Basketball has long served as a centerpiece to millions of Christmas households all over the country. This year will mark the 77th Christmas Day on which the NBA has played, and the slate is appealing. Five games will be played, featuring a dozen top-tier star players and elite shotmaking galore. It will be glorious to take in while surrounded by scraps of wrapping paper and empty eggnog glasses.

As the marquee holiday slate approaches, it’s as good a time as any to remember NBA ghosts of Christmas past. NBA legacies are built, at least in part, by yuletide performances. Christmas Day games are reserved for only the biggest and brightest stars the league has to offer, and viewers historically watch them more than other regular-season games (and even some postseason games). Epic showings put on in front of an audience illuminated by Christmas tree lights are remembered for far longer than any other December performance. It’s just different. 

So, in honor of legacies laid bare under the tree, here are the five best Christmas Day performances. 

As with any all-time NBA article, we must start with Wilt Chamberlain, he who shatters relativity with the breathless greatness of his statlines. It should surprise nobody that Chamberlain boasts a Christmas Day record to pair with his many other ludicrous statistical achievements. 

In 1961, Chamberlain starred for the Philadelphia Warriors and was pitted against the New York Knicks on Christmas. It was his second NBA season, in which he would average a hilarious 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game. Chamberlain’s effortless dominance was only beginning, and he proved as much with a phenomenal showing against one of the marquee franchises of the era.  

Chamberlain scored 59 points and pulled down an absurd 36 rebounds, the latter of which is a Christmas record that stands to this day. As is often the case with Wilt stats like this, his team actually lost; the Knicks beat the Warriors, 136–135. But there has never been a greater one-man band in basketball lore than Wilt the Stilt, and 1961 was his Christmas Day magnum opus. 

Of all the many records belonging to Chamberlain, however, he is not the player who has scored the most points on Christmas Day. That honor goes to Bernard King, the Knicks legend whose yuletide explosion serves as a retrospective exclamation point for an amazing 1984–85 season. 

Taking on the then-New Jersey Nets, King stepped foot on the court and instantly transformed into a walking bucket. He scored 40 points in the first two quarters in an absolutely scalding display of shotmaking. When it was all said and done, King scored 60 points—an NBA Christmas Day record that stands strong four decades later. 

King averaged 32.4 points per game that season, leading the NBA. But his individual greatness was not enough, on Christmas or throughout the season. Despite his 60-point outing, New York lost to the Nets, finished with a 24–58 record and missed the playoffs. But King showed out in the biggest game of the season and gave fans a very bright spot in an otherwise dark season. 

By the time the 1994–95 season rolled around, the Chicago Bulls were Scottie Pippen’s team. Michael Jordan was over a year into his retirement and the team had gone on a deep playoff run with Pippen as the top dog. And perhaps no singular game emphasized that more than Christmas, when the Bulls faced the Knicks.

Pippen left everything on the court. And we do mean everything. He didn’t sit for a single second, playing all 48 minutes of regulation before staying on the court for the entirety of overtime. He finished with 36 points and 16 rebounds. Most importantly for Chicago, Pippen dug deep and scored all seven of the team’s points in OT to push his team past New York by three. 

The performance serves as a fascinating microcosm of what those Bulls teams sans Jordan were like, with Pippen pushing his body to the absolute limit in an attempt to prove everyone wrong through sheer force of will. His stat line will also stand alone, probably forever. Could you imagine a star playing a full 48 plus overtime in December nowadays? Even on Christmas? No shot. Pippen’s performance will be remembered, even if that decade belonged to Jordan. 

LeBron James has been a mainstay on Christmas for the NBA to a degree no other player has reached. The King ranks first among all players with 18 games played and will make it 19 when he takes on the Golden State Warriors this year. Of his many excellent Christmas Day performances, there was none better than his first with the Miami Heat. 

Months into the Heatles’ first season, James was tasked with facing Kobe Bryant and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in a clash of juggernauts on Christmas. He delivered, and made it look all too easy. 

James finished with a triple double in Miami’s 16-point victory. He scored 27 points on 8-of-14 shooting (hitting five of his six three-point attempts), pulled down 11 rebounds and dished out 10 assists while recording only one turnover. It was effortless dominance, the type we’ve become accustomed to in 2024 after decades of watching James. But back then it was a promise, a preview of the basketball nirvana James eventually reached—becoming a player who had zero holes in his game and was able to win no matter what was thrown at him. 

It might not have been the most spectacular Christmas Day game audiences had seen. But from top to bottom on the stat sheet and the court, it was pretty darn close to perfection. 

Once we get to a certain point in NBA history, it’s tough to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to big stat lines. Over the years, thanks to a significantly increased pace of play and an overall increase in talent level, accomplishments like triple doubles have become somewhat regular occurrences. It doesn’t make them any less difficult, but part of what made them special was the rarity. Through that lens, it is understandable if some fans feel such stat lines are a bit devalued in today’s game. 

No matter where you fall in that debate, there is no denying the majesty that was Nikola Jokic’s 2022 Christmas Day showing. Leading the Denver Nuggets against the Phoenix Suns in the late slot, the Serbian superstar scored 41 points on 64% shooting from the floor to pair with 15 rebounds and 15 assists. Per Statmuse, it was only the third 40-15-15 game in NBA history. And the Nuggets needed every bit of it, too; Jokic played 44 minutes and just barely got Denver past Phoenix in a three-point victory. 

It was one of the best games Jokic ever played, which is an incredibly impressive accolade. The three-time MVP is not only one of the all-time greats at the center position, he’s also one of the most statistically prolific players the sport has ever seen. His 2022 Christmas may very well be the greatest all-around Christmas performance ever, and it should be appreciated as such.