Kevin Durant was on the courtroom in Phoenix, warming up for an additional late 8:30 p.m. tipoff for the NBA’s Christmas Day finale, when Stephen Curry and LeBron James have been placing the ultimate touches on the fourth thriller of one of the best day of the NBA season so far. Yet by some means Durant knew precisely how essential this present day had been for the league.
“Today was a step in the proper course to get individuals excited once more for the sport of basketball,” Durant informed ESPN throughout a wide-ranging interview after main the Phoenix Suns to a 110-100 win over the Denver Nuggets. “Hopefully it isn’t simply because it is Christmas. Hopefully they keep invested within the recreation, invested in every participant, every group all through the remainder of the season and never simply the playoffs or the Finals.
“I wish to see individuals, the viewership. I wish to see it get it again up. The league ain’t going nowhere, however we’re in a tough patch relating to that.”
The NBA has been the topic of significantly detrimental discourse for a lot of this season, with speak about its fashion of play, how many 3-pointers teams are taking, stars lacking video games or simply failing to give any kind of effort at All-Star Weekend, and numerous different points. But the Christmas Day video games supplied a reminder of how good the sport can nonetheless be. Four of the 5 video games got here all the way down to the ultimate minute, and the common margin was simply 5 factors, the bottom for a Christmas with at the very least 5 video games in NBA historical past.
Each recreation had an exhilarating end, with younger stars resembling San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama (42 factors, 18 rebounds) Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards (26 factors) and Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey (33 factors, 12 assists) delivering standout performances alongside the previous guard of Durant (27 factors), Kyrie Irving (39 factors), Curry (38 factors) and James (31 factors).
The greatest performs have been made by position gamers such because the Lakers’ Austin Reaves, who upstaged Curry’s heroics with a game-winning layup previous Andrew Wiggins, and New York’s Josh Hart, whose rebounding and protection sealed the Knicks’ win over Wembanyama and an impressed group of Spurs.
And it appeared as if everybody knew how essential it was to the league.
“I really like the NFL, however Christmas is our day,” James informed ABC’s Lisa Salters after the Lakers’ win over the Warriors. He even turned and regarded instantly into the digital camera to emphasise his level.
James is keenly conscious that the NFL has encroached on the NBA’s territory in recent times. This yr the NFL put two marquee video games — and a halftime present that includes Beyoncé — on Netflix up in opposition to the NBA’s slate. James awakened decided to claw that territory again.
“Not having Xmas day unis anymore actually sucks!” James posted on X. “That was an incredible feeling strolling into the locker room and seeing these.”
Over the summer time, James had carried out a joint interview with Curry and Durant throughout their epic Olympic run in France that NBA Entertainment launched prematurely of the Christmas Day slate. It was wistful and nostalgic. Retirement was brazenly mentioned. So have been legacies. The message was clear: that followers ought to take pleasure in these guys whereas they’ll as a result of they will not be round for much longer.
The takeaway, nevertheless, was daunting: What is the NBA going to do as soon as they’re gone?
James and Curry continued to lean into that message once more Wednesday evening after their newest head-to-head battle.
“It’s at all times a blast. The aggressive historical past, the spirit, his greatness. It permits me to simply recognize all that we have been by way of and the battles forwards and backwards,” Curry stated. “In 2024, nonetheless doing it and by some means the video games are fairly electrical and form of a must-see TV scenario. I adore it. … That’s why it sucks to lose as a result of these are these moments that matter a bit extra.”
James was much more direct. When requested by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin what remains to be nice concerning the NBA at present, he stated merely, “LeBron and Steph.”
As Durant walked from the sector into the still-balmy-at-11 p.m. Phoenix evening, he struck a unique tone. The 36-year-old vet, who got here into the league 17 years in the past on a Seattle group that now not exists, stated he would not like pondering of himself and Curry and James because the defining gamers of their period as a result of it ignores future Hall of Famers James Harden and Russell Westbrook, with whom he went to his first NBA Finals in 2012 with the Oklahoma City Thunder. That group by no means acquired again to the Finals (and Harden was traded to Houston earlier than the subsequent season), however the Thunder received 219 video games over the subsequent 4 years earlier than Durant left for Golden State.
“I really feel like followers solely need free company and drama and solely care about playoffs and Finals and what which means for someone’s legacy,” he stated. “Then they get programmed to simply take into consideration that, which has made them not wish to care concerning the common season.”
But he additionally would not blame them, in a splintered media atmosphere the place the NBA is competing for eyeballs not simply in opposition to different TV reveals but additionally in opposition to streaming networks and social media platforms.
“So to devour a January evening recreation — Charlotte Hornets in opposition to the Atlanta Hawks or Phoenix Suns in opposition to the Golden State Warriors, that is not on nationwide TV? You may simply comply with the stats,” Durant stated.
“My factor is you’ll be able to’t s— on the product and assume that persons are going to worth that product like among the reveals do. We all purported to be on the identical group. But it looks like all people is clashing proper now. Trying to get extra consideration. Everybody, as an alternative of simply all making an attempt to push the sport in the proper course.”
For sooner or later at the very least, the NBA did transfer in the proper course. The video games have been nice. The gamers have been dynamic. Not simply the three superstars who’ve carried the league for twenty years, however the younger gamers they will hand it off to quickly sufficient.
If there are classes to be realized from what went proper on Christmas, Durant will probably be amongst these in search of them, hoping to vary the discourse across the league because the calendar turns to 2025.
“I take this severe, and I’m locked in as to why individuals do not wish to watch us play no extra or why they do not just like the 3-point line or what the true drawback is,” he stated. “I’m making an attempt to consider and perceive it. I really like this recreation. I wish to see it maintain going.”
