5 best NBA Christmas moments ever
The NBA has a rich, memorable, exciting, distracting tradition of planting an awesome slice of games on Christmas Day, much the same as the NFL does on Thanksgiving or the MLB does on Independence Day. However, instead of giving these games to the same teams for history’s sake (no more suffering through bad Lions games, please, NFL), the NBA has historically pit its most talented, successful, or popular teams against one another in these games.
As a result, we’ve gotten to see some remarkable players do incredible things right up against each other for decades. Christmas in the NBA is like nothing else in sports; its prestige holding it up in the minds of both fans and athletes and keeping its greatness alive.
We decided the best way to grapple with such an abundance of tremendous Christmas accomplishments was to rank them, because that’s what we do here. There are so many options, but once you establish a criteria (a great player displaying an efficient and victorious performance), it becomes easier, and the list becomes clear:
5. Brandon Roy (2009 vs. Denver Nuggets)
There were several candidates for this last spot, because the record books are littered with awesome Christmas performances, a byproduct of the league’s best teams constantly butting heads. But the opportunity to get really excited about Brandon Roy is always too good to pass up.
The man looked across the court, saw Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith, and decided to go win the game for his team. Roy sprayed jumpers across the court– from the elbow, by pulling up behind the arc, and in slick isolation situations. I miss Roy, and the style the league played that allowed him to unleash the most fun version of himself.
In an eleven-point victory, Roy showed off the efficiency that is necessary to make this prestigious top five list: 16-26 from the field, perfect from the line, and 3-6 from 3-point land. He scored 41 points, dished 4 assists, and turned the ball over only once. If you liked what you saw from Portland during the early LaMarcus Aldridge-Damian Lillard days, the slickness with which their offense churned in the late 2000s is definitely for you.
Next to Aldridge, Andre Miller, and Martell Webster, the spacing and skill on that side of the ball was such that even with only eight men available on Christmas 2009, the Blazers were able to outplay an Anthony-led Nuggets team at its peak. Brandon Roy vs. J.R. Smith is a better battle than any almost any in NBA history, for my money.
Give me a 41-point Roy game over other candidates like Jordan’s 37 against the Pistons or Dominique Wilkins’s 45 and 9 against Charles Barkley’s 76ers in 1987. Every single time.