The Throwback Tapes: Cavaliers vs. Magic, Christmas Day 2003
For the sake of this week’s Throwback Tapes column, there are two things that you should know about me:
1. I fucking love Christmas, and just for the sake of clarity, when I say Christmas, I mean the 34-to-40 days that take us from Thanksgiving morning to New Year’s Eve night, a time period in which gifts are wrapped and opened, decorations and lights go up around the home, numerous cups of hot cocoa are consumed, season-appropriate films are watched, and that tangible feeling of unexplainable magic wafts around in your belly. This entire stretch is considered Christmas in the Giuliano household, and this entire stretch is, as the song states, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. It is so wonderful, in fact, that in the past I’ve written about the 12 best Christmas songs ever recorded — I do not stand by this list, by the way — back in 2015, co-wrote about the State of Christmas with my dear friend Dalton Baggett in 2017, and have on numerous occasions made an NBA Christmas List, because if there is one thing in life I love as much as Christmas, it’s the National Basketball Association.
2. I fucking hate the concept of the ‘Christmas in name a random summer month’ marketing ploy that car dealerships, furniture stores, television networks or any major retailers utilize in order to blatantly take money out of people’s pockets. Don’t you fucking dare tell me that it’s ‘Christmas in July’ just so you can make a buck slinging sectional sofas or Subarus at a discount price. Santa Claus would turn over in his grave watching this poppycock if he weren’t immortal.
Fortunately, unless you count my NBA Hoopertheticals — a 60-card deck that’s A) A ton of fun for basketball fans, and B) Available for just $5 right here on NBA Campfire — I’m not selling you anything, so therefore I can reluctantly debase myself and embrace the holiday spirit for one day only as we walk through a classic Christmas Day showdown between LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers and Tracy McGrady’s Orlando Magic.
So, here’s how things are going to play out over the next few thousand words: I’m going to run through every single player who saw the floor in this Christmas Day game from the 2003-04 season. In total, there were 19 players. They’ll be sorted from the fewest minutes (Jason Kapono) to the most minutes (Tracy McGrady), and for each player, I’ll be giving you their stat line, a brief synopsis of their contributions to the game, and then a comparison to something related to the Christmas season. As you’ll soon see, these comparisons are wildly diverse.
But before we get to this exercise, there’s one more thing you should know about me before you get into the meat of this thing:
3. Back in 1998, after Michael Jordan retired following a sixth NBA title with the Chicago Bulls, a six-year-old Sonny was left without a favorite basketball player. It didn’t happen overnight, but in time, an electric small forward who came to the pros right out of high school filled that void.
No, it was not LeBron James.
Tracy McGrady was my first post-MJ favorite NBA player, an interim title he had locked down from 2000 to 2003. While most hoops fans gravitated toward his cousin and former Toronto Raptors teammate Vince Carter, T-Mac became my guy for one specific reason… nobody who has stepped on an NBA court in the 21st century has been cooler than Tracy McGrady was in his prime. I have no stats or analytics to back that up, but if you remember McGrady’s game in that run, you surely don’t need any stats or analytics to be convinced this is the truth. At the peak of his powers, T-Mac was basically Danny Ocean meets Mike Lowrey in a pair of Adidas.
I mention this because 11-year-old Sonny was simply overjoyed in 2003 that on his favorite day of the entire year, his two favorite basketball players were going head-to-head, and amazingly, neither superstar disappointed.
Jason Kapono (CLE) - 1 minute, 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists
In retrospect, it was a big mistake that Cleveland would decide to leave Jason Kapono unprotected in the 2004 expansion draft, because a player with his skillset would come to be the exact sort of guy LeBron James loved to be surrounded by. Kapono twice led the NBA in three-point percentage and would win back-to-back three-point shootouts on All-Star Saturday Night in 2007 and 2008. But as a rookie with the Cavaliers, Kapono didn’t see much of the floor. And in this game, I have to be honest, I missed his one minute and three seconds of playing time entirely.
Christmas Comparison - A six-pack of low-cut Hanes socks that you unwrap and forget about within one minute and three seconds of opening.
Zaza Pachulia (ORL) - 6 minutes, 2 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 caused ankle sprains
Playing with a fresh shiner on his left eye, Pachulia’s only bucket of the game came on a nice spin move in the post with a lefty finish. Bill Walton, on the call with John Saunders, calls Pachulia “a cerebral player,” which is just phenomenal forecasting for the rest of Pachulia’s career, because nobody could step into a shooter’s landing space with as much precision or conviction as Zaza Pachulia. Just ask Kawhi Leonard.
