{"id":365805,"date":"2025-12-23T16:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/365805\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T16:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:22:10","slug":"lebron-james-reflects-on-the-weight-of-christmas-day-games-as-his-holiday-appearances-near-20-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/365805\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James Reflects on the Weight of Christmas Day Games as His Holiday Appearances Near 20 | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James has spent two decades owning the biggest stages the NBA has to offer, but on Christmas Day, the King is keeping it real.<\/p>\n<p>The Los Angeles Lakers star is set to face the Houston Rockets on Christmas Day (Dec. 25), marking roughly his 20th time playing on the holiday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a resume line only a handful of players can touch, yet the milestone doesn\u2019t automatically make it his favorite tradition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with reporters after the Lakers\u2019 recent win over the Clippers, the four-time NBA champion was candid about where he\u2019d actually prefer to be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d much rather be at home with my family,\u201d the veteran said plainly.<\/p>\n<p>The honesty landed immediately, but it wasn\u2019t dismissive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For the Akron native, Christmas Day games are deeply tied to how he first fell in love with basketball.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bet.com\/article\/vlcpmo\/mamba-legacy-lives-on-vanessa-bryant-surprises-lsu-womens-basketball-with-exclusive-kobe-5-protros\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Mamba Legacy Lives On: Vanessa Bryant Surprises LSU Women\u2019s Basketball With Exclusive Kobe 5 Protros<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Long before he became the league\u2019s most recognizable figure, he was a kid watching the greats go head-to-head while the rest of the country unwrapped gifts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the game I love. It\u2019s a game I watched when I was a kid on Christmas Day,\u201d he shared, reflecting on those early memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Seeing legends take the floor during the holidays helped turn Christmas games into something sacred and eventually turned him into a fixture of them.<\/p>\n<p>Now, as a future Hall of Famer still expected to deliver on the NBA\u2019s biggest days, responsibility outweighs preference.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As tempting as a quiet day on the couch sounds, the call still matters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy number is called, our number is called, so we have to go out and perform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Even if the King would rather be home for the holidays, when Christmas arrives, the league still looks to him to set the tone, and history says he rarely disappoints.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James has spent two decades owning the biggest stages the NBA has to offer, but on Christmas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-365805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}