I Can't Believe It Either

I'm having a hard time typing these words: I agree with Phil Jackson. For those of you who may not know, Jackson is the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and therefore my enemy. I've mentioned that there are very few teams I root against on a day-to-day basis and most of the time my attitude towards non-New England teams is one of indifference. Well, that doesn't apply to the Lakers. I can't stand those guys or anyone associated with them. However, I have to stand with the Lakers' coach on one issue: Jackson recently said in an interview that he didn't like the NBA's practice of scheduling games throughout the day on Christmas and I wholeheartedly agree. About this time tomorrow the NBA is going to begin tipping off games and playing them throughout the day in what they feel has become a Christmas tradition. Jackson's Lakers have the prime spot in a game against the Heat, but he is not happy about it. He mentioned that players would rather be home with their families and that he would prefer the league take the day off. (In the interest of fairness I should point out Kobe Bryant says he likes playing on Christmas... but that's probably because he also likes using his family strictly as a photo-op.) Jackson's position is the right stance because I don't think anyone should be working on Christmas. Even if they don't celebrate the holiday I'm sure they would appreciate the day off.

At first it started innocently enough: the NBA would schedule one game on Christmas, usually a Finals rematch to give the teams a national stage as a reward for their previous success, and get big ratings. Then it switched to two games featuring the Conference Finalists and everyone seemed ok with it. A third game was added to included any team that added a big free agent before the season or had an exciting new rookie. But now it has expanded to five games, ending with a Golden State/Portland game that isn't even all that interesting. Neither team had a big offseason or appear to be a threat to win the Western Conference. Furthermore, I doubt the NBA's assertion that every game gets the huge ratings they claim. I'm about as big an NBA fan as you are going to see and yet I'm not planning on making an effort to watch the Celtics/Magic game tomorrow afternoon. Sorry, boys, but I've got stuff to do, nieces to play with and decals to put on. (Even though the Magic just made a series of trades to revamp their entire lineup and the Celtics are playing as well as any team in the NBA right now. In all honesty, any other day of the year I would be stoked for that because it should be a good game.) You're going to play each other again this year, but my nephew only gets one first Christmas - I'll survive not seeing the game.

Look, I get that we can't shut the country down over one religious holiday. Things like gas stations and supermarkets have to remain open. But the NBA is purely entertainment and doesn't need to be operating on Christmas day. I guess my main issue isn't with the fact that players have to travel all over the place: they are well-compensated as it is and make enough money to bring family with them to an away game if it really bothers them. Also, the fans in the stands have made a decision to go so I'm not worried about them. The people I feel bad for are the people working at the stadiums. Chances are they would rather not spend the holiday at work and even though they are probably told they could ask for the day off with no ramifications I doubt they believe that. Perhaps I'm over-sensitive to this issue due to my time working at Gillette. Every year when the schedule came out I lived in fear that the Patriots would have a home game on Thanksgiving and I would have to work. I'm sure we would have been told that we didn't have to work the game, but it would have been one of those open-ended statements implying that if we didn't want the job they would find someone who did. (Seriously, when I look back at that job I have to wonder why the fuck I stayed there two years.) Anyway, I just wanted to thank Phil for bring this up because he has the clout to get a real discussion started. I don't think he'll be able to reverse having the games on Christmas, but at the very least he let people know not everyone likes it.