Christmas Comparison - Remember in Home Alone how Kevin McAllister put a bunch of Christmas ornaments by the open window so when a bare-footed Marv attempts to sneak in the house he’d step on them and have shards of broken ornaments puncture his foot? Zaza Pachulia is those ornaments on the floor.
J.R. Bremer (CLE) - 8 minutes, 3 points, 0 rebounds, 1 assist
In a game in which Magic head coach Johnny Davis opted to play a whole bunch of zone against a Cavaliers team severely lacking shooters, at least in theory, J.R. Bremer could’ve been a key component of Cleveland’s offensive attack, and right out of the gate it looked like he might be. Bremer knocked down a three from the right wing almost immediately after checking into the game, leading John Saunders to explain that Bremer — a local kid born and raised in Cleveland — was the all-time leader in three-pointers made at St. Bonaventure University.
Does it matter that this record would be broken within weeks by 5’7” point guard Marques Green, a Bonnie best known for wearing comically baggy basketball shorts?
No, it doesn’t. But does it matter that within minutes of that first make, Bremer would airball his other two three-point field goal attempts? For the sake of the Cavs offense, yes it most certainly does.
Christmas Comparison - A string of Christmas lights, but only one-third of the bulbs work.
Andrew DeClerq (ORL) - 16 minutes, 4 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists
I’ll be honest, I did not expect to come away from this game at all impressed with Andrew DeClerq, but the ninth-year center legitimately swung the momentum of the game in Orlando’s favor during the 3rd quarter. In that frame alone, DeClerq came through with a timely weak side block on an Ira Newble lay-in attempt, hit the deck to save an offensive possession for the Magic, hit a pair of free throws and drew a charge on Carlos Boozer and all of his chest hair. What a pleasant surprise.
Christmas Comparison - You know how on every platter of Christmas cookies there’s one cookie that looks far less appetizing than all of the other cookies, but sometimes you’re forced to try it and it’s actually not that bad. Sometimes it’s even good enough to grab another one. That’s Andrew DeClerq.
Kedrick Brown (CLE) - 19 minutes, 5 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists
The idea of Kedrick Brown was intriguing enough for the Boston Celtics to select him 11th overall in the 2001 Draft out of Okaloosa-Walton Community College, making him the only player ever selected in the Draft Lottery to come right from community college. After watching Brown for 19 minutes and change against the Magic, it’s clear that he never matured beyond that ‘what he could hypothetically be’ stage. Decent size and decent athleticism, but more conceptual than a fully formed, finished product. Could be why after a 34 game stint with the Cavs during the 2003-04 season, Brown’s NBA career lasted only eight more games.
Christmas Comparison - In order to play on the ‘eight games’ of it all, I was going to compare Kedrick Brown to the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah, but that seemed sacrilegious, so instead I’ll compare Brown to a Dreidel, which is an item I know is often associated with Hanukkah but I’m not completely sure why.
Ira Newble (CLE) - 20 minutes, 2 points, 0 rebounds, 1 assist
At one point during Ira Newble’s 20 minutes of action, Bill Walton stated, “Ira Newble brings a lot to this team.” He did not go on to mention what any of those things are. But in this particular game, he brought 2 points, 1 assist and by my count, not much else.
Christmas Comparison - A Poinsettia plant that inconspicuously sits in the corner of your living room and goes unnoticed for multiple weeks before your significant other looks at you sometime in mid-December and says, “Wait, when did we get a Poinsettia?”
Tyronn Lue (ORL) - 25 minutes, 11 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists
It was a steady and heady performance for Ty Lue off of the Magic bench on Christmas Day 2003, but a little disorienting to see him in a those delightful pinstriped Orlando Magic uniforms considering, A) The two teams I most associate with Ty Lue as a player are the Los Angeles Lakers and Washington Wizards, and B) Lue would go on to coach LeBron James and the Cavaliers to the NBA Title in 2016. There were times throughout this game where Lue was guarding LeBron, playing de facto point guard for Cleveland, and picking him up full court.
