LeBron James admits the NFL, not the NBA, owns Christmas Day

For years, the NFL avoided playing games on Christmas Day. The holiday is heavily associated with basketball, and the NBA always schedules marquee games for December 25th.

Since 2020, however, the NFL has held at least one game during the holiday. This year, as part of the new deal, two games were streamed live on Netflix. Beyoncé also performed at one of the intermissions.

It definitely felt like the NFL was trying to ruin the NBA’s Christmas, but the football games were lackluster and underwhelming, while the NBA had some great games that went over the top.

The showdown between the Lakers and the Warriors was one of the Christmas Day games and it was a sensational contest with Los Angeles winning 115-113.

The game wasn’t just a win for the Lakers, it felt like a win for the NBA and its fans. The NBA Christmas Day games seemed far more entertaining than the NFL games, and this led LeBron James to claim that Christmas still belonged to the NBA during his postgame comments.

When the ratings came out, the NBA did very well. The league averaged 5.2 million viewers across their five games at Christmas, the most of the holiday for five years. However, the NFL still dominated the ratings war with 24.2 million viewers between their two NFL games on Christmas.

On a recent “New Heights” podcast episode,” LeBron made a guest appearance and was asked which league owns Christmas. Unfortunately for the NBA, LeBron admitted that the NFL got the better of the NBA on Christmas Day.

“I saw the f—ing numbers afterward. You guys kicked our a–, okay. Okay. From a viewer standpoint, you all kicked our… You know when you go out there, you got your little brother and he can stay beat once. You say, ‘Hey, we didn’t lose that fight. We’re here.’ That’s how I felt. I had to stand up for the NBA.”

The numbers are the numbers. If we consider TV ratings and streams alone, then yes, the NFL won.

But to counter LeBron’s comments, the NBA didn’t necessarily lose. They had their best Christmas Day viewing figures for over five years and the comments afterwards were positive as all the games were entertaining.

On Christmas Day, the NFL definitely surpassed the NBA, and it didn’t matter if the football games were less entertaining.

I’m not sure if that’s a credit to the NFL or just an inevitability because fans love football so much. Still, the NFL got the win. Going all in on Christmas, partnering with Netflix and bringing out Beyoncé, they found success on a day known for NBA action.

LeBron admitting the NFL won the Christmas Day game is definitely something, but it’s also what we already knew.

With the NFL still contractually obligated to play Christmas Day games on Netflix for two more years, let’s see what the NBA does to respond and take the day back in 2025 and beyond.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.