Over the course of his 14-year NBA career, Draymond Green has played on Christmas Day 11 times.
But when it comes to his habit of spending his holiday playing basketball, the 4-time NBA champion is somewhat of a Grinch.
“To play on a day where everybody’s watching, it’s incredible. All of those things are great. But two things can be true at once: playing on Christmas Day also f*cking sucks,” Green said on the latest episode of The Draymond Green Show. “And the reason it sucks is, number one… it can affect your mood. Number two, we are human beings and just like everyone else, enjoy Christmas Day with their families, that kinda gets messed up for us. They’re in their homes or on vacation with their families, making memories, we don’t get that opportunity. So I hate when people are like, ‘Oh man, it’s an honor to play on Christmas Day. People should shut up.’ Like, no, you should shut up.
“I don’t really care about the perspective, whether it’s the perspective of somebody that played on Christmas Day or someone that has never come close to playing on Christmas Day — or an NBA game for that matter — my stance on it is the same. Playing on Christmas Day is great, it’s fun, you get all the eyeballs. But, you miss family time.
Green continued: “And for all of those that are like, ‘you should be honored’ — like honored to miss your family time? Honored to miss your kids opening gifts? Honored to leave your kid and go to work? Because nobody works on Christmas Day. So we’re going to work, right? So like, everybody who says ‘oh, it’s this great honor,’ I just want to give you a little perspective.”
Draymond Green says playing on Christmas ‘f*cking sucks’ and that it can affect your mood 😳
“Playing on Christmas Day also f*cking sucks. And the reason it sucks is, number one, what I—what I just said, uh, it can affect your mood. Number two, we are human beings and, just like… pic.twitter.com/vVTviQIK2d
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) December 29, 2025
Green isn’t the first NBA player to express dissatisfaction about the league’s holiday slate, as LeBron James offered similar comments ahead of what marked his 20th career Christmas Day game last week. Like Green, the 4-time NBA MVP said that he’d much rather being spending the day with his family, but that playing on Christmas is merely a reality of the job for the league’s highest profile teams and players.
While many observers will undoubtedly respond to Green with the exact reaction he anticipated, it’s also easy to sympathize with human element of his explanation. Although Christmas Day remains one of the league’s brightest spotlights, it’s perfectly understandable why the novelty has worn off for veterans like James and Green.