The nice thing about being the team everyone’s chasing is that the desperation you once had is no longer there, while everyone else scrambles to match you.
As the defending champions, you typically get all the works. You’re the first team to tip off the following season, at home, while you raise a banner in front of the NBA world on national television. You get featured on Christmas Day. You’ll be tired of how many times you have to watch them on ESPN, ABC, or NBC.
Usually, it’s pretty cut and dry
who gets the two marquee matchups. Old playoff rivals, regional adversaries, the works. But with how chaotic the Eastern Conference is this offseason, there are a half dozen plausible opponents for these marquee events.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that he was waiting on LeBron James’ Decision Part IV to announce the schedule, so as we wait to find out the path for the Knicks’ title defense, let’s think about who makes the most sense as marquee opponents on Opening Night and Christmas.
Here are your candidates:
Atlanta Hawks
Allure: Toughest playoff opponent, ran back same team with upgrades
Cons: Falling behind in the pecking order
This isn’t happening, but in a world where there were fewer interesting narratives, this would be considered. Maybe they’ll host the Knicks on MLK Day.
Boston Celtics
Allure: 18-time champions, division rivals, playoff history
Cons: Not the flavor of the month, steep competition
The Knicks and Celtics are two of the oldest and biggest brands in basketball. They’re also two of the last three NBA champions and will be seen in primetime a lot this season.
The allure of the Celtics, the 2025 second-round series that began the demolition of a dynasty-bound Celtics team, and the regional implications make this incredibly intriguing. Remember, the new-look Knicks made their debut on Celtics ring night in October 2024.
There’s regional hatred here. The Patriots and Giants. The Yankees and Red Sox. Even if Boston seems weaker after the bizarre Jaylen Brown trade, Joe Mazzulla and his boys will make this a war.
So why not? Well, competition is fierce, and the Celtics aren’t the talk of the town right now. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if they fell into the play-in, even if Mazzulla’s style of coaching always squeezes as many regular-season wins as possible.
They’re firmly in the inner circle, but they might not be the frontrunner. I think, if anything, it would be Opening Night. Expect the Knicks and Celtics to both host on Christmas.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Allure: ECF rematch, playoff history
Cons: Does anyone really care?
Another quick one that would work in different circumstances, but nobody really cares about right now.
If LeBron went to Cleveland, there’s a good chance we get this in some big slot. Now? The Cavs are running back a team that got absolutely pulverized in the Eastern Conference Finals. Would it surprise anyone if they fell to the play-in? They’re not even close to culturally relevant right now.
Detroit Pistons
Allure: No. 1 seed, 2025 postseason
Cons: Bad timing
The Pistons are legally the reigning Eastern Conference Regular Season Champions.
If that sounds ridiculous, that’s basically what a bunch of college basketball teams do, especially mid-majors who get upset in the conference tournament and don’t get to go dancing. While Detroit did get to go dancing, they were humiliated in how their regular-season success didn’t translate a lick.
If you forced Adam Silver to make a decision on next year’s schedule in April, there’s a good chance the Knicks and Pistons play on some sort of occasion. The Knicks, always culturally relevant, against the best team in the East. There’s also recent bad blood from the 2025 first-round slugfest and how personal the city of Detroit took all of the regular season matchups this year.
Only problem is that the Pistons kinda just feel regular now?
A team that’s mostly the same as a 60-win team should never be treated that way, but they took advantage of a weakened and uneven East. With the depth of the conference looking ridiculously strong, the Pistons feel like old news, which is ridiculous to say with how young their core is.
Indiana Pacers
Allure: Heated playoff history
Cons: Did the gap year cool them off?
It was the biggest lock in the world not too long ago that the Pacers and Knicks would be a primetime staple as soon as Tyrese Haliburton was healthy, but man, some of these other storylines are equally juicy.
It still feels like they’ll find a way to fit Indiana in here. Even if you might be worried about the injury and the gap year cooling off the intensity, the fact remains that the Pacers are the only team to have beaten the Knicks in the playoffs in the last three seasons. There was even a WWE segment surrounding Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins’ SummerSlam bout that included Haliburton “returning” to confront Jalen Brunson with the whole premise of “You never beat me”, which is also a theme in the actual WWE feud they briefly entered.
Knicks fans might not have as much resentment over Indiana because they beat them to the Larry O’Brien Trophy, but these two teams make music together. I’d love to see this on Opening Night.
Miami Heat
Allure: Giannis, historic rivalry
Cons: What’s there outside of it?
When Giannis Antetokounmpo was traded to the Miami Heat, many wondered if his longstanding trade saga, especially with the initial connection to the Knicks, would result in his new team visiting the World’s Most Famous Arena on Ring Night.
