Even without Boston in the mix, the NBA’s Christmas Day card is stacked - and it clearly outshines what the NFL is rolling out this year.
As a Celtics fan, this will be the first time you won’t be watching your team play basketball on Christmas Day since 2015.
Christmas has been the NBA’s showcase day since 1947, and their premier franchise in green has been a part of that tradition almost the entirety of its nearly 80-year run.
But ahead of the 2025-26 season, the NBA kept Boston off of its five-game slate for the 25th. With Jayson Tatum out rehabbing his torn Achilles and a huge chunk of the core of the team changing over this summer, the league deemed the Celtics unworthy of the marquee.
Fast-forward to today, and Boston might be one of the best storylines league-wide, sitting in the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference with a 18-11 on the back of Jaylen Brown playing at an MVP level.
In hindsight, you have to imagine the league wishes they had Boston playing in that early window game against the Knicks (20-9) instead of Cleveland (17-14), but hindsight’s 20/20. There was no way to truly know what the Celtics were going to be able to cook-up without Tatum. With that said, the NBA ought to have Boston be a mainstay in that window, like the NFL has with the Lions and Cowboys on Thanksgiving.
SPEAKING OF THE NFL…
The lack of Celtics for this year’s Christmas slate got me thinking big picture about the sports television viewing experience for the holiday, and I’ve come to this conclusion:
Even without the Celtics, the NBA’s slate this year kicks the NFL’s butt.
Three years ago, the NFL decided to start playing games on Christmas, regardless of which day of the week the games were held, giving themselves a chance to capitalize on the spotlight while also giving them the opportunity to sell yet another primetime spot to advertisers and streamers. And so far, it’s been a smashing success from a viewership perspective.
But for the first time since this new-ish tradition has begun, the NBA very clearly has a better slate of games, and here’s why:
All 10 teams a part of the NBA’s slate are either true title contenders, or include incredibly buzzy/iconic players that any casual basketball fan would enjoy watching:
12:00 p.m. - Cavaliers @ Knicks
2:30 p.m. - Spurs (22-7) @ Thunder (26-4)
5:00 p.m. - Mavericks (12-19) @ Warriors (15-15)
8:00 p.m. - Rockets (17-10) @ Lakers (19-9)
10:30 p.m. - Timberwolves (20-10) @ Nuggets (21-8)
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That’s, in order, a battle of two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, a battle of two of the top teams in the NBA, a battle between the future of the league and the an all-time legend, a battle between Kevin Durant and LeBron James with a little Luka Doncic mixed in, and a battle between two perennial MVP candidates on two of the best teams in the league.
Sign. Me. Up.
Compare that to what the NFL is working with. It ain’t pretty:
1:00 p.m. - Cowboys (6-8-1) @ Commanders (4-11)
4:30 p.m. - Lions (8-7) @ Vikings (7-8)
8:15 p.m. - Broncos (12-3) @ Chiefs (6-9)
That’s, in order, two NFC East teams out of the playoff picture, a Lions team currently on the outside looking in against a Vikings team that has underwhelmed all season long, and a Broncos team coming off a bad loss to the Jaguars (11-4) against a Chiefs team having their worst season in a decade now without Patrick Mahomes for the rest of the season.
Yes, the NBA’s most important franchise not being a part of their Christmas slate hurts. But make no mistake about it - their slate is head and shoulders better than football’s.
So sit back and enjoy the basketball today, Celtics fans! Start doing some scouting for potential playoff and Finals matchups in the future (knock on wood, of course).
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Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.