The Oklahoma City Thunder were excluded from the NBA's Christmas Day schedule again, despite having a successful 57-win season and being considered a top contender. The decision has been met with criticism, as many argue that the league missed an opportunity to showcase a strong team with a bright future. The Christmas Day lineup features several teams with less impressive records, leading to concerns about the impact on viewership and the NBA's overall appeal.
The Oklahoma City Thunder were snubbed from the Christmas Day slate again this season. While the No. 1 seed was left off the 2023 schedule, it was easily explainable. The Thunder were fresh off a frisky play-in bid, but nationally still had skepticism around how good they are or could be.
Instead, the 15-14 Spurs, 14-14 Suns, 14-14 Timberwolves and 10-17 76ers take center stage. As the lines sit right now, only two games clock in as one possession spreads. Two of the five games have nine point favorites. Lopsided affairs will certainly not help the ratings as the NBA battles the biggest sport in America.
The Thunder General Manager continued to try to explain the possible reasoning behind the Thunder being left off the slate. "I like that challenge, like I said before. I'm not going to sit up here and say -- we don't expect things to be given to us and then complain about not being on Christmas Day. We have to earn it. We have to show that we're a team that's capable of that type of recognition, I guess. I think there's a lot of other teams that had the things that we had, like I mentioned, the second MVP vote getter that played, but in this case, that wasn't the case.
The Thunder superstar, who is being showcased on Netflix's Starting 5 series in October 2025, revealed it is disappointing to not work on the holiday.
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