A lot of people are ecstatic the NBA is back. Christmas Day is going to be extremely special for basketball fans with a new season and five games to unwrap. Christmas Day was already seen as the true beginning of the season by casual fans. So who loses with the season season’s beginning on Christmas Day?
Everyone’s favorite consumer advocate penned a letter to NBA commissioner urging him not to start the NBA’s season on Christmas.
Nader writes:
“[I]n tune with the over-commercialization of Christmas by businesses that seems to intensify with each passing decade, there are those who see dollar signs and promotional extravaganzas for the Knicks-Celtics, Heat-Mavericks, Bulls-Lakers in order to rev up the dimmed enthusiasm of many fans caused by the prolonged NBA dispute. But you run the NBA and made the final decision which is why this letter is addressed to you.
I urge you to reconsider the Christmas day NBA overload in a spirit of decency, regard and recognition as to how this will disrupt family gatherings throughout the day with predictable arguments between children and parents about watching the games instead of spending quality time with siblings, parents, relatives and friends.
There is an NFL football game that evening which is bad enough. But at least it is in the evening after most Christmas Day traditions have been completed. Three NBA games belatedly on top of that NFL game is overload and piling on.”
Certainly, the decision to start on Christmas was made in part because of commercial reasons. It allows the league to re-open its business on a day when people are home and can gather round the television to watch basketball. The NBA has been playing games on Christmas since the league began in 1946. It is pretty much an institution.
This year is different because the season will open on Christmas. And Christmas falls on a Sunday so there is a full slate of NFL games being played that day too. But the league would be stupid not to keep playing days on Christmas. The Christmas Day games, aside from becoming a showcase for the league’s top teams and players, feature the highest rated games for the regular season all year. It is the one day every year when the eyes of the nation are always squarely on the NBA.
It is the league’s time to shine.
So, yeah, it contributes to the over-commercialization of Christmas. That might upset some of those people that are more religiously observant. But the dollars and cents are too much to pass up. Besides, the NBA is a service industry and some family may choose to spend their family time not at home or at a church but at a basketball game. That is not so crazy, I don’t think.
The league’s five-game opening slate (it was originally scheduled for three games) will compete for eyeballs with the NFL. The NBA will likely lose that battle.
But the league is not going to stop playing on Christmas any time. Sorry Ralph.
