December 17, 2015
Image credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
The biggest day on the regular season NBA calendar is always Christmas Day. The NBA places its biggest teams and best matchups on the holiday and it has become the league's version of the NFL on Thanksgiving. Christmas Day games have gotten even bigger over the past few years, with teams even getting new jerseys exclusively worn for these games.
With the biggest stars, best teams and most anticipated matchups, there's little surprise tickets are among the most demanded at this time of year. There's a big impact on secondary market prices when the best of the best take the court against each other. This year the Golden State Warriors will host the Cleveland Cavaliers in a rematch from last year's NBA Finals and will be the most expensive game of not just Christmas, but of the NBA regular season by a significant margin. There's no undefeated streak on the line for Golden State, but secondary market tickets are still averaging $999.46 with a get-in price of $250. That's approaching NBA Finals levels, as tickets averaged just over $1,300 for Finals games last year at Oracle Arena.
Christmas Day's next most expensive game will be a showdown in Los Angeles between the two teams that share the Staples Center. The Lakers will be the home team and it will be Kobe Bryant's last Christmas Day game, which has certainly lent itself to the $678/70 average price.
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Since 2010, the biggest draws for the NBA on Christmas Day have been the Lakers and LeBron James. Among the five most expensive games on Christmas over the past six seasons, all five involve one of the two. In 2010, the two were combined when the Miami Heat played the Lakers at Staples Center for a game that was only eclipsed by this year's Warriors game in average price.
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