The NBA on Christmas Day is a sports tradition that rivals the NFL on Thanksgiving slate of games. It is the most-watched day of the regular season for the NBA as families are gathered exchanging gifts and enjoying their meals. It makes sense NBA teams in supermarkets like the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks are near-locks to have a Christmas Day game regardless of the status of the team. This means that the only way small market teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder get a game on Dec. 25 is if they have the star power that garners ratings.
Since moving to Oklahoma in 2008, that has been the case for the majority of the existence of the franchise and its history of Christmas day games reflects that. From 2010 to 2018, the Thunder played on Christmas for nine consecutive years. Which means there have been nine games that feature the likes of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook having big-time performances on the most celebrated holiday of the year.
Let’s take a look at some of the more noteworthy individual performances in Thunder history.
