LeBron James is getting real by playing in an NBA record 20th Christmas game

The Los Angeles Lakers will continue with an annual NBA tradition playing on Christmas. For the 2025 holiday. LeBron James and the Lakers are set up as a host Kevin DurantAlperen Sengun, i Houston Rockets inside the Crypto dot com Arena.

Christmas 2025 will mark the 20th Christmas game for LeBron James, adding to his NBA record set last season when he played his 19th game on Dec. 25 against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

After the Lakers’ loss to the Clippers on Saturday night, James was asked if he would play on Christmas Day for an NBA-record 20th time.

“Why is Christmas basketball still so important to you after all these years?” James asked.

“Still important to me?” James retorted.

“Why does that matter?” the journalist asked then.

“Yeah, well, that’s a better question,” James replied with a laugh.

“I’d rather be at home with my family. But I mean, it’s a game, it’s a game I love. It’s a game I watched when I was a kid on Christmas, I watched a lot of the best playing the game on Christmas. It’s always been an honor to play it.

“Obviously, I’ll be completely honest, I’d love to be at home on the couch with my family all day. But our number is called, so we have to go out and perform and I’m looking forward to it.”

LeBron James on playing his NBA-record 20th Christmas game this week:

“I’d rather be at home with my family. But I mean, it’s a game, it’s a game I love. It’s a game I used to watch when I was a kid at Christmas, watching a lot of the best play the game at… pic.twitter.com/lo85glVvPk

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) December 22, 2025

LeBron James leads the NBA in Christmas scoring with 507 career points as of Dec. 25, 112 ahead of second-place Kobe Bryant, who has played 16 Christmas games in his NBA career.

James also ranks fifth all-time in rebounds, second all-time in assists, second in steals and seventh in blocks on Christmas Day.

The NBA Christmas slate begins with the Cleveland Cavaliers hosting the New York Knicks, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder hosting the San Antonio Spurs.

The Dallas Mavericks host the Golden State Warriors in the third game on the slate, and then the Los Angeles Lakers host the Houston Rockets. The night ends with the Denver Nuggets hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Since returning from a bout with sciatica, LeBron James has averaged 20.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 7.1 assists in 11 games while shooting 48 percent from the field and 28.3 percent from three.