Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Glad Jul; Viggo Johansen; 1891

Playing on Christmas Day is an enormous honor for NBA teams. Personally, I’d be annoyed having to work on Christmas, and I do think some players and especially coaches have griped about it in the past. (Yes, I am ironically writing this newsletter on Christmas morning. No one is awake yet anyway.) But the NBA has done a relatively good job of making a Christmas Day spot feel like an honor.

Ten teams in 2024. Have they earned it?

GAME 1: Spurs at Knicks, 12 PM ET, ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 with a special Mickey And Friends Version airing as well

Have the Spurs earned it? San Antonio is 15-14 this season (not bad) but haven’t finished with a winning record since 2018-19. No, the Spurs have not earned it. They did, however, get lucky enough to win the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, garnering the rights to Victor Wembanyama, who is already, in Year 2, definitely going to be an All-Star, likely going to be on All-NBA and possibly going to show up on more than a handful of MVP ballot. By winning the Wembanyama sweepstakes, the league will now just shower them with gifts. It’s not right, but it’s okay. Big Vic belongs on every broadcast the NBA and their partners can put him in. Even the ones with Goofy, Donald and Minnie. (My kids are too old for it but I’m still definitely watching that one.)

Have the Knicks earned it? The Knicks always get a Christmas game but are legitimately exciting and cool and good now, so yes, they’ve earned. One of the more entertaining teams in the league, and should be on T.V. often.

GAME 2: Timberwolves at Mavericks, 2:30 PM ET, ABC/ESPN

Have the Timberwolves earned it? What a loaded question! The Wolves missed the playoffs in Anthony Edwards’ rookie season, but have made the postseason three straight years since. They went all the way to the conference finals last season … then traded their second best player for a player who became their third best player (plus a pick, plus a new sixth best player). Now they are sitting at .500, very Timberwolfish. Ant is horribly exciting and should be a main character in the post-LeBron, post-Steph era of the NBA. There’s just a certain something missing this season. And that certain something is Karl-Anthony Towns.

Have the Mavericks earned it? Yes, Dallas has earned heaps of respect and reverence, even though the Mavericks are legitimately not that fun to watch … until they are. Luka Doncic is a maestro of the James Harden variety. Kyrie Irving has more Kobe than anyone. It’s not really all that entertaining for three quarters of a game, and perhaps for most of the regular season. Just to ensure fairness here, I’ll present a list of teams I don’t particularly enjoy watching due to various circumstances, in no particular order except for the first.

• The Sacramento Kings, No. 1 with a bullet

• The Mavericks

• The Clippers

• The Blazers

• The Heat

• The Jazz (there was charm in prior years; it’s gone)

• The Wizards

The next team on our list actually sort of meets this criteria, but I’ll explain further in 3 … 2 …

GAME 3: Sixers at Celtics, 5 PM ET, ABC/ESPN

Have the Sixers earned it? Well this is just a rude question to ask, frankly.

I don’t like watching the Sixers play basketball right now — even with all three stars on the court the other night, it wasn’t very nice hoop. But crazy stuff is always happening to and around the Sixers, so there’s that.

Philadelphia is 10-17. I will not be sucked into the “well, if they can just …” stuff. Not again.

Have the Celtics earned it? Yes. Of course. And you’ll notice I didn’t include the Celtics on my list of distasteful watches. I do get the critiques about all of the threes, but I find their individual players and their ball movement pretty compelling viewing. Jaylen Brown in particular is a real good time.

GAME 4: Lakers at Warriors, 8 PM ET, ABC/ESPN

Have the Lakers earned it? The Lakers employ LeBron James; therefore, they have earned a Christmas Day game and more national T.V. games than anyone until the wheels completely come off.

Have the Warriors earned it? The Warriors employ Stephen Curry; therefore, they have earned a Christmas Day game and more national T.V. games than almost anyone until the wheels completely come off.

(Lakers vs. Warriors is actually usually a pretty good match-up. You’ll notice I didn’t put either of them on my Do Not Watch list.)

GAME 5: Nuggets at Suns, 10:30 PM ET, ABC/ESPN

Have the Nuggets earned it? God yes. Nikola Jokic is the single most watchable NBA player since Prime Steph and Prime LeBron. He’s so different from everyone else in a much less evolutionary way than, say, Giannis (who is also so different from everyone else). Jokic is just a weird player who happens to also be the best player. This is what we dreamt of you, Anthony Randolph! Time zones make it weird but the Nuggets should be on in the middle of the day. Let fools choose NFL games over the glory of Jokic. Dare them to do so.

Have the Suns earned it? The best theoretical team of a generation. This is as good a foil as you can gin up for the Nuggets — Oklahoma City is too good, and in the Central time zone — though it could have been nice to put this late game in San Francisco and set up LeBron vs. KD in the afternoon, if for no other reason than to give the Suns some more juice with the special occasion watchers.

Other Teams That Earned It But Did Not Receive It

Invariably, when you schedule the Christmas Day quintuple-header, and you account for the Lakers, the Warriors, the Knicks, the reigning conference champs and the best player in the world, and then you account for time zones (there are 13 NBA teams in the Eastern, six in the Pacific), you have limited availability for more.

Here are the teams it’s most shocking to be without.

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER: They were only the No. 1 seed in the West last season with one of the youngest rosters in the league and a top-5 player in the world. Who could have seen their further rise coming?

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: This is more forgivable — few if any expected them to be outpacing the 2023-24 Celtics at this point — but it’s still a big gap in the schedule to be missing the best team in the league on the biggest day of the regular season.

MILWAUKEE BUCKS: Giannis is a miracle and every big chance the NBA passes on presenting him to new or forgetful fans is a mistake, in my opinion. Imagine you were producing a movie and this guy was in it and you didn’t put his name in the trailer. Wild!

HOUSTON ROCKETS: There was no logical reason to put the Rockets on Christmas Day. However, this team is freaking awesome and an absolute pleasure to watch. The NBA should flex as many of their games onto national T.V. as possible.

ORLANDO MAGIC: If a World War I documentary were a basketball team (complete with the injured Germans). Perfect for holiday recliner viewing with Dad or Grandpa.

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES: Some of us knew the Grizz would be back, but we are a forgiving people. I know the beta version of this software crashed out under the glare of Unc, but it’s even cooler now with Scottie Pippen’s kid Scotty (don’t ask) and a 7’4 Chinese-Canadian rookie and a 5’8 Japanese rookie and Marcus Smart (sometimes). Ja Morant said he retired from dunking and then uncorked the best in-game dunk of the season by anyone like three hours later. This team is bananas in the best way (Foster). More Grizzlies, please.

A Little More

Holly Anderson and Spencer Hall with a perfect distillation of Uncledom on this most Uncle of holidays. This requires a subscription; it’s one of my strongest recommendations, even if like me you do not really follow college football.

Friend of the Newsletter Scott Tobias has a masterful list of classic Christmas movies you can stream or rent in the New York Times. I forever find it hard to turn away from Miracle on 34th Street. Just love a legal thriller! Has there ever been a more high-stakes verdict? Lose and Santa gets locked up. Win and you shack up with Maureen O’Hara. Oh, spoiler alert.

Alright, back on Thursday with a detailed review of the Mickey And Friends version of Spurs-Knicks. Probably. Be excellent to each other! Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!