The NBA dropped the ball on the Boston Celtics Christmas Day game
The Boston Celtics will be welcoming Kyrie Irving home on November 27th instead of Christmas day. That and several other games were snubbed in favor of a matchup with the blasé defending champions.
Listen, we should all be excited that the Boston Celtics will once again be gracing the national stage on Christmas Day. I just don’t see where the NBA was going with their choice of matchups.
Why the New Orleans Pelicans? Yes, Zion Williamson could be a generational talent that intimidates opponents in an awe-inspiring way. But that team doesn’t seem deserving of taking on the 2019 playoff #2-seed Denver Nuggets in the spotlight.
Several teams seemed to earn the right to be featured on Christmas Day. Making the playoffs for many years should get you a marquee matchup. What does Damian Lillard need to do? Two of the coldest series winners of all time doesn’t do it for you schedule-makers?
How about the Brooklyn Nets? Even though they started plotting the exit of their young star player that they vowed allegiance to, their addition of Kyrie Irving makes them a headline grabber. Irving brought Kevin Durant with him, of course, but his absence looms over the team’s first season of the Irving era. Regardless, Irving is in the highest of echelons for players who have achieved individual and team excellence. Brooklyn earned a spot in the national limelight with their play last season.
New Orleans did not.
There was a built-in angle for an Irving return on Christmas. From Shaquille O’Neal returning to a place of many championships in Los Angeles to LeBron James returning to his former Miami kingdom, Christmas day is built for the reunion angle. The negativity (in Irving and O’Neal’s case) is exciting for the home-crowd, bonding together on a joyous holiday occasion to hate a disappointing jaded former star.
Again, it is great that the Boston Celtics have, in theory, one of the premiere games on Christmas day against the defending champions. But in actuality, it isn’t the most entertaining matchup that could have been made. It is tradition that the Celtics play on the road, but that should have been broken by a juicy narrative.
In fact, Toronto would have been better off welcoming back a former star themselves. The league missed out on a genuinely heartwarming moment on Christmas for Leonard to soak up the love and adulation of a city that was thirsting for a championship after being on the cusp for several years.
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It is what it is. A victory over the dynasty-ending Toronto Raptors on Christmas day is fine, but with Kawhi Leonard gone, this just isn’t feeling like The Boston Celtics present that we wanted under the Christmas tree.