Ebenezer Scrooge, before his moment of conversion — that’s today’s NBA.
It used to be that Christmas Day featured two NBA games.
In the 2006-2007 season (likely due to the television restraints posed by the presence of Monday Night Football), the NBA played only one game on Christmas Day.
Going dark on Christmas Day is an idealistic thought — give 100 percent of your (foremost) employees the ability to enjoy what is for many a sacred day with their families. Really, there’s nothing to object to if we’re thinking about an ideal world.
However, the NBA is a business, so it is entirely understandable that the league would want to showcase two of its elite teams and their superstars on a holiday afternoon, marking one festive occasion with another. This season, having LeBron James and Stephen Curry perform in a Christmas showcase will certainly bring ratings, publicity, and excitement to the NBA.
That’s fine. It is, in a sense, the All-Star Game without the surroundings of an All-Star Game. The principle is the same: You expect more of your league’s foremost personalities and stars. The tradeoff for superstardom and success is that you have to deal with a full weekend of All-Star Game functions and responsibilities. You also have to be willing to play on Christmas. It’s part of the deal. To whom much is given, much is expected.
We arrive at a reasonable and realistic point of compromise: Okay, play a Christmas Day game… but only one. Have a showcase for your product, but make it a choice occasion with the very best you have to offer. Don’t subject anyone else to the need to have to man a concession stand or operate a scoreboard or organize contests between quarters. One arena, one organization, should get that distinction (and shoulder that responsibility) each season, but it should not have to do so for the next few years. Having to work on Christmas Day should be a very rare occurrence. A work structure should create situations in which employees won’t have to disrupt their holidays any more than what is absolutely necessary.
Fine — have workers in Oakland on the clock this Christmas… but no one else in the NBA. Then spare the Warriors from having to host a Christmas game for the next few seasons. Give other organizations the privilege and opportunity… with the larger focus being to limit Christmas work for everyone in the NBA.
The league could choose this direction: one game, but one game only, on Christmas, with rotating hosts.
Instead, it has chosen a very different path.
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Look at last year’s Christmas Day schedule.
You will notice that seven teams from that schedule are on the 2015 Christmas Day marquee. You will notice that the Miami Heat are being asked to host a Christmas Day game for the second straight year, and that the Staples Center building is hosting a Christmas Day game for the second straight year.
As you look at the current season schedule, you will also notice that seven of the 10 teams playing on Christmas Day 2015 are playing another game on Dec. 26. That’s right — seven teams are playing back-to-backs which include Christmas Day. Only Oklahoma City, the Los Angeles Lakers, and Golden State escape the back-to-back Christmas trap.
That’s simply appalling.
Five games — meaning 10 teams, one-third of the league — occupy the Christmas Day schedule. Seven teams — seven sets of players, coaches and other team employees — have their holidays disrupted, and face the added burden of a back-to-back and a plane flight on Christmas Night.
Are we that lacking in imagination? Is it that preposterous to extend the season one week so as to facilitate a quieter Christmas? The NBA was very progressive and forward-thinking on the matter of lengthening the All-Star break. The league under Adam Silver has shown that it can improve the schedule on a number of levels, with player and employee welfare in mind.
It is long past time for the league to scrap this five-game Christmas schedule and move to one showcase game, rotated among host cities each year.
No, not all people hold the same faith, but Christmas holds a special place in our culture regardless of religious affiliation.
It’s time for the NBA to get past its money-grubbing Ebenezer Scrooge phase. Stop chasing every possible buck on Christmas Day, will ya?
