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Will the NBA ever have the guts to have NBA games on Thanksgiving? NFL has 3 games scheduled on Thanksgiving: 9:30am, 1:30pm & 5:20pm PST.

I think it would be fun to have 3 big matchups on Thanksgiving or even 2.

NBA needs to start flexing on the NFL!

NFL will kill them in ratings

Not if they don't want the NFL **** up Christmas

The NBA used to have Thanksgiving games. I think the last time was 2010.

Haha ya that’s never going to happen. I’m sure the NBA is pissed that the NFL has multiple games on Christmas. There goes one of the NBA’s best days of the year down the drain.

The NBA doesn’t compete with the NFL. Playing on thanksgiving would be suicide for the NBA

NBA doesn't want that.

NBA taking on the NFL would be like pink cookies in a plastic bag getting crushed by buildings

flranger wrote:Not if they don't want the NFL **** up Christmas

They already are, last season and now again this season. Once Christmas isn't on a weekend, NBA should reign supreme again for Xmas.

Edit: Oof, just looked, Christmas 2022 is on a Sunday lol looks like 2024 NBA can go back to having exclusive rights over Christmas.

The NBA don't want no smoke... Lmao

It also still amazes me when I see West coast guys list times. I couldn't imagine watching games that early. Still seems surreal to me and I'm in okc now instead of DC. See you probably are craving a night bball game on Thursday but on the east coast it wouldn't start until nearly midnight.. Lol

Good luck with that. I love basketball but if I had to choose, I'd watch football. And we're talking about this year's matchups not being that great. I reckon majority of the country are thinking the same.

The NBA should be happy that NFL isn't have Christmas games every year and leave it at that.

Ironic thing is that this year's Thanksgiving slate is 100% pure trash. It'll be on as background noise all day in my house, but I'd rather watch any good NBA matchup.

I don't see how having one featured game on Thanksgiving could possibly hurt. I'd be shocked if it got worse ratings than on the prior or following day.

ReasonablySober wrote:Ironic thing is that this year's Thanksgiving slate is 100% pure trash. It'll be on as background noise all day in my house, but I'd rather watch any good NBA matchup.

The last 2 games all teams are .500 or better. That's not bad at all

DonaldSanders wrote:I don't see how having one featured game on Thanksgiving could possibly hurt. I'd be shocked if it got worse ratings than on the prior or following day.

Well 1st of all I’m sure the players enjoy the day off. And ya the ratings would be horrific for the NBA. The NBA pulled TNT games on Thursday this year until the NFL season is over because they’re tired of TNF eating into their ratings. TNF gets bad ratings for the NFL most weeks. So the NBA doesn’t even want to go against the bottom of the barrel of the NFL.

Thanksgiving games on the other hand are usually some of the most watched games of the year for the NFL. Last year one of the games got 30+million people watching. To put that into perspective, only 1 NBA Finals game since MJ retired has matched that number. The average NBA finals game from the last 2 years don’t even do 1/3 of that audience.

The NBA can’t compete with the NFL, it’s as basic as it gets. The NBA just needs to hope the NFL doesn’t decide to do yearly Christmas games. They seem to be doing them more and more and if it’s becomes an annual thing for them, they can say goodbye to good ratings on Christmas. And that has been the best day for the NBA in the regular season.

NBA players like turkey too much. It’ll never fly with them.

No.

Duke4life831 wrote:

DonaldSanders wrote:I don't see how having one featured game on Thanksgiving could possibly hurt. I'd be shocked if it got worse ratings than on the prior or following day.

Well 1st of all I’m sure the players enjoy the day off. And ya the ratings would be horrific for the NBA. The NBA pulled TNT games on Thursday this year until the NFL season is over because they’re tired of TNF eating into their ratings. TNF gets bad ratings for the NFL most weeks. So the NBA doesn’t even want to go against the bottom of the barrel of the NFL.

Thanksgiving games on the other hand are usually some of the most watched games of the year for the NFL. Last year one of the games got 30+million people watching. To put that into perspective, only 1 NBA Finals game since MJ retired has matched that number. The average NBA finals game from the last 2 years don’t even do 1/3 of that audience.

The NBA can’t compete with the NFL, it’s as basic as it gets. The NBA just needs to hope the NFL doesn’t decide to do yearly Christmas games. They seem to be doing them more and more and if it’s becomes an annual thing for them, they can say goodbye to good ratings on Christmas. And that has been the best day for the NBA in the regular season.

I'm aware of what you're saying, what I am wondering is whether a Thanksgiving NBA game would get better ratings than the same game on a Wednesday or a Friday. I get that the NFL would get better ratings and I know about the Thursday switch to due football.

Thanksgiving is a day a lot of people have off though vs. a random Thursday, and I think there is a good chance if you picked the right game it would do better than another random day. 1st NFL matchup is Chicago vs. Detroit, for the NBA feature the Warriors vs. Portland instead which isn't being aired on National TV. That won't canabilize any ratings. Lots of these NFL games are snoozers after the first hour and there is 4 hours scheduled between games. Schedule the NBA game to finish just as the next NFL game is starting, say at 11:00AM. Those fanbases don't have big overlaps, the Warriors are a big draw, and there is a good chance the NFL game has a wide score discrepancy by the 2nd half and fill the hr/45 mins where there is no NFL. I have trouble believing the local market viewing would be better than a national tv game on Thanksgiving.

Lions play Thanksgiving every year and that would be pretty embarrassing to lose ratings to them yearly.

I'll never understand the love affair with football. Boring as hell for me personally

KingFox wrote:I'll never understand the love affair with football. Boring as hell for me personally

Which I'm sure alot of football fans would say about basketball. I like them both but definitely don't see how football could be boring.