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Christmas and the NBA

Yesterday saw five NBA games played; however, this discussion will focus on the history of these games being televised. In recent years, the NFL has begun to schedule games on a date that was once primarily associated with the NBA. The inaugural NFL game on this holiday occurred in 1971 with a playoff game featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins. Typically when the date coincided with a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday an NFL game would be played. The NFL has a larger television audience and based on this fact alone began scheduling Christmas Day games. 

Regarding the NBA, its association with the holiday dates to 1947, the league’s first year, although only one game was played that year. Historically, the main broadcast originated from Madison Square Garden, featuring the New York Knicks and their scheduled opponents. Over time, the Knicks have participated in the most Christmas Day games, with 58 appearances including yesterday’s contest against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Excluding the most recent game, their record stands at 25 wins and 32 losses. Throughout the years, the number of NBA games held on Christmas Day has steadily increased. While the NFL’s presence has grown, it is important to note that the holiday was never exclusively reserved for the NBA.

Kryptonite

Most of you are familiar with the story, Superman was impervious to everything on earth except one thing. That one thing was Kryptonite a fictional radioactive material from his home planet of Krypton. Criminal elements including Lex Luthor tried to obtain the rock in order to defeat or at least neutralize Superman’s’ power. For the third time this season the ‘baby’ San Antonio Spurs have beaten the Oklahoma City Thunder again. The Christmas day game would see the Spurs victorious 117-102 and understand this, from the seat in my Man Cave the game didn’t appear close except maybe the middle portion of the first half.

Victor Wembanyama still on a minutes restriction had a good but unspectacular game (19 pts, 11 rebounds). It was the Spurs backcourt of De’Aaron Fox (29 pts) and Stephon Castle (19 pts, 7 assts) who led the way to the victory. 54% shooting from the floor with 38% coming from three certainly aided the cause for the Spurs. As for the defending NBA champions Thunder it was 39% from the floor and 25% from three, it seemed all game long that the Spurs caused the Thunder to ‘speed up’ their offense effort forcing them into a variety of bad shots. SGA led for the Thunder but he even appeared to be caught in this accelerated game. The Thunder have run roughshod through the NBA except for the Spurs, although the calendar has not turned to January I believe the Warriors all-time won-loss record is safe.

There are exceptions, I guess….

James Nnaji is a 6-foot-11, 250-pound center who has recently been declared immediately eligible and awarded four years of eligibility, he’s been added to the roster of Baylor University. While his eligibility might initially appear typical, the details of his career trajectory set his case apart. Nnaji previously spent four years playing for Barcelona in the ACB—a tenure that is uncommon. A few players have spent time playing Euro basketball but to my knowledge it’s been no more than one perhaps two seasons. 

Further complicating the narrative, Nnaji was selected 31st overall in the second round of the 2023 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. His rights were subsequently traded to the Charlotte Hornets and later to the New York Knicks. In what appears to be a bizarre case the NCAA granted him permission and immediate eligibility to play at Baylor. All this despite the facts laid out above and also that Nnaji has been playing professionally since 2019, it is indeed a strange world we live in now.

End of the year

College teams have been at play for several weeks, near the end of the year I thought it might be fruitful to check the rankings of teams. The true test of course is the first Monday in April, that will tell the tale as the NCAA champion is crowned. Which team is actually the best college team in the nation in between time, this is the poll for the week of 8 of the 2025-26 basketball season. Prior to April we must satisfy ourselves with Top 25 rankings, BPI and other methods of measurement. This interesting, the AP and Coaches poll both place Iowa State as the number three team in the nation, as for their top that’s different.

The AP Top 25 places Arizona in the top slot while the Coaches poll has Michigan at the top. As for the number two team, Michigan is two while in the Coaches poll they are ranked number one. Many believe in the BPI poll because the criteria required of each of the teams is more detailed. This poll also takes into account the strength of schedule, sometimes a won-loss record can be misleading. I could use the Mizzou Tigers as the example, as this is written they have won 10 games versus 3 losses. The issue none of the wins have been quad one wins, as for their top five in order they are Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan, Arizona and Houston.