The NBA API: free endpoints, nba_api and DunkAPI

The options

• stats.nba.com

  The NBA's stats host behind nba.com: box scores, shot charts, league leaders, tracking-style tables and more. nba_api documents 135 of its endpoints.

  Not documented by the NBA. No response within 25 seconds from our machine on 2026-10-14.

• cdn.nba.com live data

  Static JSON for live games: scoreboard, box score, play-by-play and an odds file for today's games, as documented by nba_api.

  Not documented by the NBA. All 6 requests from our machine on 2026-10-14 returned 403 Access Denied.

• swar/nba_api

  A Python client for both hosts, with documentation for each endpoint, static player and team lists, and example notebooks. It links the NBA.com terms of use.

  MIT. Version 1.11.4 released 2026-02-20; last pushed 2026-08-16. An open issue (#678, 2026-05-27) says the live module hides 403 responses behind a misleading JSON error.

• ESPN site API

  The endpoints ESPN's apps use: scoreboards, teams and a per-game summary with box score, plays, a win probability series and odds.

  Live. Free, no key. The summary for a 2026-04-22 game held 525 plays, each with a score and an x/y coordinate. No ESPN documentation or published terms.

• pseudo-r/Public-ESPN-API

  Community documentation of ESPN's site and core endpoints across sports.

  MIT. Last pushed 2026-09-30. It says it is not affiliated with ESPN and that an endpoint being reachable is not permission to reuse the data.

• BALLDONTLIE

  A paid multi-sport API with NBA, WNBA, men's and women's college basketball and many European leagues, a free tier, SDKs and an official MCP server.

  On 2026-10-14 its site listed Free at $0 a month per sport (5 requests a minute), All-Star at $9.99 (60), GOAT at $39.99 (600), and All-Access for every sport at $299.99.

Side by side

Example call

Nikola Jokic's regular-season shot profile for 2025-26 (season is the year it ends), by zone with expected points. The same view from the free sources means fetching and binning shot coordinates yourself. search_players finds the player id.

curl -X POST https://mcp.dunkapi.com/v1/get_shot_chart \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
  "player_id": "3112335",
  "season": 2026
}'

{"data": {"season": 2026, "zones": [{"zone": "restricted_area", "attempts": 288, "made": 215, "pct": 0.747, "points_per_shot": 1.493, "expected_points_per_shot": 1.141}, {"zone": "paint", "attempts": 440, "made": 255, "pct": 0.58, "points_per_shot": 1.159, "expected_points_per_shot": 0.85}, {"zone": "midrange", "attempts": 109, "made": 62, "pct": 0.569, "points_per_shot": 1.138, "expected_points_per_shot": 0.807}, {"zone": "corner_3", "attempts": 19, "made": 11, "pct": 0.579, "points_per_shot": 1.737, "expected_points_per_shot": 1.141}, {"zone": "above_break_3", "attempts": 289, "made": 102, "pct": 0.353, "points_per_shot": 1.059, "expected_points_per_shot": 1.018}, {"zone": "free_throw", "attempts": 480, "made": 399, "pct": 0.831, "points_per_shot": 0.831, "expected_points_per_shot": null}], "field_goal_attempts": 1145, "share": {"restricted_area": 0.252, "paint": 0.384, "midrange": 0.095, "corner_3": 0.017, "above_break_3": 0.252}}}

Responses are wrapped in a data object. get_shot_chart costs 10 credits; set include_shots to add each shot's x, y and result.

Use the unofficial NBA endpoints instead if

• You are running a notebook on your own machine and want the widest set of NBA fields at no cost. nba_api reaches tracking-style tables that DunkAPI does not carry.
• You need live, in-game scores, box scores or play-by-play. DunkAPI publishes each game the morning after it is played.
• You are building a scoreboard or a bot and can live with endpoints that change or block you.
• You want one vendor and one key across many sports. BALLDONTLIE is built for that; check its documentation for the fields you need.

Questions

Sources

• swar/nba_api
• nba_api endpoint documentation
• nba_api issue 678 (live module and 403s)
• NBA.com terms of use
• ESPN NBA scoreboard endpoint
• pseudo-r/Public-ESPN-API
• BALLDONTLIE pricing
• BALLDONTLIE MCP server

Checked October 14, 2026.

See the data