The NBA’s Christmas Day games are a tradition that dates back to 1947 in the old BAA. While throughout the 70s and 80s anywhere from four to seven games were played on Christmas, the late 80s ushered in an era where only top teams played…or at least teams with high market value. This article isn’t going to analyze anything about the XMas Day games. Instead, it will be a collection of scattered thoughts.
It’s too bad the NBA season can’t begin on Christmas
I know right? The NBA season starts at the very end of October/early November…and other than opening day no one cares about the NBA for two months until XMas. Why is this the case? The biggest issues for the NBA is that the NFL season is in full swing. The NFL of course is the king of American pro sports until Roger Goodell kills the league (might happen sooner than you think) and the NBA isn’t yet (or maybe ever) topping that. MLB sometimes really hurts the NBA as well. If the MLB postseason takes up those crucial last days of October/first days of November, it’s something else to talk about that isn’t basketball. And while they each aren’t nearly as big news wise, the NBA sharing ESPN space with the NHL and the NASCAR Chase doesn’t help.
It also doesn’t help that the first two months of the NBA season…don’t really matter. This is true for all of the major American professional sports other than football. 2014 was an especially lucky year for the NBA as they had two major stories going: LeBron’s return to Cleveland (and the Cavs “struggles”) and the injury plagued Oklahoma City Thunder. Still, other than LeBron’s literal return to Cleveland has him being back in Cleveland been THAT big of a deal these first two months? Not really right? Hell, even the ratings for LeBron’s return weren’t that great and even paled in comparison to his Heat debut four years prior (I do have a theory on this…which is people like to watch villains. Feel good stories are fine, but unless you’re Michael Jordan basketball feel good stories aren’t that big of a deal).
Do you know when the last time the first two months of a NBA season mattered? The 2011-2012 season! The lockout shortened year actually grabbed headlines before the season began (with the lockout and the Chris Paul-Lakers-Clippers-David Stern Veto situation) and had XMas day games that felt like they mattered. Why did they all feel like they mattered? Each game had either a situation attached to it and wasn’t tarnished by a team not performing as well as they should (you know, since they were all 0-0 at that point). For example: Carmelo lit up the Celtics and made it seem like the Knicks were going to be a real power (they were okay…although they had to be saved by Linsanity at one point), Chris Paul was making his Los Angeles Clippers debut against the Warriors with young Stephen Curry (who did not play well), the Heat and Mavericks had a Finals rematch, Oklahoma City took on Orlando in a game full of future (or even current) superstars (Durant, Westbrook, Dwight), and lastly Kobe and the Lakers took on DRose and the Bulls. All five games felt like big deals. Does this happen in a normal season? I say no. Clippers vs. Warriors loses appeal as the Warriors still weren’t ready and Chris Paul would have made his debut two months prior. The Knicks might have been in their slump (they were 12-15 at one point). Maybe even Orlando vs. OKC gets tarnished as Dwight battled injuries all season. This all leads me to my second thought.
There are one too many games on XMas…which tarnishes the sifnoficance a bit
While in the 70s and 80s there were anywhere from four to seven games on Christmas, that changed to one or two games throughout the 90s. As a result, you always had a big time game on for Christmas (although, oddly never the biggest game, you’d think MJ would be there every year). I’m going to pick 1995 as a starting point here…and only pointing out how games were marketed. Injuries would just be bad luck.
1995 (2 Games): Rockets @ Magic (Finals Rematch, Hakeem and Drexler vs. Shaq and Penny), Spurs @ Suns (Robinson vs. Barkley)
1996 (2 Games): Pistons @ Bulls (Grant Hill vs. MJ, Pippen, etc…Pistons were 20-6 at this point), Lakers @ Suns (Shaq’s first season as a Laker, Suns were an odd choice though)
1997 (2 Games): Heat @ Bulls (ECF Rematch, Tim Hardaway and Mourning vs. Jordan, Pippen, etc.), Rockets @ Jazz (WCF Rematch, Hakeem, Barkley and Drexler vs. Malone and Stockton)
1998: Lockout
1999 (2 Games): Knicks @ Pacers (ECF Rematch, Knicks vs. Reggie), Spurs @ Lakers (Duncan, Robinson vs. Shaq, young Kobe)
2000 (2 Games): Magic @ Pacers (TMac vs. the defending EC Champs w/Reggie, ambitious because the magic weren’t quite there yet, but TMac was surely a rising star), Trail Blazers @ Lakers (WCF Rematch, Rasheed vs. Shaq, Kobe)
2001 (2 Games): 76ers @ Lakers (NBA Finals Rematch: Iverson vs. Shaq/Kobe), Raptors @ Knicks (Carter vs. Knicks…the overrated draw of the Knicks starts to show around this time though)
2002 (3 Games): Kings @ Lakers (Best rivalry at the time and WCF Rematch, Webber vs. Shaq, Kobe), Celtics @ Nets (ECF Rematch, Pierce vs. Kidd), Pistons @ Magic (TMac and Hill vs. Detroit’s D), this could be an example already of one game too many though.
