The 15 greatest gifts from NBA Christmas Day

Shaquille O’Neal made his first trip back to Los Angeles since he was traded to Miami as a result of losing the power struggle with Kobe Bryant. The Lakers were a whole different team after losing the 2004 Finals to the Detroit Pistons a half year before, but the beef between Shaq and Kobe added even more tension. There was nothing jolly about the game. In fact, Kobe wanted to do nothing but give haymakers to Shaq and his Miami Heat. Bryant dropped 42 points, but while O’Neal fouled out after a 24-point, 11-rebound game, Dwyane Wade helped out his new teammate with 29 points and 10 assists.

Bryant missed a potential game-winning three in the final seconds, but this would not be the last he would see of O’Neal or, better yet, a contending Miami team on Christmas Day.

2007: Kobe torches the Suns

Sticking with Mr. Bryant for a moment, of the 15 games he played on the holiday, Kobe had five Christmas games where he scored 30 or more points. His best scoring performance may have been his first game against Shaq, but you could have legitimate debates about his best all-around game.

We submit his 2007 game against the Phoenix Suns in which Bryant had 38 points, seven assists and five rebounds. But why this one over an arguably better game two years later against Cleveland in which he was two rebounds shy of a triple-double (38/10/8)? Because the Suns game was his most efficient shooting game on Christmas as he went 12-20 (60 percent) in a win against going 11-33 (33 percent) in a blowout loss to the Cavs.

Kobe Bryant, ever a divisive figure in NBA history, showed his brilliance and flaws on Christmas as well. 

2002: A hobbled T-Mac buries the Pistons

Tracy McGrady owns three of the top 14 single-game scoring tallies on Christmas. In a loss to Indiana in 2000, McGrady gave the Pacers fits with 43 points and nine rebounds. He got the better of a rookie LeBron James for a near triple-double in 2003 with 41 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. Yet, in 2002, he flirted with rare air against the Detroit Pistons, lighting them up for 46 points along with six rebounds and three steals. He shot 21 free throws, making 18. T-Mac also bailed out Grant Hill quite a bit as the former Piston shot a woeful 3-for-17 in just his second game against his former team.

Oh, and McGrady almost missed that game entirely because of a painful lower back injury that had been bothering him for almost two weeks. All the pre- and in-game treatments helped him record the fourth-best scoring game on Christmas Day. 

2009: Brandon Roy was just too quick for the Nuggets

Shed a tear for the fallen, everyone. The former Portland Trail Blazers guard was as quick as they came, showing that jab step with ease in an important Northwest Division duel against the Denver Nuggets. In 2009, Roy scored 41 over then-Nuggets (and league-leading scorer) Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith and the kitchen sink. This clip proved that none of the three had a chance, including 'Melo, who himself had 32. Roy was a bad man.  

1966: Ohl’s career high not enough versus Detroit

Couched between McGrady and Kobe Bryant with the ninth-best scoring output on Christmas Day is one of the truly forgotten scorers of the 1960s. On the same night that Rick Barry lit up the Cincinnati Royals for 50, the second-most ever on this day, Baltimore Bullets guard Don Ohl scored 43 points in a 129-127 loss to the Detroit Pistons, the team that originally drafted him. Relatively few saw the game in person as just 2,352 fans were in the stands at the Baltimore Civic Center. Plus, the Bullets were one of the league’s worst teams at the time, eventually losing 61 games that season, but getting the second pick in the 1967 draft.

You’re likely asking, “Who the heck was Don Ohl?” if you are of a certain age. He was essentially the predecessor to a dynamic scoring guard the Bullets (now Washington Wizards) drafted that you may have heard of: Earl “The Pearl” Monroe.  

1994: Pippen’s monster game lifts Bulls over Knicks

It was the first meeting between the Bulls and Knicks since New York got over the hump against Chicago on its way to the ’94 Finals. Scottie Pippen was relentless, attacking the Knicks’ frontcourt from all angles in a 36-point, 16-rebound performance in which he went to the free throw line 17 times (though missing six). He scored all seven of the Bulls’ points in overtime for a physically taxing 107-104 win. 

1993: Sir Charles flexes on the Rockets

Before people began giving him the side-eye for his points of view on hoops and non-hoops, Charles Barkley was a force of nature on the court. Coming off of his 1992-93 MVP season, the Phoenix Suns power forward was on another tear to start the next season. He already had three 20-point/20-rebound games, including a 30/20 outing just mere days into that season.

On Christmas in 1993, Barkley had 38 points, 18 rebounds, four steals, an assist and a block to guide the Suns to a 111-91 blowout of the Houston Rockets. He played all but one minute of the game, but he also inexplicably shot four three-pointers, just making one of them. Nothing’s funnier than a guy who shot 26 percent from long range critiquing the current Golden State Warriors for being a jump-shooting team, right?

1961: Wilt’s ungodly double-double against the Knicks

Since we talked about the Round Mound of Rebound, let’s talk about getting boards, shall we? Wilt Chamberlain got plenty of them in his legendary career, especially in 1961-62 for the then-Philadelphia Warriors when he amassed the single greatest statistical season of any player in NBA history. The Christmas game against New York was extraordinary even for his standards as he scored 59 points (a mere nine points above his season average) and grabbed 36 rebounds. Let that be said again: Chamberlain grabbed THIRTY-SIX rebounds. Yet, the Knicks somehow overcame that to win the game by a point, although playing against a man with that kind of output must have felt like a loss.

Of course, three months later, the Big Dipper handed the Knicks even more history with his 100-point game in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Perhaps, Christmas was just a warm-up. 

