Kings

NBA on Christmas Day has been a successful annual tradition since 1947, but in the Australian sports landscape, the sentiment was nonexistent.

And I think the NBL has to continue to try to do things like that." "If you look at the NBA, they reward the best teams in the competition and the drawcords of the league. "As soon as you've got NRL and AFL people saying it's a horrible idea for the NBL, then I think you're starting to get somewhere. It was a sacrifice for us obviously, but it's something we've done multiple times as United: to try different things and try to see the league grow. If an Australian had a desire to watch sport as Christmas Day came to a close, there was only one place to turn. If you're one of the best teams in the league, and we say this is something we wanna do, then the best team should have an opportunity to showcase themselves." With the loss, Dean Vickerman's team dropped to 9-12 on the season but, while Sunday's result put yet another dent in their dwindling playoff hopes, there was still a level of appreciation for the occasion. You'd much rather play and get the whole day, or if it's a game day, you get the whole afternoon. A slate of high-profile games on Christmas Day is commonplace in the NBA; it began in 1947 and has been a successful annual tradition ever since. The Kings' goal internally was an attendance of 10,000 but they were still extremely encouraged by the 7012-strong crowd at Qudos Bank Arena, who were treated with what was, for the most part, a quality game of basketball. "I do some work with the Kings," Smith said to them; an understatement, if ever there was one. Despite the lack of flow that can come with diminished spacing, United managed to stay within striking distance, trailing just 46-40 at the half, and even tying the game at 52 apiece midway through the third quarter.