NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed that that league isn’t planning on moving games from Christmas Day to Christmas Eve despite the NFL’s competition on the holiday.
“No plan to do it at the moment,” Silver said during a Tuesday appearance on the Pat McAfee Show.
The NBA has been playing on Christmas Day since 1947, featuring intriguing matchups involving contending teams and star players.
As for the NFL, the league has started scheduling annual games on the holiday since 2020.
The move by the NFL has been successful, with their two 2024 matchups on Christmas Day averaging 26.5 million United States viewers and becoming Netflix’s most-watched Christmas Day ever in the country.
The NBA only averaged 5.25 million viewers across its five-game slate in 2024, although it still represented the league’s most-watched Christmas Day in five years as viewership was up 84 percent compared to 2023.
While the NBA will be returning with five games on the holiday this year, the NFL will be adding a third game to its schedule.
Still, Silver doesn’t anticipate the NBA moving to Christmas Eve.