National Basketball Association

How the NBA took over Christmas Day

Published Dec. 24, 2019 11:44 a.m. ET

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Martin Rogers u2014 @MrogersFOX

The first NBA game to be played on Christmas Day was between the New York Knicks and the Providence Steamrollers, all the way back in 1947. Needless to say, neither of those teams will feature on the festive schedule this time around.

In the case of the Steamrollers, their absence can be attributed to the fact that they’ve been defunct for the past seven decades. As for the Knicks ... well, they’re the Knicks, and games on Dec. 25 have become the exclusive preserve of NBA teams that people care about.

Okay, scratch that. It’s Christmas, and this is neither time for snark nor uncharitable cheap shots. Apologies, then, to those who hold Big Apple basketball dear; yet the truth remains that when Santa delivers a veritable trove of outstanding matchups to hoops fans annually, only the elite need apply.

Quick, think of the most interesting head-to-head you can imagine in the NBA. Did you say the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Los Angeles Clippers? Most people I asked did, and it’s one of five blockbusters set for Wednesday.

No heavyweight schedule these days would be complete without arguably the most dominant individual force in the game, and Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks are indeed in action, in a showdown with the Philadelphia 76ers that may be a preview of the Eastern Conference finals.

The defending champions are also in action, with the surprisingly excellent Toronto Raptors — who have only been slightly slowed by Kawhi Leonard’s defection to Tinseltown — taking on the Boston Celtics.

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Television executives surely hoped that the addition of the New Orleans Pelicans to the Yuletide slate would provide an outlet for Zion Williamson’s implausible talents, yet the No. 1 pick remains on the injury list. However, the Pelicans’ opponent, the Denver Nuggets, is a worthy participant before a national audience, being the closest thing the Lakers currently have to a rival for the Western Conference top seed.

It can be argued that no pro sports league owns a day on the calendar with quite this much clarity. There are no NFL games this year, although the shield admittedly does take customary charge of Thanksgiving.

The NFL is not averse to playing on Christmas Day, and does so with reasonable regularity. Those occasions are dependent, however, on where the calendar falls. This time, with Christmas Day on a Wednesday and sandwiched between Weeks 16 and 17, it proved utterly unworkable.

The National Hockey League shuts down altogether, with no games and no activity between Dec. 24-26. College football has enough bowl games that you could stage one per week for most of the year, but none of them care to provide the backdrop for your inevitable gluttony.

And so the NBA has a virtually unimpeded run at the day when reindeer get a workout and you almost certainly don’t. The league has always done it, but more recently they have truly owned it. Commissioner Adam Silver has been a proponent since way back when he was deputy to David Stern.

“It’s a tradition that stems from the early days of the league in the 1940s to play on Christmas Day,” Silver told The New York Times in 2009. “Teams feel it is an honor to be chosen.

“There is an acceptance on the part of our players that they’re part of the larger entertainment business. Our players have nontraditional work hours, they play late into the evenings and on weekends, but they also get large stretches of time off.”

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The league has had games on Christmas every year since 1947, except for the lockout-stricken 1998-99 campaign. An increase to five marquee games each year came in 2008.

All this means that the biggest teams and starriest players get the Christmas assignments disproportionately. Kobe Bryant’s kids probably stopped believing in Santa fairly early, with Mamba playing on this special date 16 times and racking up a record 395 points.

There have been some memorable Christmas Day performances, too. Bernard King’s 60 points for — yes, the Knicks — in 1984, lives on. Wilt Chamberlain conjured a scarcely conceivable 59-point, 36-rebound effort for the Philadelphia Warriors in 1961. LeBron James wouldn’t remind a repeat of his 37-10-6 line from the Miami Heat in 2011 when he duels with Leonard and the Clippers.

Only two teams, the Memphis Grizzlies and the Charlotte Hornets, have never played on Christmas, and of those who have, only two have never won. Both the Pelicans and the Raptors will soon get the chance to fix that stat. The Knicks, currently hapless, have actually played the most Christmas games of any team in the NBA. And have lost the most.

Being selected for festive games might be an NBA status symbol, but things don’t always align. The least appealing part of the Wednesday slate is when Golden State Warriors host the Houston Rockets in a repeat of last season’s epic West semifinal series.

Golden State, now minus Kevin Durant and beset by crippling injuries, have slumped to the very foot of the conference standings, a reminder perhaps — at this time of year — to be grateful for the good times when we are blessed with them.

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