LeBron James with 31 points and 10 assists led the Los Angeles Lakers to a thrilling, two-point victory on Christmas Day over their interstate rivals the Golden State Warriors — who got 38 from Steph Curry while falling 115-113 at Chase Center in San Francisco. But the real competition on Christmas was not as much between teams as between leagues when two of America’s sports powerhouses — the NBA and NFL — clashed, each with its own slate of games on Christmas.
And James had something to say about that too.
In a postgame interview with ABC Sports, King James laid down the law: “Christmas is our day!”
James had just played in his NBA record 19th Christmas Day game. In other words, he has played on Christmas in every year of his career except for three. James also, perhaps not surprisingly, holds the record for victories on Christmas. The Lakers’ win over Golden State on Wednesday was his 11th Christmas Day triumph.
Christmas Games: an Eight-Decade NBA Tradition
Christmas Day games are an NBA tradition nearly as old as “the Association” itself. The first one was played in 1947, the second year of the NBA’s existence — when the league was still called the Basketball Association of America, or BAA. Before the 1949 season, the BAA merged with its arch-rival known as the National Basketball League to form the National Basketball Association, the NBA. The new league subsequently adopted the first and only three BAA seasons as part of its own official history.
For the record, there were three games on Christmas Day, 1947. The New York Knicks defeated the Providence Steamrollers 89-75 at Madison Square Garden in the highest-profile of the inaugural Christmas matchups. In the other two, the Baltimore Bullets cruised past the Chicago Stags, 87-70 at Baltimore Coliseum, and the Washington Capitols topped the St. Louis Bombers, 73-56. Except for the Knicks, who of course still play in the NBA today, none of the six teams that played on Christmas in 1947 survived more than another three seasons before folding.
The first nationally televised Christmas Day NBA game came in 1967, when the ABC television network showed the San Diego Rockets (an expansion team that year, becoming the Houston Rockets in 1971) defeating the Lakers 104-101. Since 2008, the NBA has scheduled five Christmas Day games each year. The defending NBA champions have played on Christmas every year since 1995.
The NBA skipped Christmas only once, in 1998, when a player lockout pushed the start of the NBA season to February 5, 1999.
NFL Previously Only Dabbled With Christmas Matchups
The NFL, on the other hand, has no real tradition of playing games on Christmas, though it has occasionally done so. In NFL history, a total of 21 games have been played on the holiday, in 14 different years. The first NFL Christmas games came in 1971, when a pair of divisional playoff games fell on that day.
Until 2024, the last time the NFL played on Christmas was 2017. But on Christmas this year, as part of a three year contract worth $150 million per year, the NFL scheduled two games, both streamed live by Netflix. But neither game was particularly exciting. The Kansas City Chiefs easily defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-10, and in the late game, the Baltimore Ravens blew out the Houston Texans, 31-2.
The NBA, on the other hand, saw nail-biting contests in four of its five matchups, with none of those games decided by more than six points. Even the concluding matchup was only a 10-point margin with the Phoenix Suns beating the Denver Nuggets.
At least in terms of entertainment value, the NBA came out the clear Christmas winner, prompting James to declare, in his full statement, “I love the NFL. I love the NFL but Christmas is our day!”
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LeBron James Slams NFL With Powerful 4-Word Message after Christmas Day Victory