2003 (3 Games): Rockets @ Lakers (Yao, Francis vs. Shaq, Kobe), Cavs @ Magic (rookie LeBron vs. TMac), Mavericks @ Kings (7 Game WCSF rematch, Nowitzki vs. Bibby, Peja)
2004 (2 Games): Pistons @ Pacers (One of the best rivalries at the time), Heat @ Lakers (the much anticipated Shaq vs. Kobe…Wade was there too obviously)
2005 (2 Games): Spurs @ Pistons (NBA Finals Rematch), Lakers @ Heat (Shaq/Wade vs. Kobe XMas rematch)
2006 (1 Game): Lakers @ Heat (Really pushing that Shaq vs. Kobe draw)
2007 (3 Games): Heat @ Cavs (Wade vs. LeBron…whole thing was wrecked though as this was Miami’s 15-67 season), Suns @ Lakers (Nash vs. Kobe), Supersonics @ Trail Blazers (was supposed to be rookie Durant vs. rookie Oden and Roy). This represented probably the weakest set of games of the last 13 seasons.
2008 would begin the five game setup we have now. Let’s go over these 13 season of XMas games though: don’t most of these feel like a big deal? The NBA smartly pushed their top teams and talents into these games, and also gave the younger stars a chance to shine. Let’s look at 2008.
2008 (5 Games): Wizards @ Cavs (A budding rivalry which was really LeBron destroying them over and over…LeBron vs. Arenas), Celtics @ Lakers (NBA Finals rematch), Hornets @ Magic (CP3 vs. Dwight), Spurs @ Suns (Another good rivalry, Nash and Shaq vs. Duncan, Parker and Manu), Mavericks @ Trail Blazers (Nowitzki and Kidd vs. Roy and if Oden is there somehow?). Wizards don’t belong here, and Mavericks vs. Trail Blazers is one game too many.
Each year would still have its monster games of course, but then also a 4th or 5th game which took the significance away from the Christmas games. 2009 had Lebron vs. Kobe…and for some reason the godawful Knicks vs. Wade and a bunch of nobodies. Let’s look at 2014’s games.
2014 (5 Games): Wizards @ Knicks (Wall vs. Carmelo?), Thunder @ Spurs (Durant and Westbrook vs. the legendary Spurs trio), Cavs @ Heat (Lebron returns), Lakers @ Bulls (Kobe vs. DRose), Warriors @ Clippers (Curry vs. Blake and CP3)
The two obvious games that don’t belong? Wizards @ Knicks and Lakers @ Bulls. Lakers and Knicks combined records: 14-44. The Wizards are a fun up and coming team sure, but the Knicks are awful and most thought they would be as well. The Lakers too are the same way, and XMas day does not need the draw of Kobe (we didn’t see Wizards Jordan on XMas). Nevermind that it was a crapshoot we’d even get Derrick Rose playing. The other three are good choices. OKC vs. the Spurs lucked out (as long as Pop doesn’t bench anyone) since Durant and Westbrook are healthy. Cavs @ Heat was always going to be a big deal, even if the Heat aren’t anywhere near what they were and Bosh is out (it’s no different than Lakers-Heat in the mid 2000s). Golden State and LAC will be a great game. This is just two games too much.
I think I’ve had enough scattered thoughts about the NBA XMas day games. The NBA is still about a month and a half before they monopolize ESPN (post Super Bowl and All Star Weekend), and truthfully I can’t wait. And we usually get the ball rolling on XMas. I just wish 33% of the league wasn’t playing today. It would be a lot more special that way.