Oklahoma City leads the Western Conference and has a MVP candidate in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Milwaukee has the NBA’s leading scorer in Giannis Antetokounmpo. They were the teams that made their way to the NBA Cup final.
By any measure, they’re both very good teams.
And neither will play on Christmas Day this year. Bah, humbug.
In its defense, the NBA faces the same challenge every summer, figuring out which 10 teams will get the honor — and it is an honor — of playing on Christmas Day.
The Knicks and Lakers almost always find their way onto the slate, which makes sense given the size of the New York and Los Angeles media markets. The teams coming off runs to the NBA Finals typically get a Christmas invite, so hello, Boston and Dallas. The rest is a mix of stars, ratings potential, storylines and, hopefully, good teams.
Victor Wembanyama — the French star who already is a massive draw both in the U.S. and Europe — makes his Christmas debut when San Antonio goes to New York. Minnesota plays Dallas in a West finals rematch. Boston plays Philadelphia, a forever rivalry. The Lakers play Golden State, LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry. And Denver plays Phoenix in the nightcap. Nobody could have said those games were Christmas mistakes when the schedule came out.
It’s also a sign of the parity in the NBA right now — there are clearly more than 10 teams worthy of Christmas consideration. That said, the Thunder and Bucks certainly have the right to feel snubbed.
“We should’ve had a Christmas day game, I believe, but the NBA felt different,” Bucks guard Khris Middleton said on media day, back in September. “That’s how they feel. I said my opinion on it. And sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.”
The Thunder not getting picked is puzzling, especially after being the No. 1 seed in the West last season.
This is the 17th consecutive season of the NBA having five games on Christmas Day. More often than not — 75% of the time — the No. 1 seeds for the East and West playoffs have been picked for a Christmas game the following season. And entering this year, each of the previous 11 No. 1 seeds in the West playoffs wound up having a game on Dec. 25 that same year.
But not the Thunder.
“Disappointed, for sure,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I’d love to play on Christmas Day. And I think we’re that caliber of team. The NBA makes their decisions. Can’t slight them for it. Ball’s in our court to prove to them why we deserve to be in that game.”
There have been reasons for some of the eight No. 1 seeds who got snubbed in that span to get snubbed. Some examples:
— Cleveland was the East’s No. 1 seed in 2010. LeBron James left Cleveland that summer and went to Miami, and the Cavaliers became a far-less-marketable team overnight so putting them on the Christmas schedule wouldn’t have made much sense.
— Indiana was the East’s No. 1 seed in 2014. Paul George got hurt badly while playing for USA Basketball that summer and the Pacers weren’t the same the following the season, which the schedule-makers probably realized could happen.
— Toronto was the East’s No. 1 seed in 2018. Toronto didn’t make the Christmas list a few months later for the simple reason that the Raptors are from Canada, and Canadian viewers don’t count in American television ratings. (The then-reigning NBA champion Raptors made the Christmas lineup in 2019.)
None of those situations would apply to the Thunder.
Oklahoma City is a small market, sure. Only Memphis and New Orleans are smaller among NBA cities in the U.S., according to Nielsen. It’s easy to deduce that national ratings play a part in the decision of who plays on Christmas and who doesn’t, but it’s also clear that those who just want to see good ball on Dec. 25 probably would have tuned in for a Thunder game.
“They make the schedule. We play it,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Our players, I know, would have liked to play on Christmas because that’s such a staple day in the NBA season. But we can’t control that. All we can control is playing the schedule we’re given, playing the hand we’re dealt.”
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