A Christmas Day of New Beginnings
NEW YORK, Dec. 25 – The carolers in the arena hallways aren’t just singing Silent Night; they’re bellowing And-1! as the NBA unwraps its annual twelve-hour marathon of hardwood theater. While the tradition of a five-game slate remains as steady as the brassy beat of Run D.M.C. “Christmas in Hollis,” this year’s festivities signal a seismic shift in the league’s landscape. From animated altcasts to a jarring reshuffling of superstars, today isn’t just about who gets the win it’s about the new world order of professional basketball.
The headline act at Madison Square Garden isn’t just the basketball; it’s the broadcast itself. As the New York Knicks host the Cleveland Cavaliers, ESPN2 and the Disney Channel are transforming the court into Main Street, U.S.A., for Dunk the Halls. It’s a surreal fusion where Mickey Mouse guards the pick-and-roll and Stitch reacts to dunks from the bench mob. But beneath the cartoon veneer lies a serious contest. The Knicks, fresh off winning the in-season tournament and boasting a 14-2 home record, are led by a balling out of his mind Jalen Brunson and the spacing of Karl-Anthony Towns. They face a Cavaliers squad desperate to regain last season’s 64-win pace, leaning heavily on New York native Donovan Mitchell to spoil the party.
Yet, the true shock to the system comes later in the day. The rosters reading like a fever dream of recent free agency chaos. We will see Klay Thompson in a Dallas Mavericks uniform, a sight as jarring as Jack Skellington at the bank, returning to the Bay to face a Golden State Warriors team now anchored by Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and their new running mate, Jimmy Butler. While the Mavericks trot out 19-year-old rookie sensation Cooper Flagg and veteran Anthony Davis, the Warriors are fighting ghosts of dynasties past, hovering near .500 and needing a national TV get-right game.
The evening crescendo features perhaps the most disorienting yet electric matchup: The Houston Rockets versus the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s a battle of the big threes, but not the ones you remember. Kevin Durant now leads a gritty Rockets squad featuring Alperen Şengün and Amen Thompson. They clash with a Lakers side boasting LeBron James and despite injury designations Luka Dončić. Even if Dončić (leg) is sidelined, seeing James and Durant trade buckets remains the top-of-the-tree shine the league craves.
Beyond the box scores, this Christmas slate represents a massive changing of the guard in sports media. The beloved Inside the NBA quartet Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson—has officially migrated from TNT to the ABC/ESPN family. After a hiatus since mid-November, the curmudgeonly crew returns to handle pregame, halftime, and postgame duties.
This move underscores the league’s evolving media rights landscape heading into 2025-26. It’s a strategic play to keep the cultural conversation centered on the game’s personalities, even as the on-court product transitions from the era of LeBron and Steph to the futuristic rivalry of Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Their matchup in the Spurs-Thunder game is being billed as a potential Western Conference Finals preview, pitting San Antonio’s alien-like Wembanyama against an OKC team chasing the best point differential in history.
Merry Spritemas. – Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves
Edwards’ brief, charismatic holiday wish encapsulates the energy of the nightcap between the Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets. It’s a clash of styles: Edwards’ magnetic, high-flying ferocity against Nikola Jokić’s ground-bound, triple-double precision. Edwards is the marketing dream the league is betting on, while Jokić remains the indifferent stoic who simply shapes the game like no other.
This Christmas is a bridge between eras. You have the comfort of the Knicks at noon and the spectacle of LeBron vs. KD, but you also have the jarring newness of Cooper Flagg, cartoon broadcasts, and a reshuffled deck of superstars in new cities. Whether you’re tuning in for the Bing bong of the Knicks or the budding rivalry in the Dust Bowl, the NBA has ensured that while the players change, the spectacle remains the ultimate holiday tradition.