Now that more time has passed, that just doesn’t feel right. Sure, there’s bad blood between these teams from a decades-long rivalry and a semi-recent playoff series, but there’s not enough here over some of the better candidates. These matchups will be box office, but not enough.
Philadelphia 76ers
Allure: LeBron, regional rivalry, playoff history
Cons: Is Player vs. Team enough of a reason?
Before LeBron made a relatively surprising decision to head to the City of Brotherly Love, the Sixers wouldn’t have even been considered. After all, even with the two teams being regional rivals with recent playoff history, the Knicks eviscerated them so much in the playoffs last year that many forgot the series even happened.
The King changes things.
He’s the one who held all this up, so expect the NBA to shoehorn him into some very big moments. Despite having a player option for 2027-28, I don’t think we can rule out this being his final year, so Adam Silver will need to make decisions based on maximizing a potential retirement tour.
He has two guaranteed trips to the Mecca this year. I think there’s a pretty good chance one of them is either Ring Night or Christmas. The last time LeBron at Madison Square Garden wasn’t on national television was January 2020, so this is guaranteed to be something good.
San Antonio Spurs
Allure: Finals rematch, burgeoning inter-conference rivalry
Cons: Inter-conference
I truthfully believe that Opening Night every year should have a Finals rematch. That’s how you build up a start to an NBA season. Especially after such a contentious 2026 edition, imagine making the Spurs watch a banner being raised in front of them. That’s textbook bulletin board material.
These two teams also just don’t seem to like each other. That was a very ferocious series with the Victor Wembanyama narrative, and these teams have produced some absolute classics in recent years. Brunson’s 61-point gem losing to Wemby’s 40/20. The 2025 NBA Cup Final. Christmas 2024. The New Year’s Eve Spurs comeback. These two teams create magic together and should get an opportunity to do so.
What Does History Say?
Here’s how the last 10 champions have spent Ring Night and Christmas:
Ring Night:
- 2025 Thunder: Hosted team legend and snake Kevin Durant in his Rockets debut
- 2024 Celtics: Hosted new-look division rival Knicks, who emerged as their top competitor in the offseason
- 2023 Nuggets: Hosted LeBron and the Lakers, 2023 WCF rematch
- 2022 Warriors: Hosted LeBron and the Lakers
- 2021 Bucks: Hosted KD/Kyrie Nets, 2021 ECSF rematch
- 2020 Lakers: Hosted Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers
- 2019 Raptors: Hosted the Pelicans in Zion Williamson’s planned NBA debut (he was injured)
- 2018 Warriors: Hosted Russell Westbrook and OKC
- 2017 Warriors: Hosted James Harden and the Rockets, multi-series rematch
- 2016 Cavaliers: Hosted Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks
Christmas:
- 2025 Thunder: Hosted Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs
- 2024 Celtics: Hosted division rival Sixers after adding Paul George
- 2023 Nuggets: Hosted Steph Curry and the Warriors
- 2022 Warriors: Hosted the Grizzlies, 2022 WCSF rematch
- 2021 Bucks: Hosted Jayson Tatum and the Celtics
- 2020 Lakers: Hosted Luka Doncic and the Mavericks*
- 2019 Raptors: Hosted division rival Celtics
- 2018 Warriors: Hosted LeBron and the Lakers in his first season in the West
- 2017 Warriors: Hosted LeBron and the Cavs, 2017 NBA Finals rematch
- 2016 Cavaliers: Hosted Steph and the Warriors, 2016 NBA Finals rematch
(2020 asterisk, the season began on December 22, so the Christmas matchups were less special)
With very limited exceptions (what the hell was going on with the Raptors?), these matchups are intra-division, against a superstar player in the conference, or a playoff rematch. The league has not done an inter-conference Ring Night since Raptors/Pelicans in 2019 and has not done an inter-conference Christmas game (or Finals rematch) since Cavs/Warriors.
Final Predictions
Ring Night: Pacers (Runner-Up: Sixers)
Christmas: Sixers (Runner-Up: Spurs)
Both of these have narratives out the wazoo.
The Pacers beat the Knicks in consecutive seasons. Haliburton tore his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Their chance at a Larry O’Brien Trophy vanished before their eyes.
As they retooled and took a gap year that ultimately proved extremely useless, the Knicks took advantage of their absence to run roughshod on the Eastern Conference en route to a championship. There’s absolutely a feeling of resentment in that locker room. They didn’t beat us and still surpassed us.
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For Christmas, this could be LeBron’s final Christmas game. He holds the NBA record with 20 of them played, and on the league’s main showcase day, they’ll want him in the biggest matchup.
At noon. In the World’s Most Famous Arena.
They love Knicks/Sixers on Christmas. It’s the most common matchup by far. It’s been done twice in the last decade and 13 times ever. It’s easy money, but I wouldn’t oppose seeing Wemby and the Spurs again
