Are holidays a reprieve from other on goings in life? Perhaps not, as a lot of people work through them. A chance to see family? Under normal circumstances, probably, but I’m not sure how viable that is this year. Holidays are both universal, and not. Most everyone in the world has gone through some form of holiday, but it often looks different. For me? Family, and NBA basketball. For you? Who knows, it might not even come at this time of year. They’re a vessel important things are packaged into, or not. This newsletter is a vessel unimportant things are packaged into. Holidays, baby.
Folk
Little left-handed presents for me, a lefty
James Harden has been on a rampage to ruin this holiday season for lefties, but we have our redeemers.
Canadian!
It’s been a few years in a row now, that Canada has had the second most players in the NBA to the United States. Still, we’re searching for superstars north of the border and RJ Barrett’s first year in the NBA did more to reinforce the negatives in his game than the positives. It didn’t help in the slightest that the New York Knicks put together a roster that seemed specifically designed to mitigate Barrett’s strengths.
If the Knicks opening game is any indication of the negatives Barrett has converted into positives re: team building, then we’re looking at a version of the young Canadian that has adopted the mental fortitude to thrive as an opportunistic scorer. And that’s really all you can do on these Knicks. Julius Randle eats up possessions with the sole purpose of self-creation, Elfrid Payton cramps spacing, and while Mitchell Robinson is as bouncy and fun as they come he doesn’t open lanes for teammates. Reggie Bullock is the only shooter in the Knicks starting lineup, and Barrett did well to find him rotating around the 3-point line when defenses collapsed on him.
If Barrett emulates the spirit of his opening night performance going forward - I say ‘spirit’ because he’s not going to start every game shooting 8-8 from the field - then the Knicks will have at least one positive thing going for them.
He was excellent at sniffing out gaps to punch, and his balance and strength allow him to grind down on wings and guards as he makes his way to the bucket. He even has the rare quality that all great finishers have (even if he’s not there yet) with the ‘bump and pivot’. It’s useful to players of all heights - Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyle Lowry, Talen Horton-Tucker - throw your weight, gather and finish. You have to be able to take account of where the defense is around you to make the move confidently, lest you become trapped under a helping big man at the rim. I’m not sure how repeatable Barrett’s jump shooting is, we’ll see with time, but I loved his downhill decision making.
Moonshots off the bench
Unless the Wolves are remarkably good this year, it seems reasonable to expect that conversations will be had amongst the fanbase about who is better suited to lead the team at point guard, D’Angelo Russell or Ricky Rubio. Rubio represents the defensive side of the spectrum as a really good point-of-attack defender and a consummate pro on offense to progress through his reads. ‘D-Lo’ represents the ceiling of it all. An absolute gunslinger who, if optimized, should rain hell-fire on opponents as they send help towards Karl-Anthony Towns. And provided that he gets to handle in the spread pick n’ roll, he should spray an assortment of elite passes all over the floor.
I will never feel obligated to only like the players who drive winning. Let me deep dive into Barrett bumping and swiveling and Russell letting it fly. That’s the NBA’s gift to me, and I’ll revel in it.
Zatzman
Make your own holiday
I don’t celebrate Christmas. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a Christmas tradition. Every year since the league started doing the full-day-of-games thing in 2008, I’ve hunkered down at noon on varying couches or floors and watched basketball. For the first year or two, I’d have to fight my sisters for the remote. I’d miss parts of some games, but I remember the important bits. I remember LeBron James and his new-look Heat walloping Kobe Bryant’s Lakers on Christmas Day in 2010. James had a triple double, and he dominated every second of the game even though I don’t really remember him shooting the ball. I remember James beating all the up and comers and former champs alike: Antwan Jamison’s Wizards, after Gilbert Arenas’ knees gave out; Dirk Nowitzki’s defending champion Mavs that eventually got swept in the playoffs; Dwyane Wade’s Heat after James left them to go back to Cleveland. They all fell before James on Christmas Day. There were other definitive-to-their-era teams that James never got a chance to beat, like DeMar DeRozan’s Raptors or Paul George’s Pacers, but they too would have lost to James on Christmas Day.
I don’t really remember LeBron James ever losing on Christmas Day. At least until the Warriors added Kevin Durant. James isn’t my only memory, though.
In the late slots, out West, I remember watching the most exciting teams on Earth play the fastest basketball games I’d ever seen. Chauncey Billups’ (then Ty Lawson’s!) Nuggets, Steph Curry’s Warriors, Kevin Durant’s Thunder. The late games were worth staying up for. I remember Steve Nash and Tim Duncan doing battle one last time before their rivalry faded as the decade turned. Later, the Warriors played slugfest after slugfest against Chris Paul’s Clippers.
Christmas Day basketball was the holy grail to me. Better than the NBA Finals, at least when I was a teenager. If I’m being honest, still better, in several meaningful ways. I’d watch basketball until my eyes bled, and then I’d eat dinner, and then I’d watch some more. I had another non-Christian friend, and when we were in high school we’d watch the games together while everyone else we knew, the suckers, was with their families. Sometimes we’d skip a game, if the Knicks were playing, usually, to play a game of 2k ourselves. I couldn’t miss with Danny Granger.
Tomorrow is Christmas Day, 2020. The lineup of games will be eviscerating. Zion Williamson, Luka Doncic, and Jayson Tatum are the future. The established stars, Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Jokic, Jimmy Butler, are the present. Kevin Durant will be back on the hardwood doing things no human should possibly be able to do. And of course, as has been true for my entire adult life, LeBron James will once again take the court on Christmas Day.
That’s not to be taken for granted, working on Christmas Day. I was able to do it once, last year when the Raptors hosted the Boston Celtics. I took the subway down to Scotiabank Arena and watched the Celtics annihilate a disinterested team of defending champions. The day was still spectacular. I can’t imagine the experience James has every year. Yes, he has missed over a decade of Christmas Days with his family. But he’s made his own holiday tradition: wiping the floor with the popular NBA elite of the day. They have changed, but James has remained inevitable.
We all have our own holidays. Tomorrow will once again be mine. Right now, there’s nothing in the world for which I’m more excited.
Minute Basketball: Holidays