LeBron James has played in and won more Christmas Day games than any other player in NBA history. Editor’s Note: Read more NBA coverage from The Athletic here. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its teams.

A hundred and some points behind James is the late Kobe Bryant, who scored 395 points on Dec. 25 games by the end of his NBA career. Bryant is also firmly in the games played leaderboards with 16 holiday classics. His highlight was a 2004 42-point game against the Heat that culminated in a 104-102 overtime loss.

We've picked winners and losers from the first four games of Christmas action. While it's hard to take too much away from a single day of games, Christmas is the NBA's marquee regular-season showcase,

“The NFL got greedy and started adding Christmas games,” Barkley said on Inside the NBA. “We used to have this day to ourselves, but Roger Goodell and them pigs at the NFL always want to hog every day of the week now. Christmas is an NBA day.”

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has a strong opinion about playing an NBA game against the Rockets on Christmas Day.

Two future Hall of Famers are important parts of this Christmas Day NBA same-game parlay for Rockets vs. Lakers

Kevin Durant and LeBron James will square off on Thursday in one of the most highly anticipated Christmas Day showdowns this season.

The NBA’s iconic Christmas Day games are right around the corner. With some of the best teams in the league competing against one another this holiday season, the event is bound to be a spectacular one.

Christmas Day in the NBA features a ton of terrific games in the 2025-26 season, as the league’s No. 1 holiday tradition never fails to deliver. And, this seaso

Rockets 119, Lakers 96. Houston salvages road trip w/Christmas win. 26 pts for Amen Thompson. 25 pts for @KDTrey5 . Durant now 2–3 vs. LeBron on Christmas (other win in 2017). Durant in the tunnel postgame: “Best present you could ask for right there.