Christmas Comparison - The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas (CLE) - 26 minutes, 11 points, 2 rebounds, 3 blocks
Even though this admittedly wasn’t a great Big Z game, my love for Zydrunas Ilgauskas is eternal, so you won’t catch me saying a bad word about the man. As far as I’m concerned, he can do no wrong.
Christmas Comparison - A mug of hot cocoa on a chilly winter morning that tastes delicious and feels like a warm hug for your soul.
Kevin Ollie (CLE) - 27 minutes, 4 points, 1 rebound, 4 assists
Bill Walton had an abundance of one-liners during this broadcast that made me giggle to myself all alone in my living room, and arguably my favorite one came after Kevin Ollie bricked a mid-range jumper. Walton, with a perfect mix of disgust and sympathy, simply stated, “Imagine if Kevin Ollie had a nice stroke. He can’t shoot. Very sad.”
Walton’s assessment was even more on the nose than I realized in the moment. There are only nine players in NBA history who played at least 600 career games and scored fewer than 2,500 points. Of those nine players, the only one with a worse field goal percentage than Kevin Ollie was Manute Bol, and for what it’s worth, the 7’7” Bol made 34 more three-pointers in his career than Ollie did.
Christmas Comparison - A pair of cotton gloves that you think are going to keep your hands warm and dry, only all they do is absorb your palm sweat and melted snow and make things far worse than they otherwise would be.
Gordan Giricek (ORL) - 27 minutes, 9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal
Since Gordan Giricek’s contributions to this game were unspectacular, I’ll instead use this space to provide you three fun facts about a player who you would never even consider asking for fun facts about.
Before coming to the NBA, Giricek won a whopping eight-straight titles with Cibona, apparently the 1960s Boston Celtics of the first-tier professional league in Croatia. Through the years, Cibona has had numerous future and former NBA players on their roster, including Drazen Petrovic, Dino Radja, Zoran Planinic, Bojan Bogdanovic, Dario Saric and Ante Zizic.
Giricek scored 29 points in his NBA debut for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2002. Since 1996, this is the second-highest scoring debut game in the NBA, topped only by 76ers wing V.J. Edgecombe in the first game of his career in 2025. With all due respect to Gordan Giricek, I’m glad this is a record he no longer holds.
Giricek had a tendency of rubbing teammates and coaches the wrong way. In 2005, his effort was called into question by Deron Williams after the Utah Jazz were eliminated from the Playoffs by the San Antonio Spurs. Two years later, Giricek had an altercation during a game with Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan, which resulted in Gordo being sent home and eventually traded. And most spectacularly, during his last NBA stop with the Phoenix Suns, Giricek was choked out during a Suns practice by Shaquille O’Neal.
Christmas Comparison - Without fail, for about a decade and a half now, each year I’ll have a glass of eggnog sometime in the month of December, hoping that I like it more than I did the previous year. And each year I come away disappointed. I did this same exact dance for much of the 2000s with Gordan Giricek.
Keith Bogans (ORL) - 29 minutes, 4 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal
I was so impressed by the defensive effort of a rookie Keith Bogans in this game — particularly getting into the body and staying in front of LeBron James — that I was compelled to check his Basketball Reference page to see if he ever sniffed an All-Defense Team, only to find that someone thought Bogans was the best defender in the entire NBA during the 2010-11 season.
That’s right… Keith Bogans received one first-place vote for Defensive Player of the Year for his efforts with the Chicago Bulls during the 2010-11 season, which is an absolutely bogus vote to cast in a season in which Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Serge Ibaka, Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala all participated, not to mention Joakim Noah and Luol Deng from his own team.
Christmas Comparison - A Christmas tree skirt. By no means is this an exciting piece of holiday decor, but it serves its purpose well. So with that said, just imagine you were visiting someone during the month of December and they told you that their favorite Christmas decoration in the whole house was the skirt underneath their Douglas Fir. That would seem nutty, right?
Rod Strickland (ORL) - 29 minutes, 11 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals
If you didn’t already know that Rod Strickland was Kyrie Irving’s godfather, there were two plays in this game that highlight the strand of basketball DNA these two players both possess. In my notes for this game, I described these plays at Kyrie-ish.
Christmas Comparison - The Perry Como version of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” Not as enjoyable — or in Strickland’s case, talented — as the Michael Buble version, but still an absolute delight.
