The NBA continues its tradition of playing games on Christmas Eve!

The NBA basketball tradition will continue this year. Five games will be played. Here’s a roundup of the 20 highlights and trivia about NBA game day on this holiday that has kept the tradition going since 1947.

This year’s Christmas Eve game marks the 76th year of the event. The NBA began playing games on Christmas Eve in its second season in 1947.

There will be 5 games played on Christmas Eve, the 16th year in a row that this tradition has continued. The NBA reaches fans in over 200 countries and 50 different languages on this holiday.

ESPN and ABC will team up to televise all five games, with more than 13 hours of live coverage.

Three of the five games being played are the first back-to-back games on Christmas Eve. Those games are Golden Srate Warriors vs Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers vs Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks vs Phoenix Suns. All of the aforementioned duels, by the way, were also series played in the 2021-22 playoffs.

The Boston Celtics vs Los Angeles Lakers duel will be on the schedule on Christmas Eve for the first time since 2008. The Lakers won then and famed coach Phil Jackson recorded his 1,000th win as head coach.

The New York Knicks have played the most games on Christmas Eve with 55. This year they will face the Milwaukee Bucks.

Every game played will feature at least one player who won the league MVP – Milwaukee’s Jannis Adetokunbo, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Lebron James and Phoenix’s Kevin Durant.

The last four NBA champions, the Lakers (2020), Bucks (2021), Warriors (2022) and Nuggets (2023), will enter the games.

Notable individual performances at NBA

The leader of these games is Lebron James. He has scored the most points (460) and games played (17). With 10 games won, he shares the top spot with Dwyane Wade.

The other Christmas Eve leaders are: Bill Russell for most rebounds (176), Oscar Robertson for most assists (145). Shaquille O’Neal for most blocked shots (25), then Russell Westbrook has the most rebounds (29) and James Harden has the most three-point baskets converted (31).

Bernard King scored the most points in a game on this holiday, a straight 60, when his New York Knicks beat the New Jersey Nets in 1984.

Other top single-game accomplishments go to Wilt Chamberlain for the most rebounds (36 in 1961), Guy Rodgers and Nate Archibald for the most assists (18 in 1966 and 1972). DeAndre Jordan blocked the most shots again (8 in 2011). Kyrie Irving recorded the most rebounds again (7 in 2016) and Patty Mills made the most threes (8 in 2011).

The highest points per game average on Christmas Day belongs to Tracy McGrady at 43.3 points! However, he only played 3 games, but always had more than 40 points in a game. The Miami Heat have the highest winning percentage of games played on Christmas Day at 84.6 with a record of 11-2.

Nine players managed to record the prized triple-double on this day. They are: Oscar Robertson (4x!), John Havlicek, Billy Cunningham, Lebron James, Russell Westbrook (2x), Draymond Green, Kemba Walker, James Harden and Nikola Jokic.

Phil Jackson shares with Jack Ramsay the record for most games won as head coach with 11 wins each. Of the active players, Joel Embiid has the highest average of 31.3 points in four games played on Christmas Day.

Nikola Jokic joined Oscar Robertson and James Harden last year with 41 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists, who had at least 40/15/15 in regular season games. The Los Angeles Lakers have the most wins on the day, with 24. The New York Knicks had one less.

Source: NBA