LeBron James fires back at NFL over turf war planning: ‘Christmas is our day’

As is tradition, the NBA played five high-profile games this Christmas. When the ratings come out for today’s games, the NFL will almost certainly have drawn more viewers.

You can bet that the NBA’s stakeholders are very aware of the fact, to the point that one of them directly challenged the rival league in his post-game 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’ sentiments are likely shared around the league, but perhaps without confidence.

One of the fun parts of the American sports calendar is how each league requires 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.

However, since 2020, the NFL has pursued games on Christmas with significant wins over the NBA each year. 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 the Saturday 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 they wanted with two games played on Christmas Day streaming on Netflix. Both games ended up being blowouts, but early indications are that 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 erosion of television ratings that the NBA, MLB and others are trying to adapt to. If it wants Christmas, it has to play on Christmas and people want to watch.

The NBA can really only respond by releasing a good product. The Christmas teams mostly obliged this year, with the Lakers overcoming a game-tying 3-pointer from Stephen Curry with eight seconds left and winning 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-to-back games by single digits, unlike blowouts in the NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens won by an average of 24 points.