As is tradition, the NBA played five high-profile games on Christmas. When the ratings come out the following day, the NFL will almost certainly have drawn in more viewers.
You can bet the NBA’s stakeholders are very aware of that fact, to the point that one of them outright challenged the rival league in his postgame interview. Speaking to ABC’s broadcast crew after a thrilling Los Angeles Lakers win, noted football fan LeBron James said “I love the NFL. I love the NFL, but Christmas is our day.”
James’ sentiment is likely shared around the league, though perhaps without the confidence.
One of the fun parts of the American sports calendar is how each league claims a different holiday. The NFL has had Thanksgiving for decades. The NBA has Christmas. College football and, more recently, the NHL have New Year’s Day. MLB has the Fourth of July.
Since 2020, however, the NFL has pursued games on Christmas, with significant ratings wins over the NBA each year. In order to get four teams ready to play on a Wednesday this year, the league pushed their games the previous week to Saturday, taking advantage of an opening in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 that allows them to play on Saturdays after the first week of December.
The players weren’t thrilled about playing three games in 11 days but, as usual, the NFL got what it wanted, with two games played Christmas day streamed on Netflix. Both games ended up being blowouts, but early indications are the ratings will be impressive.
The NBA isn’t interested in sharing Christmas with the NFL, but that’s obviously not up to the NBA. The NFL is almost a different industry at this point, immune to the television ratings erosion against which the NBA, MLB and others are trying to adapt. If it wants Christmas, it’s going to play on Christmas and people are going to watch.
The NBA can really only respond by putting out a good product. The Christmas teams obliged for the most part this year, with the Lakers overcoming a game-tying 3-pointer from Stephen Curry with eight seconds left, getting the win on an Austin Reaves layup. James finished with 31 points and 10 assists.
Before that, the New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers all won back-and-forth games by single digits, unlike the blowouts in the NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens both won by at least three scores.
