National Basketball Association Christmas games facts for kids

Games held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Christmas Day, December 25, have been an annual tradition since the league's second season in 1947. Currently, five games are played on Christmas. Unlike the National Football League (NFL)'s traditional Thanksgiving Day games, the NBA's Christmas Day games have no fixed opponents; rather, they feature some of the best teams and players. Since 1995, the current NBA champions plays a game on Christmas Day.

History

76ers coach Doc Rivers (left) and Phil Jackson (right) have participated on Christmas Day as both player and coach. Jackson is tied for the most coaching victories on Christmas Day and won his 1,000th game as a coach on Christmas Day in 2008.

Kobe Bryant and LeBron James (both players pictured in 2016) are tied for the most games played Christmas Day, with 16 each. Both players have played each other twice, in 2009 and in 2010.

The first NBA game played on December 25 came in 1947, a year after the NBA's inception, when the New York Knicks beat the Providence Steamrollers at Madison Square Garden 89–75. Since then, the NBA has played games every year on Christmas Day except in 1998 (when a lockout canceled half the 1998–99 season). In contrast, Major League Baseball is in its off-season during Christmas, the National Football League only schedules Christmas games when Christmas falls on the weekend (and even then only schedules games on Christmas occasionally) and the National Hockey League's collective bargaining agreement forbids playing games on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day (celebrated as such in Canada as a statutory holiday, though otherwise the non-holiday day after Christmas in the United States; in seasons in which the latter falls on a Saturday, the break occurs one day earlier, from December 23–25). In college football, the only bowl game traditionally scheduled for Christmas has been the defunct Aloha Bowl (and for one year, its replacement, the ESPN Events-owned Hawaii Bowl; that game itself moved its date specifically due to ESPN/ABC's acquisition of NBA telecasts, including Christmas Day games). Thus, the NBA is the only league to regularly schedule games on December 25.

In the early days, regional proximity dictated most of the matchups. Teams would usually play their geographical rivals to cut down on holiday travel and to allow them to have more time with their families. According to Dr. Jack Ramsay, who coached the Portland Trail Blazers from 1976–77 (their only championship season) to 1986, "Christmas meant being at home with the family and having a game we always won. That was a perfect Christmas to me." He set the record for most coaching victories on Christmas Day with 11, an achievement that Phil Jackson later matched in 2008.

In the early 1980s, the New York Knicks put on a show three years in a row. In one game (1984), hall-of-fame forward Bernard King scoring 60 points—the most ever scored by a player on Christmas Day, With the advent of television and the excitement caused by these games, the NBA decided to scheduled games over the holiday that showcased the best teams and players. While there is no specific system to determine for which teams will play the Christmas games, the games usually include the teams that played in the previous season's NBA Finals, as well as the team with the league's reigning MVP.

Teams and players

The Knicks have played more Christmas Day games than any other team, with 54 total. They are 23–31 on the holiday. Their most recent Yuletide appearance came in 2021 when they defeated the Atlanta Hawks, 87–101, at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks have a checkered history on the 25th. Their 23 wins are the second most by a team on Christmas Day, while their 31 losses are the most.

The first Christmas Day game to take place outside the United States took place in 2019 when the Boston Celtics defeated the Toronto Raptors 118-102 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada.

Some players have participated on Christmas Day as both player and coach. Doc Rivers played with the Knicks in 1992 and coached the Boston Celtics from 2008 to 2013. Phil Jackson, who also participated as a player and coach, has been a part of at least 20 holiday games, coaching on Christmas every year from 1990, with the exception of 1995 and 2004, until his retirement at the end of the 2010–11 season. He won his 1,000th game on Christmas Day in 2008. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant played 16 games each on Christmas Day, tied for the most of any player. In fact, the latter played more often on Christmas than on any other date on the calendar, playing his first in 1996 and his last in 2015.

Many teams and players that have played on this day have worn special uniforms and sneakers. From 2009 to 2011, the Knicks wore their third jersey, the green/orange alternate which they first used exclusively for St. Patrick's Day. During the game between the Heat and the Lakers in 2010, players on both teams wore holiday sneakers. Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom wore lime-green Nike sneakers while James and Chris Bosh wore holiday-red shoes with green laces. From 2008 to 2011, teams playing on Christmas Day wore a patch featuring the NBA logo inside a snowflake. Between 2012 and 2016, the NBA and Adidas produced special uniforms for the Christmas games. All of these uniforms feature a particular theme, such as monochromatic designs ('Big Color') and chrome-treated logos ('Big Logo'). In 2015 and 2016, Stance provided Christmas-themed socks for the games.

After Nike became the uniform provider in 2017, no Christmas-themed uniforms were produced. Instead, NBA teams playing on that day wore either "City" or "Statement" alternate uniforms. During the 2018–19 season, a few teams wore a fifth alternate known as "Earned" uniforms; these were given as a reward for making the 2018 NBA playoffs.

