Early Christmas Gift: No Knicks on December 25 - Today's Fastbreak (blog)
In 1947, the National Basketball Association played the first ever Christmas Day game, pitting the New York Knicks against the Providence Steamrollers. New York won the game and the NBA never looked back, scheduling games on every Christmas Day since then, with the exception of the 1998 holiday season when the league was in the midst of a lockout. The league has made a concerted effort to put its marquee teams and brightest stars in these primetime games, and the orange and blue uniforms have graced those games 50 times, including the inaugural game. Fast-forward to Christmas Day 2015, and Knicks fans will get the greatest gift of all — a reprieve from watching their woeful team struggle in a game where they’d likely be outmatched, as they aren’t on the five-game Christmas Day slate. Not being scheduled for Christmas snaps a streak of six consecutive years the Knicks had a game that day, five of which were played in Madison Square Garden. Over the 50 all-time Christmas Day contests, the Knicks enjoyed the luxuries of home for 42 of them. That was a career high for one of the greatest scorers in team history, a game that notably turned the corner for the NBA in terms of how the league looked at the holiday matchups as a showcase for the league. Source: www.todaysfastbreak.com
