LeBron James has a bold message to the NFL as it competes for eyeballs on Christmas Day.
This is still the NBA’s holiday.
Since the 2020 season, the NFL has played at least one game on Christmas, and even with this year’s festivities happening on a Wednesday, the league scheduled two games after Netflix shelled out a whopping $150 million to stream them exclusively, per the Wall Street Journal.
But Christmas Day has been a tradition in the NBA since 1947 with a slate of games usually being spread across the whole day.
This Christmas included a game between James’ Lakers and the Warriors — a contest that instantly became a classic as the two teams traded buckets late in the waning seconds.
First, Steph Curry tied things up with a 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds left on the clock before Los Angeles’ Austin Reaves won it for the Lakers with a layup with one second remaining.
And it wasn’t the only Xmas Day game that proved to be a thriller. All three of the holiday’s previous games finished within a six-point margin, including a wild 117-114 win for the Knicks over the Spurs.
That was in contrast to the NFL, which saw the Chiefs knock off the Steelers, 29-10, before the Ravens shellacked the Texans, 31-2.
Keeping all this in mind, James made his thoughts clear about the two leagues playing on Christmas.
“Merry Christmas to my family back home, I’m coming home,” James told ESPN in a postgame interview on the court at Chase Center in San Francisco. “And I love the NFL. I love the NFL. But Christmas is our day.”
This came just a day after Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made clear he hopes there are football games going forward on Christmas — no matter the day of the week.
“Christmas Day is Christmas Day, and it doesn’t wait around for what day it’s on. We want to be there on Christmas Day,” Jones said during a Dallas radio interview.
“I would think the future is whatever day it’s on, we’re going to be there on Christmas.”
But former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger felt differently, speaking to how grueling a short week can be for professional football players.
“It’s miserable,” Roethlisberger said on his “Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger” podcast this week. “It’s a shame that the league does this. It just shows that it’s all about money and this is a way that they can make more money and figure this thing out because it’s not fair for the players.”
Whether or not the two leagues continue to go head-to-head during future midweek Christmas Days, the NBA can say it had the more competitive group of games on this holiday.
