With five games scheduled for the 16th year in a row, Christmas Day is one of the NBA’s marquee events of the year. The league’s best teams and biggest stars play each year for the holiday, including matchups with historic rivalries such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics and highly anticipated rematches from previous playoff series.
Where there are superstars there are also signature sneakers, which makes Christmas Day a marquee event for the footwear giants as well. This year’s lineup of games will include 11 players with their own shoe model: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Jayson Tatum, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and Devin Booker.
A good portion, if not all, of these players will wear special colorways just for the occasion. Even those without a sneaker to call their own will join in the festivities through custom sneakers or player-exclusive colorways granted by the brands they’re affiliated with. It’s also all but guaranteed that the Nike Kobe 6 Protro “Reverse Grinch” will be on many players’ feet, as the shoe releasing this month is an homage to perhaps the most famous Christmas sneaker of all-time.
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Ahead of the NBA’s 2023 Christmas Day slate, we’ve put together a primer on everything you need to know about the sneaker tradition associated with the holiday. We break down everything you need to know, including when the tradition began, highlights from Christmases past, and what you can expect to see on the court this year.
The History of NBA Christmas Sneakers
The NBA has played at least one game on Christmas since its second year of existence in 1947. The number of games would vary each year until 2008, which is when the league began scheduling five games every Christmas.
As a break from what used to be strict rules applying to on-court footwear, a rule change in 2009 allowed players to deviate from regulations requiring their sneakers to be predominantly white or black for Christmas Day only, thus beginning the tradition and making it the most interesting day for sneakers in the season. The rules would eventually soften to include other holidays and theme nights before being totally removed in 2018, when players were allowed to wear any color sneakers on any given night.
Given that nontraditional colorways have now been commonplace throughout the NBA season for a half-decade now, Christmas Day isn’t quite unique as it used to be. Still, brands including Nike, Jordan Brand, Adidas and Under Armour continue to deck out their star players in special-edition sneakers for the occasion.
Next, we’ll break down the best Christmas sneakers each year from 2009 until now.
Highlights From Christmases Past
2009
- Nike LeBron 7 “Christmas” (left)
- Nike Kobe 5 “Chaos” (right)
2010
- Nike Kobe 6 “Grinch” (left)
- Nike LeBron 8 v2 “Christmas” (middle)
- Nike KD 3 “Christmas” (right)
2011
- Adidas Rose 2 “Windy City” (left)
- Nike Kobe 7 “Christmas” (middle)
- Nike KD 4 “Christmas” (right)
2012
- Nike LeBron 10 “Christmas” (left)
- Nike Kobe 8 “Christmas” (right)
- Air Jordan 20 and Air Jordan 23 Ray Allen Player-Exclusives
2013
- Nick Young’s Custom Air Jordan 11 Low (left)
- Nike LeBron 11 “Christmas” (right)
2014
- Nike Hyperdunk 2013 Klay Thompson Player Edition (left)
- Nike Kyrie 1 “Christmas”
- Adidas Crazy 2 “Bad Dreams”
2015
- Under Armour Curry 2 “Northern Lights” (left)
- Nike Kyrie 2 “Christmas” (right)
2016
- Adidas D Rose 7 “White Christmas” (left)
- Nike LeBron 14 “Christmas” (right)
2017
- Marcus Morris’ Custom Air Jordan 11 (left)
- Kith x Nike LeBron 15 “Rose Pink” (right)
- Draymond Green’s Custom Nike Hyperdunk 2017
2018
- Concepts x Nike Kyrie 5 “Ikhet” (left)
- Nike PG 2.5 “Blue Playstation” (middle)
- Nike KD 11 “Scrooge McDuck” (right)
2019
- Air Jordan 34 “Wrapping Paper” Jayson Tatum Player Edition (left)
- Nike Zoom Freak 1 “Soul Glo”
- Anta GH1 “Ugly Sweater”
2020
- Nike LeBron 18 “X-Mas in LA” (left)
- New Balance Kawhi “Snowman” (middle)
- Curry Flow 8 “Chinese New Year” (right)
2021
- Adidas Trae 1 “Christmas” (left)
- Adidas D.O.N. Issue 3 “Christmas” (right)
2022
- Nike Ja 1 “Christmas”
- New Balance TWO WXY v3 “Gingerbread” (Worn by Jamal Murray)
- Nike LeBron 20 “Stocking Stuffer”
What to Expect in 2023
Mum is largely the word so far for the sneaker giants’ plans for Christmas 2023. The only signature models confirmed to release this month are both from the past, with the Nike Ja 1 “Christmas” worn by Morant last year releasing for the first time and the KD 3 “Christmas” rereleasing for the first time since its debut in 2010.
Official images have leaked, however, for “Christmas” colorways for all three of Nike’s latest Zoom GT sneakers, the GT Cut 2 (left), Gt Hustle 2 (middle) and GT Jump 2 (right). Of course, there’s also the highly anticipated Nike Kobe 6 Protro “Reverse Grinch,” which will release ahead of the holiday and will no doubt be worn in several colorways.
As Christmas draws closer, more information should come out regarding what players including LeBron James, Steph Curry, Devin Booker and more will wear for the holiday games. We’ll update the story with any new developments.
About the Author:
Ian Servantes is a Senior Trending News Editor for Footwear News specializing in sneaker coverage. He’s previously reported on streetwear and sneakers at Input and Highsnobiety after beginning his career on the pop culture beat. He subscribes to the idea that “ball is life” and doesn’t fuss over his kicks getting dirty.
