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Ramona Shelburne, ESPN Senior Writer
Kevin Durant was on the court in Phoenix, warming up for an extra late 8:30 p.m. tipoff for the NBA’s Christmas Day finale, when Stephen Curry and LeBron James were putting the final touches on the fourth thriller of the best day of the NBA season thus far. Yet somehow Durant knew exactly how important this day had been for the league.
“Today was a step in the right direction to get people excited again for the game of basketball,” Durant told ESPN during a wide-ranging interview after leading the Phoenix Suns to a 110-100 win over the Denver Nuggets. “Hopefully it’s not just because it’s Christmas. Hopefully they stay invested in the game, invested in each player, each team throughout the rest of the season and not just the playoffs or the Finals.
“I want to see people, the viewership. I want to see it get it back up. The league ain’t going nowhere, but we are in a rough patch when it comes to that.”
The NBA has been the subject of particularly negative discourse for much of this season, with talk about its style of play, how many 3-pointers teams are taking, stars missing games or just failing to give any kind of effort at All-Star Weekend, and countless other issues. But the Christmas Day games offered a reminder of how good the game can still be. Four of the five games came down to the final minute, and the average margin was just five points, the lowest for a Christmas with at least five games in NBA history.
Each game had a thrilling finish, with young stars such as San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama (42 points, 18 rebounds) Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards (26 points) and Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey (33 points, 12 assists) delivering standout performances alongside the old guard of Durant (27 points), Kyrie Irving (39 points), Curry (38 points) and James (31 points).
The biggest plays were made by role players such as the Lakers’ Austin Reaves, who upstaged Curry’s heroics with a game-winning layup past Andrew Wiggins, and New York’s Josh Hart, whose rebounding and defense sealed the Knicks’ win over Wembanyama and an inspired group of Spurs.
And it seemed as if everyone knew how important it was to the league.
“I love the NFL, but Christmas is our day,” James told ABC’s Lisa Salters after the Lakers’ win over the Warriors. He even turned and looked directly into the camera to emphasize his point.
James is keenly aware that the NFL has encroached on the NBA’s territory in recent years. This year the NFL put two marquee games — and a halftime show featuring Beyoncé — on Netflix up against the NBA’s slate. James woke up determined to claw that territory back.
“Not having Xmas day unis anymore really sucks!” James posted on X. “That was a great feeling walking into the locker room and seeing those.”
Over the summer, James had done a joint interview with Curry and Durant during their epic Olympic run in France that NBA Entertainment released in advance of the Christmas Day slate. It was wistful and nostalgic. Retirement was openly discussed. So were legacies. The message was clear: that fans should enjoy these guys while they can because they won’t be around much longer.
The takeaway, however, was daunting: What is the NBA going to do once they’re gone?
James and Curry continued to lean into that message again Wednesday night after their latest head-to-head battle.
“It’s always a blast. The competitive history, the spirit, his greatness. It allows me to just appreciate all that we’ve been through and the battles back and forth,” Curry said. “In 2024, still doing it and somehow the games are pretty electric and kind of a must-see TV situation. I love it. … That’s why it sucks to lose because these are those moments that matter a bit more.”
James was even more direct. When asked by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin what is still great about the NBA today, he said simply, “LeBron and Steph.”
As Durant walked from the arena into the still-balmy-at-11 p.m. Phoenix night, he struck a different tone. The 36-year-old vet, who came into the league 17 years ago on a Seattle team that no longer exists, said he doesn’t like thinking of himself and Curry and James as the defining players of their era because it ignores future Hall of Famers James Harden and Russell Westbrook, with whom he went to his first NBA Finals in 2012 with the Oklahoma City Thunder. That team never got back to the Finals (and Harden was traded to Houston before the next season), but the Thunder won 219 games over the next four years before Durant left for Golden State.
“I feel like fans only want free agency and drama and only care about playoffs and Finals and what that means for somebody’s legacy,” he said. “Then they get programmed to just think about that, which has made them not want to care about the regular season.”
But he also doesn’t blame them, in a splintered media environment where the NBA is competing for eyeballs not just against other TV shows but also against streaming networks and social media platforms.
“So to consume a January night game — Charlotte Hornets against the Atlanta Hawks or Phoenix Suns against the Golden State Warriors, that’s not on national TV? You might just follow the stats,” Durant said.
“My thing is you can’t s— on the product and think that people are going to value that product like some of the shows do. We all supposed to be on the same team. But it feels like everybody is clashing right now. Trying to get more attention. Everybody, instead of just all trying to push the game in the right direction.”
For one day at least, the NBA did move in the right direction. The games were great. The players were dynamic. Not just the three superstars who’ve carried the league for two decades, but the young players they’ll hand it off to soon enough.
If there are lessons to be learned from what went right on Christmas, Durant will be among those looking for them, hoping to change the discourse around the league as the calendar turns to 2025.
“I take this serious, and I’m locked in as to why people don’t want to watch us play no more or why they don’t like the 3-point line or what the real problem is,” he said. “I’m trying to think about and understand it. I love this game. I want to see it keep going.”