NBA games of the week: Season starts now

The games of the week are brought to you by the unofficial start of the 2017-18 NBA season.

In the early 2000s, Christmas meant something different to me. It was the time of year when my sister and I wished for snow and when our teacher-aide mother would explain Wednesday was the best day for Christmas because it gave us the maximum amount of days off from school. It was a time when Christmas music on the radio only started in December, and not the day after Halloween. (Bah humbug!)

My mom would let us open one gift on Christmas Eve, which meant my sister wouldn’t have anything to open on Christmas because she couldn’t handle the one-gift rule. Some of my favorite memories are from those days, including those random pop-ins from family and friends that only seem to happen around the end of December.

But, as you get older, the purity and joy of the holidays leave. Instead of counting down the days until your next batch of gifts, you shoo away the haunting thoughts of getting older and understanding you can buy those shoes yourself. You realize there are only about 10 actual Christmas songs and the rest are covers, but that doesn’t stop everyone from arguing that Mariah Carey’s Christmas album is the best. I don’t see it; Step Into Christmas by Elton John is the only song I like.

The transition from Christmas joy to Christmas jaded is a rite of passage for kids turned adults. Instead of holiday treats like cookies or presents or vacation days from school, we spike eggnog or drive to work without dealing with traffic or watch 12 hours of basketball, most times both. It’s about balance and both alcohol and sports are great remedies to forget Santa brought the video games for the kids and only socks and underwear wait under the tree for you.

The NBA on Christmas marks the unofficial start of the season, to most people. It’s the turn of the year, not quite the halfway point, but far enough along that now games mean playoff position. They are expected marquee matchups, filled with games that tap into every U.S. time zone. From noon until midnight eastern, while the kids are going crazy over their Xbox One X — what my dad has called Nintendo since I got PlayStation for Christmas in about 2000 — the adults have a battle between two young 7-foot stars, a Finals rematch, bad blood, 3-point barrages and the Ball family! So why make it difficult? The games of the week are obvious.