LeBron James: I love the NFL, but Christmas is the NBA’s day

For decades, Christmas has been one of the biggest days of the year for the NBA, and the rest of the American sports landscape has taken a step back on the nation’s biggest holiday. But in the last two years, the NFL has made it clear that it now sees Christmas as a big day on its calendar. And the NBA is not happy about that.

After leading his Los Angeles Lakers to a Christmas victory over the Golden State Warriors, LeBron James expressed his opinion about it. In his post-game interview on ESPN, James brought up the NFL without being asked.

“I love the NFL. I love the NFL. But Christmas is our day,” James said.

Of course, the NFL does not accept that. Before Christmas last year, the league said it would only play on Christmas because Christmas fell on a Monday, when the NFL is used to scheduling games. Officials of the League claimed the NFL would not schedule Christmas games in years when Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday or Wednesday. And then last year’s Christmas TV ratings were fantastic, with the NFL easily outselling the NBA, and now the NFL admits it’s must play at Christmas every year, regardless of which day of the week it falls on.

And that means NBA games will no longer be America’s most watched sporting events this Christmas.