Holiday Memories: 15 Years Playing Basketball on Christmas

A lot of basketball players will tell you that when they think of Christmas, they think of their teammates and of the game. That’s because you’re often playing on the holiday, or together at tournaments, on the road, far from home. For some 15 years – from the time I left high school, until I retired from the NBA – I never celebrated with my family.

I didn’t miss it; I was doing what I loved. But the Christmas traditions that I’d grown up with – a big breakfast with my mother’s family, a drive up to my father’s to celebrate with them – made me feel part of something that lasted long past December. No matter whom you celebrate with, sharing the holidays can connect you to something bigger, and make it easier to feel connected to other things, too – to a team, to a country, to an enduring set of values. And that includes to the values of the game.

When I was in high school, we used to play in the Normandy Tournament, near St. Louis. And when my parents would go on vacation for a few weeks after to escape the Missouri cold, I’d stay home, living with my aunt and uncle and working on my shot.

In college, our team stuck around on campus after other students left. Missouri was too far for me to go back just for Christmas Day, so I’d spend the break in the library with teammates from places like California and Illinois who couldn't leave either. Mostly, we focused on a holiday tournament – the University of Kentucky Invitational, or that infamous Holiday Festival at the old Madison Square Garden, where in 1964 we almost beat #1-ranked Michigan.

The NBA has the longest Christmas tradition, older than the Super Bowl, dating back to the league’s start. New York actually played in the first Christmas game ever, in 1947 against the Providence Steamrollers. That team folded two years later; while the Knicks have gone on to play more Christmas Day games than any team in NBA history: 55, including this year’s.

I played in 10. That meant Christmas Day in Madison Square Garden every year for 10 years straight. My friend Phil Jackson played or coached on at least 20 Christmases. It’s so often said that your teammates become like family; but on Christmas, you really felt it. And the matchups were great. I remember in 1968, we beat the Sixers by one point, 110 to 109. The next year we beat the Pistons by one. In 1972, I managed to shoot 70 percent from the floor to score 29 in a Detroit rematch. It was fun.

I’d follow the regular game-day routine that I had for any home game back then: get up, eat a steak, play the Rolling Stones (and yes “Climb Every Mountain”), and go to the Garden. But the atmosphere was different – there were a lot more young kids in the crowd, there with their parents for the holiday. They’d come down by the court. There was a magic to it that somehow reminded you where it all began, when you were a kid, found your love of the game, and started to put in the work. It felt good to be able to give some of that magic back to other families.

I was 34 before I got to spend Christmas with my own parents again. By then, I had a wife and daughter, and could see for myself why the day had been special to all those parents with their kids in the crowd. I could see that the magic really mattered.

Christmas Day games still draw millions of fans on TV. College holiday tournaments are bigger than ever. Countless kids still get basketballs under the tree and head out to the driveway or park to start shooting around even before Christmas night. I’m sure many of you have your own holiday basketball memories – not just of a game that you played or saw, but of how it made you feel and whom you shared that with.

What’s best about Christmas basketball is it brings people together. You may not always be with loved ones, but you’re with a different kind of family – teammates or fellow fans, people everywhere who love the game and share its values, like teamwork, discipline, vision, and joy.

That’s what Christmas traditions do: They connect us to each other and remind us what counts. I hope your holidays are filled with those same kinds of special memories and moments.

Merry Christmas!
Bill


P.S. Check out today’s NBA lineup: five big games from noon to midnight. New York kicks it off against San Antonio – go Knicks!

And if you’re looking for a movie to share with loved ones this week, I hope you’ll consider Rolling Along – it’s my story, but it’s really about all of us; about triumph and loss; joy and sadness; love of our country, and love of the game and the values we cherish these holidays.