Alien takes Manhattan! The 5 most interesting players to watch on NBA Christmas Day

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Reasonable people can disagree over whether this year’s NBA Christmas Day showcase features all of the “correct” teams. (We hear, see and honor the lived experiences of fans of the Thunder, Bucks, Cavaliers, and Anyone Else Who Might Be Mad About This.) It’s tougher to argue, though, that the annual holiday extravaganza isn’t overflowing with enticing talent.

The slate includes the last three NBA champions, plus last season’s runner-up, with five top-10 offenses and four top-10 defenses. We’ll (hopefully) see as many as four Most Valuable Player winners. The quintuple-header features 10 of last season’s 15 All-NBA selections, more than 30 players who’ve made All-Star teams, and a few more who might be mere weeks away from making their first.

The NBA’s Christmas lineup should offer tons for fans to feast on: rivalries old and new, bona fide legends and new stars to get more familiar with … and, with any luck, a handful of games that stay tight late, treating those who’ve popped in between eggnog and dessert to a reminder of just how awesome highly competitive NBA basketball can be.

As we get set to tear open the presents and cut into the fruitcake, let’s take a look at the five most interesting players — to me! — on the NBA’s 2024 Christmas schedule, with one from each game. We begin with a dude who could probably put the star on top of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree without even needing to get up on his tiptoes:

(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

Victor Wembanyama, Spurs

I find the New York Knicks’ best-in-the-league new-look offense, fueled by the two-man power trip of Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, plenty fascinating in its own right. It’d be too clever by half, though, to suggest that I’m not most interested in seeing what happens when an alien takes Manhattan.

Wembanyama is within striking distance of becoming the sixth player in NBA history to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game on .600 true shooting in his second season. The rest of that list: Four Hall of Famers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Charles Barkley, David Robinson and Shaquille…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/alien-takes-manhattan-the-5-most-interesting-players-to-watch-on-nba-christmas-day-164716256.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-24 16:47:00

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