The Detroit Pistons have a rich history of playing on Christmas Day, as they have done it 32 times, 3rd most in the NBA.
But that tradition has long passed and a new one has taken its place, which is the Pistons spending their Christmas doing something other than playing televised basketball.
The Christmas Day slate of NBA games was announced yesterday, and not surprisingly, the Detroit Pistons were not on it:
NBA’s Christmas Day games for the 2023-24 season, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium:
Bucks @ Knicks
76ers @ Heat
Celtics @ Lakers
Mavericks @ Suns
Warriors @ Nuggets— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 11, 2023
The NBA tends to ignore the up and coming teams (if the Pistons are one) in favor of well-known faces, so it wasn’t surprising to see Giannis and the Bucks, Embiid and the 76ers, Jimmy Butler and the Heat, LeBron and the Lakers, Jokic and the Nuggets and Stephen Curry with the Warriors, as some or all of these teams have played Christmas Day games over the last several years.