{"id":370751,"date":"2025-12-25T10:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T10:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370751\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T10:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T10:29:08","slug":"on-christmas-day-the-cavs-and-the-nba-remember-basketball-is-still-a-kids-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370751\/","title":{"rendered":"On Christmas Day, the Cavs and the NBA remember basketball is still a kids\u2019 game"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 On Christmas morning, a child will unwrap a basketball. Someone will get new kicks. Maybe even a brand-new hoop in the driveway, where a kid pretends they\u2019re playing at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

But before the television settles on NBA games as background music to laughter filling living rooms, the game is already reminding everyone who it is for. Kids. <\/p>\n

And the Cavs, back on the league\u2019s biggest holiday stage for the first time since 2018, may need that reminder more than anyone else. Kenny Atkinson admits that sometimes, even he forgets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got upset today,\u201d the Cavs head coach said even after their blowout win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday. \u201cWe were up 23, and I think they cut it to 18 there in the fourth quarter. And I started to get upset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the frustration could grow legs, Darius Garland intervened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started to get upset, and Darius hit me on the cheek like this, just to remind me, like, I get uptight sometimes, and he\u2019s like, smile,\u201d Atkinson recalled. \u201cIt is a kids\u2019 game, and there\u2019s got to be joy in the game. As a coach, sometimes you can lose sight of that. But DG is kind of one that reminds me, like, kids\u2019 game. Enjoy this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That exchange says as much about Cleveland\u2019s internal wiring as it does about Christmas Day itself. Leadership in any locker room does not always arrive as a speech. Sometimes it arrives as permission to breathe.<\/p>\n

For Garland, joy is not performative. It\u2019s a necessity. The Cavs play freer when they feel it, move quicker when they trust it and weather slumps better when they protect it.<\/p>\n

Jaylon Tyson, one of the youngest players in the room, sees the connection clearly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means the world,\u201d Tyson said when asked how important joy is to winning. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be ups and downs. There\u2019s going to be adversity. But when you play free, when you play basketball, we\u2019re all here for a reason. All one through 15 of us are here for a reason. But when you play with that love for your teammates, for the game, it makes everything easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christmas Day amplifies that feeling because it collapses time. <\/p>\n

For a few hours, veterans remember being kids. Kids see futures. And the league, often defined by business and math and margins, looks human again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it,\u201d Cavs veteran big man Thomas Bryant said. \u201cAs a kid, you watch those games, and you always dream about being a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryant has played long enough to understand the balance required. The magic does not erase responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou try to relish the moment as much as you can,\u201d he said, \u201cbut understand there\u2019s a job you have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That tension sits at the heart of Christmas basketball every year. It is joy layered over competition. Nostalgia sharpened by expectation. For Atkinson, it is the NBA\u2019s purest stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, if you\u2019re not up for that, you better hang it up,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be fun. It\u2019s a celebration. To me, that\u2019s the marquee game in the NBA. I participated in it. There\u2019s nothing like going to The Garden at noon. But we\u2019re playing a heck of a Knicks team, who is playing great. So, it\u2019ll be a great challenge. But we\u2019re really looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he also knows what follows. The long road back to the playoffs. The emotional dips. The mental fatigue. A season that stretches endlessly, where scrutiny is constant and joy easy to misplace. <\/p>\n

It is why Christmas Day brings more than any ordinary game in the 82-game stretch. <\/p>\n

Another way through is leadership that does not fracture under stress or in the biggest games. And the Cavs may have one of the best leaders in the NBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talk to our leaders a lot [about] how important their positivity is, their demeanor, their emotions, all that,\u201d Atkinson added. \u201cThat\u2019s a big part of weathering these types of stretches. And I\u2019m just thankful we have great leaders. Starts with Don, obviously, who\u2019s probably the most positive person I\u2019ve ever been, positive athlete I\u2019ve been around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell\u2019s positivity does not stop at in-game moments, film sessions or words behind the scenes. Sometimes it shows up as generosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got everybody PlayStations and Xboxes for the group. Should be here soon,\u201d Mitchell said before heading to New York.<\/p>\n

It was said casually, but it fits the theme. Play. Together. Remember why they started.<\/p>\n

That idea extends beyond Cleveland. It echoes across the league, even into opposing locker rooms.<\/p>\n

Pelicans coach James Borrego has been on the other side of the equation. The version of coaching where every possession feels existential. Where joy becomes collateral damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived and died with every game,\u201d Borrego said before their game Tuesday in Cleveland. \u201cAnd you\u2019re like, why are you doing this? Are you really enjoying it?\u201d<\/p>\n

His perspective shifted during his year away from coaching on the sidelines. Instead, he was coaching through the eyes of his sons, rediscovering the game as something pure again.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got into this to enjoy it. It\u2019s a game. It\u2019s a game,\u201d Borrego emphasized to himself. \u201cThey actually pay us to do this, to play a game. What an incredible opportunity. I think we\u2019re all at our best when we have that youthful spirit. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all better as coaches, as players, when you\u2019re enjoying the moment. You\u2019re trusting that this is a game that we get to do and play for a living. … You got to smile a little bit more. You got to have a little more fun, have a little more joy, and I think that will rub off on our players as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ClevelandCleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson is all smiles in the second half at Rocket Arena. John Kuntz, cleveland.com<\/p>\n

Warriors head coach \u2014 and Atkinson\u2019s mentor \u2014 Steve Kerr has watched his pupil make that adjustment over time. Watched the competitor learn to loosen his grip without losing his edge. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a competitor, and he\u2019s smart as hell,\u201d Kerr said of Atkinson before their contest on Dec. 6. \u201cThe New Yorker in him comes out sometimes, and it helped for him to come out to California and relax a little bit. I think the perspective that he gained with our team going through the gauntlet, feeling the ups and downs, definitely has helped him, and I think he\u2019s navigating it beautifully now.\u201d<\/p>\n

That navigation will be tested again on Christmas Day, under bright lights, against a formidable Knicks team, with the entire league watching.<\/p>\n

But for Cleveland, the game is a chance to honor the kid inside the professional. To protect joy in a season designed to exhaust it. To remember that before the contracts, before the criticism, before the results, there was simply love for the game.<\/p>\n

The kind that makes a coach smile again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 On Christmas morning, a child will unwrap a basketball. Someone will get new kicks. Maybe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,95679,191252,85],"class_list":["post-370751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-cleveland-cavaliers-2024-2025","tag-san-antonio-spurs-2025","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}