Why did NBA get rid of Christmas Day jerseys?

Christmas Day games are an annual tradition in the NBA dating back to 1947 when the New York Knicks defeated the Providence Steamrollers on Dec. 25. The Christmas Day games have remained. Still, the tradition has experienced some changes since its inception.

One of the changes that fans enjoyed was the Christmas Day jerseys. From 2012-2016, teams who were scheduled to play on this festive holiday got to wear unique specialized jerseys. However, this stopped in 2017.

This festive practice stopped after Nike got the contract to supply the NBA's uniforms which was previously held by Adidas. Since Nike took over, all 30 teams began sporting four different jerseys. These are called Icon, Association, Statement and City.

Nike has never explained why they decided to scrap the practice of wearing Christmas Day jerseys.

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LeBron James wanted the NBA to bring back the Christmas Day jerseys

Last year, one of the games that were slated for the NBA's Christmas Day games re-ignited the rivalry between the LA Lakers and the Boston Celtics.

Ahead of the game, the league's X (formerly Twitter) account posted about LeBron James' classic pre-game ritual, the chalk toss.

James went on to re-tweet the post while wishing for the league to bring back the traditional Christmas Day jerseys.

"This was amazing," James said. "I do wish we had Xmas day uniforms across the league still. Wonder why it stopped."

The Celtics ended up defeating the Lakers in that game 126-115. Kristaps Porzingis and Jayson Tatum scored 28 and 25 points respectively to lead Boston to the win. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis led LA with a double-double (40 points and 13 rebounds).

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What are the NBA games scheduled to take place in 2024 Christmas?

The usual five-game slate for this year's Christmas Day games will begin with an interconference matchup between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks. This game is set to take place at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Following that game, fans will be treated to a rematch of last season's Western Conference Finals when the Dallas Mavericks host the Minnesota Timberwolves at 2:30 p.m. ET. Then at 5:00 p.m. ET, the action shifts to the Eastern Conference when the Philadelphia 76ers face the defending champions, Boston Celtics.

This game will be followed by a Pacific Division matchup between Steph Curry's Golden State Warriors and LeBron James' LA Lakers. This game is set to take place at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Finally, the Christmas Day games will conclude with another Western Conference matchup between the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Nuggets at 10:30 p.m. ET.