Basketball On The Internet.

IT'S BEEN speculated, discussed, debated and suggested for years, so the NBL finally has taken the punt as the first Australian pro sports league to commit to a Christmas Day fixture - Melbourne v Sydney in Sydney - on December 25 in the forthcoming 2022-23 season. 

Tip-off time at Qudos Bank Arena is the perfect 7.30pm. Let's face it - most Christmas Day celebrations start at daybreak (for the kids), and continue on through breakfast/brunch, or lunch and/or the afternoon barbecue.

Come the evening and hark, the herald angels will be singing: "Get your family down to the Kingdome, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la."

Forget the "open roof" game. This fixture has all the promise of being a monumental annual success.

Truth is, while across Australia's many cultures the overwhelming majority love to celebrate Christmas Day, there's also a growing number of people who don't and many more who enjoy and equate it as a special day for the family.

Its religious significance has long been diluted to the point where the prospect of a night at the basketball is likely to be fervently embraced.

And while I'm no fan of jumping on NBA ideas just for the sake of it, the fact is the world's No.1 league has been playing NBA games on December 25 since 1947, a year after the competition's inception.

And Americans are waaay more religious than Aussies.

Yet as Kings chairman and co-owner Paul Smith put it: “It’s the last scheduling frontier in sport in Australia. We are a changing society. Christmas isn’t a holy event for all of us, and it can be a lonely day for a lot of people.

“So to be able to come out to a world-class venue for a world-class game of hoops, or just watching the Sydney Kings at home on television, it’s a game-changer.”

The age-old classic Sydney-Melbourne rivalry also figures into the mix. So sorry for the naysayers but this one looks a winner, the NBL releasing the full fixture next Monday.

THE Christmas Eve fixturing which will see the Adelaide 36ers hosting South East Melbourne at Adelaide Entertainment Centre from 5.30pm is nothing new (as the archive article below shows).

The Sixers pioneered it in 2017 when they hosted the Cairns Taipans who had Cam Gliddon go off for 27 points and current Adelaide (and Boomers) captain Mitch McCarron delivering 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists for the Taipans.

That fixture, at what was then Titanium Security Arena (having previously been the Clipsal Powerhouse, the Distinctive Homes Dome, Brett Maher Court and now Adelaide 36ers Arena), attracted a strong crowd just shy of a sell-out.

But that was Christmas Eve - the annual day husbands, fathers and significant male others go rushing about the city and 'burbs trying to find last-minute gift ideas so they can pretend to look smug and relaxed on the big day.

The fact Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday and Christmas Day on a Sunday this year should positively influence crowd numbers at both fixtures.

{Although at the Kingdome, finding "three wise men" with whistles may still prove a challenge.}