Memorable moments

The NBA Christmas Day contests have featured some of the most memorable games ever played. Bernard King scored 60 points for the New York Knicks in 1984. Patrick Ewing helped the Knicks come back to beat the Boston Celtics after trailing by 25 points in 1985. He then beat Michael Jordan and the Bulls on a last-second jumper in 1986. Scottie Pippen performed a last-second block in 1994.

The first showdown featuring Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal as opponents occurred on Christmas, 2004. 2009 and 2010 featured faceoffs between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Phil Jackson becoming the fastest coach to win 1,000 games (it happened on December 25, 2008). In 2021, LeBron James became the all-time Christmas Day scorer with 422 points, surpassing Kobe Bryant, who scored 383 points.

As a result of a lockout in 2011, Christmas Day was also the season opener. ESPN/ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy talked about that day, saying, "It's a different opening day than has ever happened in the past and Christmas Day games have always been a big day for the NBA. This unique situation combined with the unveiling of a championship banner for the Mavericks in a finals rematch, and then to see the Lakers and the debut of Mike Brown as head coach, those things are all going to be very compelling."

Rivalries have also been showcased during games played on this day. During the 1990s, every Christmas but one featured a game involving either the New York Knicks or the Chicago Bulls, with the two teams playing against each other twice (in the Bulls championship season of 1992–93 and in 1994). They would have met a third time in 1998, if there had not been a lockout. The only year during the 1990s in which neither team played on Christmas Day was during the Bulls first championship season in their second three-peat, in 1995–96. During the 2000s, the NBA showcased the Shaq–Kobe feud. Since 1999, each Christmas has featured games involving either the Celtics or the Lakers, with both teams playing on the holiday in 2002 and every year since 2008. In a great pairing, the two teams faced off against each in other during the first of the Lakers' most recent back-to-back championship seasons of 2008–09. This was the first meeting between the two teams since the finals of the year before.

The home team is 142–75 in Christmas games. The winning percentage of .654 for the home team on Christmas Day is better than the overall winning percentage for home teams during the regular season or the playoffs since 1992.

Scheduling and broadcasting

After a season's NBA Finals comes to an end, officials from both the NBA and the network that broadcast the NBA meet to plan the schedule of games for the holiday during the upcoming season. In most cases, two of the teams that play during the holiday are the teams that reached the finals the previous season. The NBA usually tries to have the best players play against each other. Some examples of this include 2009 and 2010, when the defending champions of those seasons, the Los Angeles Lakers played at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2009 and the Miami Heat in 2010, so that they could have showdowns between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James both times.

Broadcasting

Since 2009, Christmas Day broadcasts of the NBA feature Mariah Carey in a music video singing "All I Want for Christmas Is You" and "Oh Santa!" ("Oh Santa!" since 2010)

The first telecast of an NBA game on Christmas Day dates back to the league's early years. In 1947, the Providence Steamrollers played in New York against the Knicks on WCBS channel 2 at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Stan Lomax and Bob Edge called that game. Fifteen minutes later, at 8:15 p.m. Central Time, Joe Wilson broadcast the game between Baltimore Bullets and Chicago Stags for WBKB channel 4 in Chicago.

The first nationally televised Christmas Day NBA broadcast occurred in 1967, when ABC broadcast a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and San Diego Rockets from San Diego. Jerry Gross and Jack Twyman called that broadcast for ABC. ABC would continue to televise Christmas Day games through 1972. Chris Schenkel did play-by-play for ABC during this period with the exception of 1970, when Keith Jackson had the honors. Jack Twyman remained in the color commentating position up until 1971, when Bill Russell took over. From 1975-1989 (with the exception of 1982), CBS broadcast a game on Christmas Day.

However, it was not until 1983 that the games became a household tradition, when CBS broadcast the game between the New Jersey Nets and the New York Knicks and ESPN broadcast the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers (Sam Smith and Dick Vitale were on the call for ESPN). In the 1990s, NBC broadcast a doubleheader each year on Christmas Day (except in 1998, when there were no games played on Christmas Day due to the 1998–99 NBA lockout) and this has continued after ABC took over in 2002, except that in 2004 and 2006, ABC broadcast only one game. For three years (2004–2006), ABC insisted on having a Christmas Day game between the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers so that Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal could play against each other. Since ABC took over the NBA, ESPN has also broadcast games on Christmas Day (except in 2006). Since 2009, Christmas Day broadcasts on ESPN and ABC have featured a music video with Mariah Carey singing "All I Want for Christmas Is You." In 2010, Carey added "Oh Santa!"

In 2008, TNT broadcast on Christmas Day for the first time as Marv Albert, Mike Fratello and Craig Sager called the game between Washington and Cleveland in Cleveland and Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller and Cheryl Miller called the game between Dallas and Portland in Portland. This marked the first time that all three networks that cover the NBA (ABC, ESPN, and TNT) produced games on Christmas Day. As Christmas Day fell on a Thursday that year, TNT was given two primetime games as part of their regular TNT NBA Thursday slate (the same scenario also took place in 2014).