1987: The Sixers had no answer for 'Nique

In 1987, Dominique Wilkins treated fans in Philadelphia to a show, albeit a show where the hometown 76ers would lose to his Atlanta Hawks, who came into town a half-game behind in the standings against the Detroit Pistons. The Human Highlight Reel gave it to everybody that season, but his 45 points were simply brilliant, hitting 17 of his 28 shots from the floor and 11 of 12 free throws. For good measure, he added nine boards and three dimes.

The Sixers’ first season without Julius Erving was a tough one, but a night like that didn’t help. Wilkins’ 45 ranks behind McGrady’s 2002 game for fifth all time on Christmas Day. 

1963: Jerry West lights up the Garden

Imagine if you’re on the opposing team and, defensively, you had to pick your poison between Elgin Baylor, Dick Barnett or Jerry West. How quickly would you start crying?

The Knicks, 9-22 on that night, would sob a lot, mostly because they had no way of stopping the Logo. And it wasn’t as if they failed to try in a high-scoring 134-126 track meet of a game in which they led at the half. Yet, those Lakers were deep, and West would drop 47 on them, which stands as the third-highest point total of a single player on Christmas Day.

Younger fans may know of West, a current Warriors executive, as that irascible former Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies general manager who defended Kevin Durant’s decision to come to Golden State. Yet, once upon a time, West was a relentless player who pushed a fast-paced Lakers team throughout the 1960s. 

2010: Miami 'Bron’s triple-double versus the Lakers

Believe it or not, there have only been two triple-doubles on Christmas Day. Russell Westbrook served one on the Knicks in 2013 (14 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists) for the second one, but LeBron James provided the first in 2010.

In what was billed as a Finals preview between the 22-9 (and still adjusting) Miami Heat and 21-8 Los Angeles Lakers, James dropped 27 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and dished 10 assists en route to a 96-80 win at Staples Center. For good measure, he got four steals, too. 

1992: MJ’s X-mas gift to the rival Knicks

Before you thought we’d leave out His Airness, Michael Jordan made his mark on the holiday in 1992 against… you guessed it, those Knickerbockers. In one of just two games on the docket that day, the Eastern Conference foes engaged in their customary war games, with both teams leading their divisions entering Chicago Stadium. Of course, legions of Jordan fans would say he destroyed New York, which would be partially true on the scoreboard, but on 15-of-34 shooting, he likely iced up a ton after the sluggish 89-77 win over the rivals.

But here’s what got our attention. His best scoring game on Christmas not only ranks as just his 110^th-best scoring game according to Basketball Reference, but it’s only tied for his eighth-best game against the Knicks. Unbelievable. 

2011: Lockout ball

We are incredibly thankful that the NBA and NBA Players Association came to a tentative deal for a new CBA last week. After all, five years ago, we weren’t sure when basketball would be played again after the highly contentious owners' lockout wiped out one-fifth of the season. When a deal was eventually reached, there was a mad dash toward getting a 66-game season started, with back-to-back-to-backs, amnesty clauses and an actual bidding war for the services of now-Cavaliers legend J.R. Smith.

The Knicks and Celtics kicked off the shortened season with a 106-104 win for New York. Miami got a small dose of revenge on the Dallas Mavericks, who beat the Heat in the Finals six months earlier. Oklahoma City edged Orlando in a showcase of that year’s eventual Western Conference champions. In the Bay Area, the visiting Clippers got the best of the Warriors before they became the Warriors. Yet, the most memorable game came out of Los Angeles as Luol Deng made two great defensive plays and Derrick Rose sank the game-winner to seal the Bulls’ win over the Lakers.

Santa gave us a shiny lump of coal with a lot of sluggish, off-kilter, injury-riddled play to start the new season, but once it got going, that black sediment felt so smooth in our hands. 

2013: The Clippers/Warriors rivalry

You might have heard that these two teams don’t like each other. It’s a bigger deal because both franchises were also-rans for so long, but both have risen together, with the Warriors clearly reaching greater heights with back-to-back Finals appearances. In a league lacking blood-lusting rivalries, the 2013-14 versions of Lob City and the Dubs gave us a small dose of one mixed in with unheard of pettiness. A few weeks earlier for the Clippers’ home opener on Nov. 1, the team refused to share chapel services with the Warriors before their game later that night.

In the spirit of giving, both teams gave each other the gifts of elbows that Christmas. Draymond Green got ejected thanks to an elbow to Blake Griffin’s neck. Griffin later got tossed for swinging on Andrew Bogut, who tussled with the Clippers forward in the paint. Bogut continued the festivities at game’s end when he grappled with Chris Paul over the ball after Jamal Crawford missed a potential game-winning three. A post-game scrum between both teams capped off one of the more emotional Christmas night games in a long while, with both teams jabbing at each other in the years since. 

1984: Bernard King dropped 60 vs. the Nets

It’s probably the most famous game ever played on Jesus’ birthday. In 1984, the belated Hall of Famer and the Knickerbockers hosted the New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets for a game that had little entertainment value on the surface despite the holiday billing. The Nets were 11-17 while the Knicks were 12-18 and on their way to win the top pick in the ’85 draft lottery and eventually draft Patrick Ewing.

But here are three things that get overlooked with each remembrance. One, in the talk about efficiency, King hit 63 percent of his shots, going 19-for-30 (he rarely shot three-pointers, didn’t do so here) while also taking an insane 26 free throws (making 22). Two, he played a total game, though not perfect. Despite having five turnovers, King nabbed seven rebounds and four assists. Three… the Knicks actually lost the game by six thanks to their inability to stop Michael Ray Richardson (36 points), Mike Gminski (27) and Kelvin Ransey (24 off the bench). And yet… just watch.