Detroit Lions players weigh in on LeBron’s Christmas Day comments

ALLEN PARK – The NBA and NFL’s contest with a series of games on Christmas Day this year has sparked lively debate in the sports world, including a strong reaction from Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James. While expressing his love for the NFL, James emphasized that playing on the holiday is a tradition that is part of the NBA.

In a historical sense, James is right. Playing on Christmas Day has been an annual tradition for the NBA since the league’s second season in 1947. However, based on the ratings – and opinions of several Detroit Lions players – that may no longer be the case.

On Thursday evening, the NFL released viewership numbers for its two Christmas games streamed on Netflix, which drew a total of nearly 65 million U.S. viewers. Approximately 24.3 million viewers watched the Baltimore Ravens game against the Houston Texans, while 24.1 million watched the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Both games are the most streamed NFL games in US history.

“I definitely feel like (Christmas) is dedicated to football,” Lions defensive end Za’Darius Smith told MLive. “There are a lot of fathers, children and family members who are all together and just want to watch some hard-hitting, hard-hitting football games. I don’t think they want to watch people dunking, do you think? And dribble? No. I feel like they want to watch people beat each other, so I think football definitely needs to keep this Christmas game.”

To be fair to the NBA, they did see an increase in viewership for their Christmas games this holiday. According to the league, it was the most-watched Christmas Day in five years as viewership across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+ increased 84% compared to last year.

The average viewership per game in the United States was around 5.2 million viewers, with the Los Angeles Lakers-Golden State Warriors game being the most watched game with an average of 7.76 million viewers and reaching a peak of around 8.32 million viewers.

Lions wide receiver and Detroit native Allen Robinson II is a huge fan of the NBA and considers himself a lifelong supporter. Speaking to MLive, he recalled spending countless Christmas holidays watching the late Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Durant either compete with their respective teams or take on different opponents. Even as a teenager, he remembered looking forward to the NBA games at Christmas.

However, when it came to the possibility of the NFL stepping in and flying its own flag on the annual holiday, Robinson offered a message of his own.

“At the end of the day, the NFL and football is the number one game in this country. So I think they can take over any day they want to take over,” Robinson said. “I mean, obviously in the fall and winter we’ll see some of the ratings and so forth when football is on and how the NBA feels about it. And again: I don’t want to take anything away from the NBA. I’m a big NBA watcher and supporter, but the NFL is just a little different.”

Also helping to boost ratings was the “Beyoncé Bowl,” where Grammy-winning artist and Houston native Beyoncé performed during halftime of the second game of the Netflix series “The Ravens versus Texans.” U.S. viewership for her performance peaked at 27 million.

“I thought it was cool,” Robinson said of the work Netflix did. “Of course four good teams played during the day. Beyoncé performs at halftime (of Ravens-Texans) and Patrick Mahomes (and the Chiefs) performs against the Steelers. Two playoff teams and two teams fighting to get into the playoffs… I thought the broadcast was solid. Again, you had a legendary performance at halftime, so I think it was good for the game overall.”

While Smith and Robinson see Wednesday’s success as an opportunity for the NFL to expand its coverage and make the holiday now synonymous with football, Lions offensive lineman Graham Glasgow sees it as an opportunity to provide sports fans with variety, not that The NFL is trying to intervene against the long-standing tradition of the NBA.

“I think it’s just like giving people what they want,” Glasgow said. “People want to watch basketball, they can watch basketball. If people want to watch football, they can watch football.

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