblocks and access U.S.-only streaming services.
How Can I Watch NBA Games for Free?
You can watch NBA for free without cable through popular Kodi add-ons for sports. Other streaming sites, such as VIPBox and nba-stream.com, allow you to watch NBA online for free. However, keep in mind that these methods are illegal and pose an online security threat, so use a VPN.
Can You Watch Old NBA Games Online?
- Yes, you can watch old NBA season games from 2012 to the present with the NBA League Pass.
What Is the Best Way to Watch NBA Games?
- The best way to watch NBA games is the NBA League Pass. National channels like ABC, ESPN, TNT and others broadcast most games, but not all. If you’re located in NYC and want to watch a game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, you’d need the League Pass.
How to Watch NBA Games Online in the U.S.
What you should know is that all NBA broadcast rights are split across four cable networks, listed below in order from most to fewest games:
- NBA TV
- ESPN
- TNT
- ABC
If you want to watch games without live TV, you should look for streaming options that offer access to the four networks. A subscription to the league’s official streaming service is your best bet.
Alternatively, you could get the NBA League Pass subscription. You may miss out on some games if you’re in a blackout region, but you can cheer for your favorite (or second favorite) NBA teams for the remaining games.
U.S. Streaming Services for NBA Fans
We tried many streaming services in the U.S. and found the following options to be the best.
AT&T TV
The AT&T TV Choice package is a basketball favorite. For $64.99 per month, it unlocks all the major national NBA channels: NBA TV, ESPN and TNT. Read our how to watch ESPN guide to learn how to unblock this channel. We also have a guide on how to bypass ESPN blackout dates.
What we like most about AT&T TV is its support for all platforms, including Android and iOS devices, Apple TV, Chromecast, Samsung smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV and Roku. Plus, it allows you to run simultaneous streams on up to three supported devices.
YouTube TV
Like AT&T TV, YouTube TV gives you access to ESPN, NBA TV and TNT. ABC isn’t available in all markets in the U.S. However, this shouldn’t be too much of a worry because ABC offers the fewest games.
In terms of price, the YouTube TV plan goes for $64.99 per month. The service permits three simultaneous streams without cable and six accounts per household, making it a great choice for bigger families.
Others: Regional Sports Networks, Sling TV and DirecTV
Sling TV is a great alternative to AT&T TV and YouTube TV because it’s cheap. Starting from $25 per month, you get access to livestreams on ESPN, TNT and NBA TV (comes as an add-on). If you want to watch the full league, you can also buy a League Pass on Sling TV.
DirecTV is also a nice alternative, as it has ESPN, ESPN2, TNT and NBC Sports with the Basic Entertainment package that costs $70 for the monthly subscription. You’ll need to subscribe to more expensive plans for NBA TV though. If you’re willing to spend a little extra, DirecTV offers a good basket of RSNs to watch all local games from a single service.
If you already have a cable subscription to RSNs, you can use the channel’s apps (like the ESPN app) to stream on mobile devices. Alternatively, you could go to their website to stream a game. For instance, if you’re in the U.K., you could watch NBA on Sky Sports channel, provided you have a subscription, of course.
What About the NBA League Pass and NBA TV?
The NBA League Pass is an exciting streaming service for basketball superfans in the U.S. You can watch regular-season games, all-star weekend and NBA finals as they happen or at any time during the season. There are flexible pricing plans: League Pass, Team Pass, Three-Game Pass and Day Pass.
Unfortunately, the NBA League Pass comes with local and regional blackouts. The blackout means that if you’re in a country or city where cable TV providers own the broadcasting rights, you can’t watch live broadcasts. In the next section, we’ll show you how to bypass the NBA blackouts.
If you want to watch only the local games, NBA TV is a more cost-effective alternative. While cord-cutters won’t have full access to all NBA games in the season, they can still view all local games. If you’re a fan of free trials, NBA TV has one for seven days so you can check if it’s worth the money.
How to Watch NBA Games for Free 2023
If you’re looking for a short-term solution to stream NBA games, we recommend trying out free trial plans on services such as Hulu + Live TV, NBA League Pass and FuboTV. However, once the trail ends, you’ll need to pay — or look into other options to watch NBA without spending a dime.
Keep in mind, streaming NBA for free can land you in pirate-infested hot water and comes with its fair share of legal risks, and it’s always advisable to use a reliable virtual private network — listed above — for the sake of your security.
Free NBA Streaming Sites 2023: Watch NBA Games Without Cable
It’s hard to find free streaming sites that are reliable and risk free. The best free stream sites we found were VIPBox and nba-stream.com.
However, while these sites are somewhat reliable, your security and privacy when using them isn’t a guarantee and it’s highly likely that you’ll unknowingly download malware. For this reason, we recommend staying away from illegal streaming sites.
Watch the NBA Online With Kodi
We’re big fans of Kodi because of its flexibility and versatility, as well as its ability to stream NBA live. Besides the paid Kodi add-ons for sports, the service neatly bundles some reliable free sports add-ons.
The free Kodi add-ons that stand out for NBA fans include SportsDevil, which has streams from TNT and ESPN. Others include Bennu, cCloud TV, NBA full games (through Fusion) and UK Turk Playlists.
Final Thoughts: Watch NBA Games Online
Hopefully, you’ll find a way to watch NBA online without cable. If you want reliability, security and performance, go for the legal methods.
Stay away from the dodgy streaming sites, because even though they are free, they carry a serious security threat. Using illegal stream sites without protecting yourself with a reliable VPN can also put you on a collision course with law enforcement.
Have we left out your favorite NBA streaming method? Let’s know about it in the comments below. Thank you for reading, and have fun watching NBA online.
