Thanksgiving has been synonymous with football for decades, Independence Day has baseball, and is Christmas Day becoming the NBA’s tradition? The last two years are an anomaly with football crashing the party with Christmas falling on a weekend, but the NBA has slowly bought-in on trying to corner Christmas Day basketball with the best games.
It’s an honor to play on the day in the eyes of the franchises. ESPN staggers the tip times so you don’t have to overlap action too much and feels like the event of the day. But how do you convince your non-sports fan family to keep a game on.
So if you’re like me sometimes there’s a game you just really want to watch, but you know your little cousin Jimmy is gonna be annoying you the moment you sit down. Or your aunts are going to be complaining “why is there a game on?” All I can advise in these situations is patience.
Maybe it’ll be an uphill battle, maybe you’re outnumbered 5-to-1 in the house for sports fans, maybe if you pull the game up on your phone you’ll be chirped that “oh this generation always on their phones.”
All I can say is to play it by ear, maybe if your family doesn’t normally watch Giannis, tell your family about his shoe donation tradition to kids in the stands, his humble upbrining in Greece. Just be respectful to when your family wants you to join with the celebrations, and if you’re family with Dolphins, Celtics, or heaven-forbid, Bears fans … good luck and Merry Christmas!
