Boston Celtics: NBA gets it right with Xmas day home game vs. Brooklyn

The Houdini is happy with the Christmas day schedule the NBA has put together–one that includes a matchup with the Brooklyn Nets at 5pm for the Boston Celtics.

After being disappointed with what the NBA decided to do with the schedule last Christmas for the Boston Celtics, the Houdini is signing a different tone this year.

Last year, these were my sour grapes on what Adam Silver gave us under the metaphorical Christmas tree after Celtics-Nets wasn’t announced as the featured Xmas matchup:

"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 a 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.  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."

I don’t have those sorts of issues this year. With Kevin Durant set to return to the NBA after tearing his Achilles in the 2019 NBA Finals, Brooklyn’s other star Kyrie Irving will finally have to face the music–aka his old team in the city he abandoned to form a super-team in New York City.

Fittingly enough, there will be no fans in the TD Garden for Boston’s 5pm X-Mas day matchup with the Nets. Granted, those fans would have a field day with Irving after he promised that he’d be back if Beantown’s faithful “would have him”. That statement reads as a convenient out now that “Uncle Drew” actually took his ball and went home.

But it is appropriate that Irving will now only have to focus on an empty arena filled with banners he didn’t contribute to and a team he left behind that went two rounds further in the 2020 postseason than his own Nets did…not that Irving suited up for them when they needed him either.

Either way, we have 23 days until Irving’s name is added to the list of former Celtics who have returned to face the green and white at the house of the holy at 100 Legends Way.