On the subject of the NBA’s Christmas Day quintuple-header, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said, “The NBA used to have two games to play on Christmas, and now it’s six. It’s like Christian holidays don’t mean anything to them.”
Phil Jackson’s Zen War On The NBA’s War On Christmas
↵And yeah, quintuple, so only five games. Jackson’s Lakers play the Miami Heat on Christmas evening.
↵This will be L.A.‘s 12th straight appearance on Christmas Day hoops, making them the Detroit Lions or Dallas Cowboys of Christmas. Except that they don’t lose their own holiday game every year. As one of the league’s highest-profile teams, the Lakers have become a Christmas tradition on par with listening to Phil Jackson complain about Christmas basketball. In 2008 he called his team’s game against the Boston Celtics a “gimmick game.”
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↵And of course Christian holidays mean something to the NBA. They mean the one day during football season when non-basketball fans are OK with watching basketball.
↵The Christian distinction suggests Jackson feels the league keeps its distance from other holidays, but there were 66 NBA games scheduled during Hanukkah. Why does David Stern hate Hanukkah?
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