ShareThisLOS ANGELES - As someone who played in three of the NBA's most memorable Christmas Day games, former New York Knicks guard Trent Tucker admits selecting his most cherished holiday memory is as tough as picking his favorite child.
There was Bernard King's 60-point barrage against New Jersey in 1984. Or New York's astonishing 25-point comeback to topple heavily favored Boston in overtime the following year. Or the historic duel between a young Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan in 1986 that ended with a game-winning putback at the buzzer by the Knicks star.
"I think the Boston game was probably the most memorable," Tucker, after some thought, said by phone. "We had so many young players, and we were playing against an elite team that was so much better than us. For us to come back and beat them, that's probably the one people talk about most."
What Tucker and his Knicks teammates couldn't have realized at the time was the impact that trio of classic games would have on the NBA decades later. Recognizing that the combination of marquee players, big-market teams and holiday TV audiences represented a potential windfall, the league gradually began making a greater effort to showcase its most attractive matchups on Christmas Day each year.
Like the NFL on Thanksgiving, college football on New Year's Day or the annual Nathan's hot-dog eating contest on the Fourth of July, the NBA has since embedded itself into sports fans' holiday rituals. A showdown between the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers will highlight this year's Christmas slate, which features five nationally televised games, 13 consecutive hours of coverage and even a Christmas-themed music video specially recorded by Mariah Carey for Friday's broadcast.
"Basketball on Christmas Day turned into appointment viewing after those three successive years involving the Knicks," NBA senior vice president Brian McIntyre said by phone. "Those were three really exciting games in a row at a time when the spotlight was coming back to the NBA. That really set the tone."
It was uncommon for Christmas Day NBA games to air on national television before 1983, but teams have played on the holiday since 1947. Proximity dictated most of the matchups the first few decades, meaning teams typically faced their closest geographical rivals to cut down on holiday travel.
When Dr. Jack Ramsay coached the Portland Trail Blazers from 1976 to 1986, his team hosted either Golden State or Seattle on Christmas almost every season. The Blazers won all 10 of their Christmas games during that span, capitalizing on the typically disinterested visiting players' disgust at having to be away from their loved ones.
"Christmas meant being at home with the family and having a game we always won," Ramsay recalled in a phone interview. "That was a perfect Christmas to me."
As the NBA became more interested in creating a holiday showcase in the 1980s, the interest of TV networks became more important than geography in determining the matchups. It was no accident that Jordan's Bulls faced a fellow Eastern Conference powerhouse on Christmas for eight straight years during the 1990s, nor was it coincidence that Shaquille O'Neal's long-anticipated first matchup against Kobe Bryant after their acrimonious split occurred on Christmas 2004.
Executives from ESPN/ABC and the NBA met soon after last year's playoffs ended to plot out the five matchups for this year's Christmas slate. The importance of selecting compelling games for the two marquee afternoon timeslots is heightened by ABC launching its NBA coverage on Christmas each year.
While ESPN director of programming and acquisitions, Doug White, said the Lakers, Celtics, Magic and Cavs were obvious candidates for the premier games, choosing the exact matchups proved difficult. Instead of pitting the defending champion Lakers against either of their NBA Finals opponents from the past two years, the group ultimately settled on Cleveland because of the draw of having Bryant, O'Neal and LeBron James together.
"What I've learned is it's not rocket science," White said by phone. "All you can do is try to be a fan and think about what the fans want to see. You have two giants of the game in Kobe and LeBron and the addition of Shaq. We thought that would be something fans want to see."
For players whose teams are selected to work on Christmas, it's both a blessing and a curse. Members of the Lakers organization are proud they've been selected to play on Christmas every year since 1999 because it speaks to the quality of their franchise, yet they also wouldn't mind a holiday with their families once in a while, either.
"It's a tremendous privilege to be able to entertain the world," Lamar Odom said. "You understand the privilege of playing on TV in those games, but there are some times where I wish I could just be normal, be a normal family man."
Ah, an NBA Christmas. It might be a nuisance for some players and coaches, but for the basketball fan, it's the most wonderful time of the year.
(Contact Jeff Eisenberg at jeisenberg(at)PE.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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