HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – The NBA’s annual Christmas Day showcase is just days away.
After you are done opening presents and scarfing down a little Christmas brunch with the family, you get to unwind with some of the best players and teams the league has to offer, a holiday tradition that goes back years.
We’ll have Bulls-Knicks first up at noon ET on ESPN, followed by Celtics-Magic at 2:30 on ABC, Heat-Lakers at 5 on ABC, and a nightcap of Nuggets-Thunder at 8 on ESPN followed by Trail Blazers-Warriors at 10:30 on ESPN.
Merry Christmas hoops heads. That’s a day filled with dozens of All- Stars, including Derrick Rose, Amar’e Stoudemire, Boston’s Big 3+1, Dwight Howard, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade facing off against Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, Carmelo Anthony dueling with Kevin Durant and Brandon Roy and Monta Ellis finishing off this day and night of stars.
There’s no way you can get through Christmas without watching at least a little bit of each and every one of these matchups, picked perfectly by the scheduling powers that be at the home office.
In the spirit of the season, the crew here at the hideout has come up with some of our all-time favorites and we need your help sorting things out.
Here are five of our favorites:
1. Patrick Ewing nips Michael Jordan and the Bulls (1986).
***
2. Tracy McGrady welcomes a rookie LeBron James to the show (2003).
***
3. Kobe isn’t the only member of the Bryant family to make an appearance on Christmas Day (1978).
***
4. HT Hater Hall of Famer Rasheed Wallace toasts the Lakers to ring in the holiday right (2000).
***
What about last year’s lakers vs cavs?
it was a blowout
I can’t see the videos, they all come up as “The requested video is not available”.
Other than number 1 and 3. Boring. Why can’t their be games that do not involve players this nba site try to promote. I haven’t watch an christmas day game but I tell you this I will not start. Open the gates let other team fans have a chance at showing american they love ball too. I bet you if a season does occur I could tell you the christmas line..
Heat vs. Boston
Lakers vs. Spurs
Bulls vs. Knicks
OKC vs. Utah.
I better get my royalty for next year. NBA where predictable is an everyday occurance.
I believe the word you looking for is ratings. It doesn’t have to be Christmas the teams who don’t have star power don’t get played on national TV. Nobody is gonna watch 2 teams who aren’t even in contention for a playoff spot play. The Heat Lakers match up that’s enough to pry me away from the festivities. But I don’t care if it’s Tuesday and there’s nothing better going on I still won’t watch the Pacers play the Warriors. You need to realize the NBA is a business if your team steps its game up we’ll see them on National TV if not they’re irrelevant. The match up may be predictable but when you put high caliber teams up against each other the results very rarely are.
@ R4 Jeez your stupid.
Gotta be the 76s vs the Knicks from 78, Dr. J is rocking the rim with full force and the ball movement from the highlights is far beyond what we see in today’s game (excluding the Celtics on some nights). The Jordan vs Ewing game seemed to be a pretty exciting game as well. Not sure why T-mac vs Lebron is winning this poll the game wasn’t that close and the highlights showed no real team play.
I’m really looking forward to see the Heat-Lakers play this Christmas. It would suffice to let me stay at home and have some chips and beer to go with the game.
Definitely the 76ers vs. knicks, awesome game from beginning to end
Anyone know the song behind the highlight video of 76ers knicks game? the jingle bells instrumental?
@R4: other than 1 and 3 boring??
haha surely you don’t know anything! about basketball.
LA and HEAT in 2004 was hyped and I mean HYPED!! other than that it was a pretty good game as well.
CAVS and MAGIC in 2003 was allso verry enjoyable, TMAC could play back then (it was the season he put up big scoring numbers for the first time, countless 30 and 40 point games. he allso won most improved player of the year.) You probably know how good lebron is, so you can imagine that it was a great battle no matter how bad the records of the teams where at that point of the year.
Best Christmas performance has to be Bernard King dropping 60 on the Nets back in ’84. Just an amazing game…
why do you take CHRIST out of ( CHRIST-MAS ) and put X MAS. the real reson for ( CHRIST-MAS ) IS the birth of the savior
This isn’t a religious site its a basketball’s site, bye.
Keep your religious uppity bullsH!t to yourself. The real reason for X-mas is to get people to buy other people a bunch of crap they don’t need.
And none of the Bulls-Knicks Christmas games in the 90s made the list?
What about Lakers vs Celtics from 2008 I believe?
[...] alive this beautiful old tradition, plans the most attractive and special games for this day. Sekou Smith’s hang time blog brings you the opportunity to remember the best Xmas days ever played. Yoy should check it out. This [...]
GO Magic!
Go Magic!!!!
Heat VS Lakers this year will go down in history one way or another. I’m predicting a big Heat win.
Only team i’m worried about is the Celtics. If the heat can beat the celtics in post season we can beat any team who come out west.
If they beat dallas it’s 13, if they beat suns it’s 14….we’ll have 15 if we beat L.A.! Let’s win the rest of the games this month lol
I’ll definitely be engaged in Christmas festivities and not watching any games. I don’t like Street Ball.
I don’t want to demean street ball by any means but this is the highest level of basketball played anywhere on the earth. While a lot of players in the league learned how to play on the streets they have taken there games far beyond the streets. If you not a fan of the NBA, why are you reading an NBA blog?
None of the above. I loved a Bulls vs. Knicks game on December 25th, however that game was at United Center, The Bulls won by the score 107-104 in Overtime, and Scottie Pippen scored 36 points (all points in the Overtime Period).