NBA’s Christmas Schedule Excludes Magic, but Orlando Could Be One of the League’s Best-Kept Secrets

The Orlando Magic won't play on Christmas for a 13th consecutive season as they fight for more national attention. Until they're awarded it, they could be one of the NBA's best-kept secrets.

Apr 20, 2024: Orlando Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley reacts in the second quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers during game one of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs. / David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

In terms of the NBA year-round calendar, the month of August is typically pretty reserved. Outside of an ever-so-often free agent signing or trade deal made, the quietest part of the league’s offseason coincides with the dog days of summer.

Among the notable events that do come in the year’s eighth month, however, is the NBA schedule release. Outside of the delayed season due to COVID-19 in 2020-21, the full 82-game slate has been revealed within August 10-20 every year since 2014.

While the entire schedule remains unknown, the first bits and pieces are starting to be reported. Late Thursday night, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported the NBA’s planned five-game slate for the annual Christmas Day showcase.

For the 13th consecutive season, the Orlando Magic are not a part of the holiday schedule. It’s the fifth-longest drought in the league, with only Detroit (2005), Indiana (2004), Sacramento (2003) and Charlotte (never) to have longer gaps between appearances in the league’s festivities.

NBA Christmas Day games for the 2024-25 season, per sources:

🎄Spurs at Knicks
🎄Timberwolves at Mavericks
🎄76ers at Celtics
🎄Lakers at Warriors
🎄Nuggets at Suns

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 9, 2024

What it does include is many of the NBA’s most recognizable stars and markets. In another sense, the league has an unsurprising desire to showcase its most profitable entities – especially as it now competes with the NFL after once having the entire major professional sports calendar to itself.

Christmas at Madison Square Garden is a traditional staple, and the Knicks are lauded as one of the teams to beat in the Eastern Conference this season. They draw Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs in the day's first game, which illustrates the demand to see the 2023 No. 1 overall pick despite his surrounding cast mustering only 22 wins a season ago.

Anthony Edwards and Luka Doncic square off in a Western Conference Finals rematch in the second slot. A reloaded 76ers team, fresh off adding Paul George this summer, gets a shot at the defending champion Boston Celtics. Stephen Curry and LeBron James go head-to-head once more as two of this generation’s titans. Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and the Suns get Nikola Jokic’s Denver squad as the nightcap.

In April, the NBA released rankings of the top-selling jerseys purchased through the league’s official merchandise store. Of the 15 stars listed, 11 will be in action on Christmas – the only exclusions being Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard of Milwaukee, Ja Morant of Memphis and Lamelo Ball of Charlotte.

Therefore, to be selected to play on Christmas, a team’s formula generally meets one or more of the following criteria:

• Sustained success and/or popularity over multiple years or eras.
• Profitable, even in scenarios where the team’s popularity doesn’t directly equate to success.
• Budding superstar talent or team trajectory that offers the possibility of contention.
• Has a generational, can’t-miss talent that transcends the overall casual fan’s look of a franchise.

Ultimately, it comes down to the league’s discretion on who they place value on. To examine the case Orlando presents, it’s likely an instance of how the Magic are perceived in a casual sense not reflecting where it truly stacks up in the NBA’s competitive landscape.

In a purely basketball sense, there’s real intrigue as to where the Magic will stack up as opposed to their competitors around the league. Just removed from a top-5 finish in the Eastern Conference, the Magic are constructed to be in the fight for a similar standing this upcoming season. Former No. 1 overall pick Paolo Banchero enters his third NBA season, paired with Franz Wagner, who has been one of the stories of the summer for his play during the Olympics with Germany. He’s netted a new flock of fans, including Dwyane Wade, who admitted the additional exposure has helped him become a big fan of Wagner’s due to the lack of national attention the Magic get.

Together, Banchero and Wagner are one of the young forward combinations with bright futures in the coming years, and they have the supporting cast to make real noise.

Dec 29, 2023: Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner and forward Paolo Banchero celebrate their 117-108 win against the New York Knicks at KIA Center. / Mike Watters-USA TODAY Sports

Yet, Orlando has only featured once on national television over the previous two seasons throughout the regular season. Their omission from the five-game national Christmas Day slate follows the same trend.

They’re not the only team that could feel slighted by the lack of national attention. The NBA’s Christmas also won’t include the likes of Eastern Conference finalist Indiana, ascending Western Conference power Oklahoma City or the combination of stardom and past success from Milwaukee.

As for how Orlando can change the national attention it receives, many of the factors are out of its control. History shows the correlation between the league and its advertisers, the variability that factors into NBA market size and overall audience share can weigh decisions heavier than a pure win-loss total does – especially so on the margins. Fair or not, the Magic would likely have to put together multiple seasons of competing caliber to truly disrupt the scene, and even then the leash would be considerably shorter than some of its counterparts around the Association.

The Magic can keep winning, developing drafted talent and making valuable additions throughout the offseason. But it can’t control how many people choose to watch them do so, follow across social media or buy jerseys. The NBA is a business – a good one at that – with a lot of other businesses attached to it. To be considered among the elite class of assets, it often requires a mix of those controllable and uncontrollable aspects to favor a franchise.

Orlando hasn’t been deemed worthy of more frequent national recognition for over a decade, so the coal in the Magic’s stocking perhaps was to be expected.

Until then, they could very well be one of the NBA’s best-kept secrets.

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