BasketballLeBron not a fan of Christmas Day games

Beginning of Story Content

LeBron James and the Heat played the Lakers on Christmas Day.  

LeBron James and Lakers coach Phil Jackson, among others, were critical last week of the Christmas Day NBA games we've grown accustomed to.

Jackson may have a point on his end: he's been involved with these in 11 of the past 12 seasons, by virtue of the fact that as the league's marquee team, they apparently need to be constantly showcased.

But that's really the only problem with the set-up - it gets tiresome watching the same teams play all the time, and on a holiday like Christmas it's understandable if players and coaches want to spend time with family for a change.

I won't dip too far into righteous indignation by saying cops and paramedics usually work on holidays for less than one one-hundredth of the pay, because that's hardly the point either.

Pro athletes make big money because they're in the entertainment business, and the Christmas Day games have generally been a branded boon for the league (On Monday, ABC announced Saturday produced a record audience for Christmas, a 45% jump in ratings over last year's games).

It's the same here in Canada, where a Boxing Week tradition has grown out of a cable sports channel buying what was cheap programming two decades ago. While the money's not the same, simply put, it's entertainment and ad dollars for when people are known to be on the couch. Media-conscious superstars, more than others, should be aware of that.

James also ventured into risky waters with the players' association over the weekend by alluding to team contraction (although he denies that's what he meant).

LeBron had taken the nostalgic route by implying the NBA would be better off like it was in the '80s when the elite teams of the league had stacked rosters.

As my buddy Knuckler often points out, the NBA champion Celtics of 1986 had five Hall of Famers on their roster. The Lakers' championship team the following season had seven guys average double digits in points. This doesn't happen any more, because in addition to the game being vastly different, the salary structure has changed and egos have only gotten bigger.

You can argue all day if franchise contraction would be good for basketball in general, but I'm really not sure it would make any difference from a player standpoint (clearly not to them if it means lost jobs) if you hit the delete button on teams like Memphis and Charlotte.

I suspect that in some way, James was really just trying to further promote the whole idea of the super friends. He's been keen to fight criticism that he stunted his career by joining the Heat, although despite the roll they've been on (13-1 in December going into Tuesday night, not having given up 100 points I  a month) greatness is still measured in championships.

------------------------

In honour of the year ending, I figured I'd name an All-2010 team (calendar year edition):

• SF - Kevin Durant
• PF - Kevin Love
• C - Dwight Howard
• 2G - LeBron James
• PG - Rajon Rondo
• 6th - Chris Paul

I realize Love is a good player on a bad team, but his numbers are ridiculous. I mean seriously, a 30-point, 30-rebound game? He did 20-20 last season as well. It's why LeBron mentioned him in those '80s comments.

But it's all about point guards in the NBA right now, and you can't really lose by taking one of Rondo, Paul, Deron Williams, Steve Nash or Derrick Rose. I just chose Paul over Williams as the sixth man because he does everything just a little bit better, except score. 

End of Story Content