Thanksgiving means two things to everyone in America: food and football. George A. Richards was able to take advantage of his ownership of WJR radio to broadcast the Thanksgiving matchups of the team he owned, the Detroit Lions, Thanksgiving football as we know it was born. That was back in 1934, nearly 100 years ago — a tradition so embedded in American culture that no major domestic sports league has even managed to infringe upon.
Just take a look at Turkey Day 2025: NHL games skipped a day and MLS even took a full week off. Only the NBA has ever been willing to take a stand against the NFL, and even they haven't scheduled a Thanksgiving game in 15 years. This is all in spite of the fact that there are no league bylaws setting limitations to or banning Thanksgiving as a game day.
It's time to change all that. The only days that the NBA historically has never played on are Election Day and the NCAA national champion game, both for obvious reasons. The current CBA only denotes restrictions on Christmas, New Year's Day and the Catholic religious holiday Good Friday. And yet, despite nothing stopping a Thanksgiving slate of games, the NBA, the last stalwart against the NFL's fall sports monopoly, has given way.
The NBA's recent popularity should change its Thanksgiving strategy
The NBA can take Thanksgiving viewers from the NFL, but it won't be easy. Football reigns supreme in the United States, and that's very much backed up by the numbers: Nearly half of all adults with internet access watch the NFL as opposed to the NBA, which sits at 24 percent of the same demographic. Another example: The most recent NBA Finals boasted the event's highest viewership in over half a decade, averaging at just over 16 million viewers throughout its run time. The NFL's 2022 Thanksgiving game between the Cowboys and Giants, meanwhile, peaked at a whopping 42.06 million viewers, nearly triple the amount. The NFL claerly isn't scared, as evidenced by the fact that the league has successfully encroached onto the NBA's traditional Christmas Day territory in recent years.
But the NBA has been growing, too. Its new TV rights distribution deal has proved to be a smashing success early on in the season, as spreading its games to multiple networks and streaming services has dramatically increased viewership — nearly double that of the 2024-25 season. Its choice of distribution partners matters as well: Forbes' John Cassillo noted the importance of a national broadcast network like NBC, the combined 170 million between Prime and Peacock subscribers and the global presence of Prime specifically. Meanwhile, the NBA has its own secret weapon in market dominance to combat the NFL's immersion in Americana culture: its sheer global reach, something even football can't match right now.
So does the NBA have what it takes to take down the NFL on Thanksgiving? Likely never, at least not all the way. But up until 2011, the league had put games on Thursday anyway, and it's in a much stronger place than it was then. With a new distribution network, more international support than ever and a potential new dynasty opening up in Oklahoma City, it might be time for commissioner Adam Silver to take a shot once more.