Another year has passed, and the Oklahoma City Thunder had the day off for Christmas.
This marks four consecutive years they weren’t featured in the holiday slate — a stat that was previously hard to fathom considering they had played on Christmas for nine consecutive years (2019-2018).
This will likely change shortly though. OKC has built one of the most promising young cores in the game: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams.
Gilgeous-Alexander — in particular — has played like an MVP candidate for the last two seasons. This means the league is missing out on showcasing one of its best stars at the beginning of their prime by not scheduling the Thunder to play on Christmas.
According to ESPN’s JJ Redick, this is basketball malpractice. In his latest podcast episode, the former NBA player campaigned for the league to schedule the Thunder to play on Christmas.
“I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he has been one of the three or four best offensive players in the league this year,” Redick said. “And I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he’s been a top-five player in the league this year.
“On top of that, they’ve had team success. He’s the obvious one to me (who didn’t play on Christmas).
“You bring up the star power thing with him and he doesn’t do a lot in terms of media, interviews. So unless you are a die-hard fan who loves watching league pass at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday, you’re getting a ton of — they don’t even have a ton of nationally televised games.
“I just think for the league it would’ve been nice to showcase Shai and showcase OKC.”
Redick makes a strong case for the league to schedule Gilgeous-Alexander to play on Christmas for the foreseeable future. If the NBA wants to market its next generation of stars, it needs to schedule OKC to play on the national holiday.
