NBA Christmas 2025: what to know about this year’s quintuple header | NBA

LeBron James made his Christmas debut in 2003. Victor Wembanyama was born 10 days later.

That’s right: James has been around the NBA’s big day longer than Wembanyama has been alive. And on Wednesday – when the league celebrates Christmas with games for the 77th time – the league’s oldest player and brightest young star will be large parts of the holiday showcase.

It’s another Christmas quintuple game, with Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs visiting the New York Knicks, Minnesota going to Dallas for a rematch in the Western Conference finals, Philadelphia going to Boston to renew a historic rivalry, James and Los The Angeles Lakers take on Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors and Denver plays at Phoenix in the nightcap.

“Very excited, of course,” Wembanyama said as the France star previewed his first Christmas game opportunity. “First of all, spending Christmas in New York, it will be like the movies, I hope. Get some snow.”

His first Christmas wish came true: Light snow fell in Manhattan on Tuesday morning.

James said he’s relishing another chance to share the holiday spotlight with Curry — someone he’s played against on Christmas three previous occasions.

“Any time you get an opportunity to be on the court and compete against one of the greatest to ever play this game, you don’t take it for granted,” James – who turns 40 next week – said of facing his American Olympic teammate. “I don’t know how many more opportunities we’ll get to go against each other.”

The Christmas games have been viewed for decades as the time when more fans tend to start watching basketball. The NFL — which goes head-to-head against the NBA on Wednesday — is winding down its regular season, and the five NBA games will all be shown nationally on either ABC or ESPN.

The Spurs-Knicks game will also feature a special alt-cast featuring Mickey Mouse and some of his friends, the first animated presentation of an NBA game. It airs on ESPN2 and streams on Disney+ and ESPN+.

“I wish more of our great players had a chance to play on that stage on Christmas Day,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “It’s been an interesting turnaround from certainly my earlier days in the league where we got a lot of complaints about playing at Christmas – and now it’s coming the other way which is, ‘Why don’t we play at Christmas?’ I wish we could accommodate even more teams.”

Knicks forward Josh Hart, like almost everyone in the basketball world, is excited about Wembanyama. The Spurs star is averaging 24.8 points, 9.9 rebounds, 4.0 blocks, 3.9 assists and 3.3 three-pointers per game.

“He’s a great player, man,” Hart said. “He does things offensively, defensively, that no 7-what-the-hell-he-is supposed to do. He’s the future of the league.”

For the record, Wembanyama is officially just under 7ft 4in.

The Knicks are playing their 57th Christmas game, extending their NBA record. The first Christmas game in league history was at Madison Square Garden in 1947.

“Have been fortunate to play Christmas a lot of days,” Spurs guard Chris Paul said. “I’m excited.”

Game time is at 1:30 PM in Dallas, which means it will be 8:30 PM in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Prime time, Christmas night in Luka Dončić’s homeland.

The Mavericks star couldn’t be happier with how it worked out.

“It’s special,” said Dončić, who had a 50-point game last Christmas. “You have a lot of people from Europe who want to watch the NBA. … It’s a big thing. It’s going to be a special game.”

Dallas beat Minnesota 4-1 in last year’s West finals.

For Timberwolves guard Mike Conley, this season is No. 18 – and his second Christmas match.

“It was 14 years before I got to play on it in Utah,” Conley said. “I was looking forward to the opportunity. Not many people get the opportunity to play. When people celebrate the holidays, they turn on the TV and watch the NBA.”

No team has met more in NBA history than defending champions Boston and Philadelphia. The same applies to the Christmas rivalry: It will be the Celtics-76ers for the 14th time on December 25, by far the most in the league.

Celtics guard Jrue Holiday says it’s hard to cut off family time for Christmas — but also said it’s fun that his kids get to watch their dad play that day.

“It’s an honor to be able to play on Christmas Day,” Holiday said. “I know I was one of those kids who couldn’t wait for the Christmas games to come. So it’s always an honor.”

Curry and James have met on Christmas in 2015, 2016 and 2018, all immediately following seasons that ended with Cleveland vs. Golden State matchups in the NBA Finals.

Lakers coach JJ Redick played Christmas 11 times in his career. The significance of seeing another matchup between Steph and LeBron on the holiday is not lost on him.

“I think it was great to have two of the icons of this generation go head-to-head and have a classic series for sure and then some classic games and classic moments as well,” Redick said. “For those guys who are also teammates on the Olympic stage, they just have the ultimate respect for each other.”

James gets another chance to become the NBA’s all-time Christmas wins leader: He has played in 10 wins as of Dec. 25, tying former teammate Dwyane Wade’s Christmas record. This is James’ 19th Christmas game; Wade played in 13.

Curry, if he starts, will be the seventh person in NBA history with at least 11 starts by Dec. 25, joining James, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Wade, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.

“Hopefully the Christmas spirit can bring some gifts to us with a win,” Curry said.

Durant is playing on Christmas for the 12th time, and only James, Bryant and Oscar Robertson have more points on Dec. 25 than him.

It’s a rematch of a 117-90 win by Denver on Monday night.

“We’re looking forward to this next game,” Durant said.

The Nuggets know the Suns will avenge losing by 27, plus the holidays bring out the best in players.

“Hopefully we can go into their place for Christmas and get another win,” Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. said. “But I’m sure it will be a tougher game.”