For the first time in ten seasons, the OKC Thunder won’t be a participant on Christmas Day but fans can support them via All-Star voting which begins today.
Today’s itinerary includes five games and begins at noon with the defending champions hosting their first-ever Christmas Game. That fact is sobering and goes to show just how fortunate the OKC Thunder have been.
Over the course of the OKC Thunder 12 year franchise history, this will be only the third time the team isn’t playing on the holiday. Prior to this season OKC and Russell Westbrook were part of the festivities nine consecutive times.
Thunder fans may need to get used to missing out since typically it’s the very top teams and stars who get entry to the main event. Even then performing well won’t guarantee participation since market size tends to overrule top stars on good teams.
For example, the New York Knicks have played on 53 occasions while the Lakers have played in 45. Next season it’s pretty much a guarantee the Nets will be featured when Kevin Durant returns since the team is in the large New York market, features a top-five talent and another All-Star (Kyrie Irving).
Case in point, Toronto, Memphis, and Indiana have been playoff seeds more often than not over the past two decades yet between the three teams they’ve appeared a total of two times in that period and not at all in the past decade.
In fact, the Grizzlies have never played on Christmas Day and today marks only the second time the Raptors are appearing (2001-02), and their first time hosting. It took winning a championship to gain entry and they still got the earliest game on the slate.
Don’t think Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be enough to get OKC back in the mix either as those two Pacers dates occurred in the 2001-01 and 2004-05 so none of the seasons Paul George was in Indiana.
On the positive side of missing out — the OKC Thunder players get an extended rest which comes in handy at this point in the season.
Here’s the itinerary for the events:
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Boston Celtics at Toronto Raptors at 12:00 p.m. EST on ESPN
Milwaukee Bucks at Philadephia 76ers at 2:30 p.m. EST on ABC TV
Houston Rockets at Golden State Warriors at 5:00 on ABC TV
Los Angeles Clippers at Los Angeles Lakers at 8:00 p.m. EST on ABC TV
New Orleans Pelicans at Denver Nuggets at10:30 p.m. EST on ESPN
*All times are Eastern Standard Times
All-Star Voting starts today:
While fans can’t control who plays on the holiday what they can control is whether an OKC Thunder player can represent the team at the All-Star game.
Voting begins today so make sure to get your votes in for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chris Paul, Steven Adams and anyone you deem worthy to make that trip.
Enjoy the games today Thunder Nation and remember OKC is back on the court for Boxing Day as they finish off the five game homestand playing host to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The team at Thunderous Intentions would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and interaction on the site. As always, we invite you to join in the comment section with your thoughts on the team and to let us know how we’re doing.
We send out our best wishes for a merry holiday to you and yours. Enjoy the Christmas Day games and make sure to drop by TI for the Boxing Day preview and articles on your favorite team and players.