NBA pauses schedule on Election Day once again, NHL plays on

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Tuesday, Nov. 3rd is Election Day in America. And once again, two of the four major sports leagues are taking vastly different approaches in handling the day.

There will be no games on the NBA calendar on Tuesday. It’s the fourth time in five years that the league is taking the entire day off and encouraging everyone to take the time to vote. It’s a tradition that began in 2022 after players became visibly involved in social and political action after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in 2020.

The initiative began in the Orlando bubble during the 2020 NBA Playoffs that were moved because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Players from the Milwaukee Bucks effectively went on strike and others in the NBA and other leagues followed in what was a time of great social unrest. Following the boycott, the league and players association made a civil engagement agreement that focused on turning arenas into polling places and encouraging fans to vote.

All 30 NBA teams played on Monday night with players wearing shirts that said “Vote” during pregame warmups. And the NBA had Oklahoma City Thunder star Jared McCain take part in a post encouraging fans to find their local polling site.

Your vote matters. 🗳️ Just ask Jared McCain and his roommates.

Don’t sit this one out—find your polling site at https://t.co/z9v80qYQeb https://t.co/ZfnPlZA4oH

From the media side, that means the NBA is taking a week off from Coast-to-Coast Tuesday on NBC and Peacock. But with this being a midterm election cycle, NBC will naturally have wall-to-wall Election Day coverage in primetime anyway.

The NHL is taking a vastly different approach. The league is continuing with its normal schedule as it has historically done. The NHL will feature 11 games on Election Day. Three of those are in Canada while eight of them will be in the United States.

It doesn’t take a cultural anthropologist to realize the makeup of the NHL and NBA are very different in a number of different ways. But it’s fascinating that the NHL has more or less stayed mum over the years regarding playing on Election Day while the NBA and its players have been vigilant in trying to raise social awareness.

It’s fascinating that the last post on X from the NHL mentioning “Election Day” came in 2021 for Canadian elections. The NBA mentioned “Election Day” four times in October alone, including the Jared McCain video. There have been no posts from the NHL in 2022, 2024, or 2026 regarding Election Day in America. Similarly, there have been several posts from the NBA this fall featuring McCain and Doc Rivers encouraging people to vote. The last mention of the word “Vote” from the NHL account was a retweet to encourage fans to vote for Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks to win best sports card at the ESPYs in July.

Many NBA players and coaches have been very vocal when it comes to political and social issues, from LeBron James to Steve Kerr to Gregg Popovich to list just a few. The NHL hasn’t seen nearly the same level of activism in recent years. In fact, when hockey did mix with politics earlier this year at the Winter Olympics, it led to a series of events that even Gary Bettman labeled “unfortunate.”

Whatever the reasons, it’s clear that there is now a cultural divide between the two sports leagues on how they approach a day that should hopefully stand as a unifying force for Americans as we all participate and vote.