The NBA slate of Christmas games always highlights the league’s best, biggest, and most influential teams and players, and a chance for rivalry games is always an added plus. The San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks are no strangers to playing on the holiday, with the Spurs playing in 11 games and the Knicks playing in 55.

Neither team has a winning record on the holiday, and they have never played each other during the winter classic. However, a March matchup last season cemented these two teams as unlikely rivals.

On March 29, 2024, the Knicks traveled to San Antonio to take on the Spurs. Jalen Brunson scored 61 points, a career-high and the second-most points in franchise history, but rookie Victor Wembanyama capped off one of his best games, scoring 40 points and grabbing 20 rebounds.

After the game, Brunson wanted the game ball to be added to his trophy shelf, but conventional wisdom says that the winning team gets to decide what happens to the ball. In a fit of emotion, Wembanyama flung the ball into the stands.

All I want for Christmas is for Wemby to ruin the Knicks’ day…again pic.twitter.com/O7UFzLLBxV

— Inside The Spurs (@InsideTheSpurs) December 23, 2024

That choice kicked off a rivalry between the two, at least on social media, since these teams haven’t played since. It was revealed that Brunson wanted the ball but was unable to retrieve it from the crowd.

“I have been informed by the Spurs that no ball boy fetched the ball on Friday night,” reported ESPN’s Brian Windhorst after the game. “The Knicks said to me that they did retrieve the ball, so the Spurs are saying…no one retrieved the ball. The ball, I’m assuming, left the arena with the fan (who caught it).”

The Spurs will travel to take on the Knicks, with Brunson hopefully still angry enough to make it the highlight of the NBA’s slate of games. Tipoff is slated for 12 p.m. ET in New York and the game can be watched on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or streamed on Disney+.

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