Heat will host Chicago on October 31 and Los Angeles Lakers, led by Kobe Bryant, will host two-time NBA most valuable player Steve Nash and Phoenix the same night in the showcase opening night fixtures.

Heat and O'Neal's former teammates at the Lakers will have a pair of holiday meetings. The Lakers will travel to Miami on Christmas and then host Heat on January 15, Martin Luther King Junior Day.

The civil rights pioneer's holiday will also see Phoenix at Memphis, the city where King was assassinated at a motel that is now a civil rights museum.

November 5 will feature Houston Rockets, led by China star centre Yao Ming, at New Orleans to face the New Orleans-Oklahoma City Hornets in one of six games scheduled to be played in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina last year.

The second night of the NBA season, November 1, features LeBron James and Cleveland Cavaliers playing host to Washington and Los Angeles Clippers visiting Phoenix.

James and Miami's Dwyane Wade, two rising young NBA star guards, will meet three times in February 2007 and again on April 5.

The next night features a showdown between defending Western Conference champion Dallas and visiting San Antonio while James and the Cavaliers visit the Spurs and Seattle will visit the Lakers.

NBA defensive player of the year Ben Wallace will lead his new club, Chicago, against his former team Detroit at Auburn Hills, Michigan, on February 25.

Heat and Dallas will meet in a rematch of the NBA finals twice, with the Mavericks in Miami on January 21 and the heat in Dallas on February 22.

The NBA All-Star game will be staged in Las Vegas on February 18.