Due to the 2011 NBA lockout, the season opener took place on Christmas Day that year. As a result, the NBA gave TNT the first game of the Christmas slate with a contest between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Calling the game were Marv Albert (himself a former Knicks broadcaster) and Steve Kerr. Because of this, Albert, who was also working for CBS's NFL coverage, was forced to miss his scheduled Week 16 game the day before. Also on that day, ABC broadcast the Dallas Mavericks' 2011 Championship banner ceremony during their pre-game show. This marked the first time in NBA history that a pre-game championship banner ceremony has been aired on a terrestrial television network; either Turner Sports or a regional sports network aired the ceremonies in previous years.

In a unique situation in 2017, ABC aired an NBA tripleheader for the first time ever, which was headlined by a 2017 NBA Finals rematch between LeBron James and the Cavaliers and Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and the Warriors, which would be the prelude to the 2018 Finals rematch, which resulted in a Warriors sweep. Because ESPN aired a football game on Christmas night, they only aired one game, which was at 12 ET. TNT aired the 10:30 pm game, the network's first Christmas Day game since 2014. However, instead of employing either Marv Albert or Kevin Harlan and their roster of game analysts, Turner opted to use the Inside the NBA crew of Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny "The Jet" Smith and Charles Barkley for the game, with TNT's No. 2 sideline reporter Kristen Ledlow working the sidelines and halftime.

ESPN/ABC Simulcast Games

Since 2018, the 8:00 ET game has usually been simulcast on both ESPN and ABC, and has always involved LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

2018's game featured James and the Lakers against Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and the Golden State Warriors. Although the Lakers pulled away with a 127–101 win, the win did prove to be costly, as James injured his groin, forcing him to miss significant time, which later saw James miss the playoffs for only the third time in his career, and the Lakers miss the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season. That all led to the Lakers acquiring Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans in the offseason. The Warriors meanwhile, wound up making it to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Toronto Raptors in 6 games, in a series that saw Durant not play for the first 4 games due to a strained right calf, return in Game 5, then rupture his Achilles, and later sign with the Brooklyn Nets in the offseason. Durant subsequently missed the following season. It also saw Klay Thompson tear his ACL, causing him to also miss the following season, but re-sign with Golden State following the Finals.

2019's game, which again featured the Lakers, led by James and Davis, pitted them against their hallway rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers, led by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, in the Battle of LA. In what could've been a preview to that season's Western Conference Finals, the Clippers came back and won 111–105. The Clippers later lost in the Conference Semi-finals to the Denver Nuggets, while the Lakers wound up winning the NBA Championship in the Bubble.

The 2020 game once again featured the Lakers, led by James and Davis. This time, they faced Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, in a potential playoff preview. It was Dallas' first Christmas Day game since 2011. The Lakers ran away and won 138–115, but in a similar manner to 2018, it proved to be costly, as both James and Davis both missed significant time due to injuries. Both teams wound up losing in the first round of the Playoffs later on, with the Lakers having to go through the new Play-In Tournament.

The 2021 game featured the Lakers once more. This time, James, newly acquired Russell Westbrook, and Carmelo Anthony, hosted the Brooklyn Nets, led by James Harden, Blake Griffin, and Patty Mills. Seen as a potential star-studded Finals preview, the Brooklyn Nets defeated the Lakers 122–115 despite LeBron's 40-point effort to break the late Kobe Bryant's Christmas record. Prior, several Nets players, including Durant, a former teammate of Westbrook, and Kyrie Irving, a former teammate of James, were declared out due to health and safety protocols. This game ended up doing both teams no good, as the Lakers went on to miss the playoffs for the second time in four years, after a bunch of injuries and inconsistent play, while the Nets, who later traded Harden to Philadelphia at the deadline, made the playoffs via a win in the Play-In Tournament, only to be swept by their Atlantic Division foes, the Celtics, in the first round.

Originally for Christmas Day 2022, the plan was for ABC and ESPN to simulcast a tripleheader that will begin with Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks hosting LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers at 2:30 ET. It will be followed by a showdown between the last two Eastern Conference champions as Jayson Tatum and the defending East champion Boston Celtics host Giannis Antetokounmpo and the 2021 East and NBA champions Milwaukee Bucks at 5 ET. It was scheduled to end at 8 ET with Steph Curry the defending champion Golden State Warriors hosting Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies in a playoff rematch from a season ago. However, on October 17th, ESPN announced that their entire Christmas Day slate would be simulcast on ESPN and ABC. In addition to the three middle games, the simulcasts will now include Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers visiting Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks at Noon ET, as well as Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns hosting reigning 2x MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets at 10:30 ET. All the Christmas games will compete against the NFL's Christmas Day tripleheader.

Game results

Christmas Day standings

Of current NBA teams.

Most frequent match-ups among active teams