The NBA on Christmas Day tradition dates back to 1947 when the New York Knicks hosted the Providence Steamrollers at Madison Square Garden. Since then, the world’s best basketball league has scheduled games every Christmas except for the 1998 lockout season.
In contrast, the MLB, WNBA and MLS are in their off-seasons during Christmas, and the NHL’s CBA forbids them from playing games during the holiday season.
As for the NFL, the league previously only scheduled Christmas games when the holiday fell on the weekend (and even then, only occasionally). All that changed in 2020 when America’s most popular sporting league began hosting at least one Christmas game every year.
Yet, the NFL maintained it would not schedule games when Christmas falls on a Tuesday or Wednesday, only to reverse course this season with two blockbuster games and a halftime show headlined by Beyonce.
While the festivities were a rare treat for football fans in the holiday season, many in the NBA were seemingly peeved. LeBron James — the face of the NBA for two decades — sent out a message to the NFL after guiding his Lakers to a 115-113 win on Christmas Day.
