Live from Southern California, this is the Jim Rome show.

Whether I'm watching NFL games or NBA games.

We know we talked about this a little bit yesterday.

The NFL is coming for Christmas Day.

They're Hans Gruber in this thing, if you want to pretend that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. And the NBA's attempts to hold on to some of that. To keep some of that market share, to not get edged out by the NFL, depends certainly on the quality of the games. Cavs Nix is a great game. Spurs Thunder is an amazing game. We'll give Wemby some flowers later in the show. Rockets. Lakers, good game. T. Wolves playing what? The Nuggets, good games. It ain't the NFL. And even though the NFL games are bad tomorrow, the NFL is the big dog. It's the 800-pound gorilla. And what you need are your superstars to back in the

NBA NBA games on Christmas. And this is where Scrooge LeBron is such an issue. And I have such a

problem with. Because LeBron James may not be the best player in the NBA anymore. He's not. He's

not. Probably not a top 10 player. LeBron may not be everyone's cup of tea, and I've been called a liar publicly by LeBron. And I like the guy, even though he can be wildly unlikable. But he is one of the greatest two, three players of all time. He's still a draw. There are a lot of kids out there, my son included, until LeBron called his dad a liar, who love LeBron just because LeBron's LeBron. And so the other day, when LeBron was asked a softball question about Christmas Day games, when all he has to say is, man, I love the NBA, and we got a great product, and we've got a huge game, and we're playing the Rockets, and Katie's out there, and what Katie's out there and what what a product, what a game, what a sport we're going to deliver

for fans.

Instead, Scrooge LeBron did this thing he always does and he does a little passive aggressive,

subtle, make-it-about-him moment.

Why is Christmas basketball still so important to you?

I thought it's year. Still important to me? Yeah. Why does it matter? Yeah. Oh, yeah, okay. That's a better question. I'd much rather be at home with my family. But I mean, it's the game. It's the game I love. It's a game I watched when I was a kid on Christmas Day. Watching a lot of the greatest play the game on Christmas. Christmas has always been an honor to play it.

Obviously, I'm being completely honest.

I would like to be home on the couch with my family all throughout the day. But my number is called. Our number is called, so we have to go out and perform and look forward to that. Look, I know he got the requisite. I love the game. It's an honor. He's not talking like it's an honor. He's talking like he's put out.

And the problem becomes most sports fans would rather watch the NFL than the NBA. I mean,

that's a, that is a hard and fast rule. In fact, a lot of the metrics this year suggest that baseball,

and I'm putting college football in a separate category, but it goes NFL, it goes college football,

football, football, football.

Baseball in a lot of ways past the NBA this year and sort of how these leagues measure their relevance, eyeballs, dollars spent, time on social media apps like X.

The NBA is in a fight to stay relevant.

The NFL is coming for their biggest day of the year, their showcase day.

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