Tony Battie (CLE) - 36 minutes, 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks
Even though John Saunders described a 12-foot baseline jumper that clanged off the rim as “a little deep” for Tony Battie, the Batman played well enough to steal crunch time minutes from my man Big Z, and two months later in another overtime game against the Magic, Battie notched a 12 and 9 in just 18 minutes. These two performances were apparently enough for the Magic to say, ‘We gotta have this guy,’ because Orlando traded Drew Gooden, Steven Hunter and the rights to Anderson Varejao to acquire Battie and a pair of 2nd Round picks, used on two players — Martynas Andriuškevičius and Brad Newley — who played a combined nine minutes in the NBA. Did the Magic front office do anything right in the first five years of the 2000s?
Actually, let’s break that down, going from the summer the Magic lured McGrady to Orlando to the summer they traded him away to Houston:
2000
Traded Chuck Atkins and Ben Wallace to the Detroit Pistons for Grant Hill, somewhat defensible considering Hill’s late-90s ceiling, but still problematic once you remember the ankle injuries that derailed Hill’s career had already popped up by this point.
2001
Selected Steven Hunter with the 15th pick in the NBA Draft, four picks ahead of Zach Randolph.
Traded a pair of 2001 1st Round picks for a 2005 1st Round pick, and in case you were wondering, within seven selections of those two picks the Magic traded, three future All-Stars — Gerald Wallace, Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas — were drafted.
Signed washed Patrick Ewing and washed Horace Grant in free agency.
Traded Bo Outlaw and a 2002 1st Round pick that was eventually used on Amar’e Stoudemire for, get this, Jud Fucking Buechler.
Traded Brendan Haywood for a 2005 1st Round pick — eventually used on Julius Hodge, but by this point, Tracy McGrady was already a Houston Rocket — and Laron Profit, who didn’t play a single game for the Magic.
2002
Came out of the 2002 NBA Draft with Ryan Humphrey, missing out on guys like Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Nenad Krstic and John Salmons. Humphrey played 35 games for Orlando.
Traded Don Reid and a 2006 1st Round pick for a 2004 2nd Round pick that became a player named Sergei Lishouk, who never played a minute in the NBA.
Signed washed Shawn Kemp in free agency.
2003
Traded Mike Miller, who won Rookie of the Year just a year and a half earlier, and a 2003 1st Round pick for Drew Gooden and Gordan Giricek.
Selected Reece Gaines with the 15th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, missing out on other 1st rounders like David West, Boris Diaw, Kendrick Perkins, Leandro Barbosa and Josh Howard.
2004
In three separate deals, the Magic sent out Gordan Giricek, Shammond Williams and Robert Archibald for Deshawn Stevenson, Sean Rooks, Mengke Bateer and Remon Van der Hare. In other words, this a whole lot nothin’.
Correctly chose Dwight Howard 1st overall in the 2004 NBA Draft instead of Emeka Okafor, pairing a future Hall of Fame center with T-Mac… for five days.
Traded Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard, Reece Gaines and Ty Lue for Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato.
As mentioned above, turned Drew Gooden, Steven Hunter and the rights to Anderson Varejao into two inconsequential 2nd round picks and a 28-year-old Tony Battie, whose shooting range apparently did not extend beyond 10 feet.
Christmas Comparison - A chimney. Thick, sturdy, and outdated in modern homes.
Eric Williams (CLE) - 37 minutes, 18 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal
Santa Claus must’ve been very good to Eric Williams on Christmas morning 2003, because from the moment he came into the game off the Cavs bench, Williams was ready to contribute in a big way with a big ol’ smile on his face the entire time.
Look at Eric Williams living his best life out there on the hardwood on Christmas Day. You gotta love it. Holly jolly personified.
Christmas Comparison - A seven-year-old boy who got every single toy he had on his Christmas list, plus a few surprises that he wasn’t expecting.
Juwan Howard (ORL) - 41 minutes, 19 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist
Despite heavy minutes throughout regulation, Juwan Howard’s impact in this game was minimal until we got to overtime, and then inexplicably the 10-year veteran took over. Howard made the first four buckets of overtime for Orlando, putting his entire offensive repertoire on display, finishing around the basket with a nice spinning right-handed jump hook and a baseline floater, and adding two face-up jumpers that looked so damn weird with that exaggerated hitch at the top of it.
All the while, even as he was giving the Cavs the business and putting the finishing touches on this game in front of the jolly home crowd in Orlando, Juwan Howard never once cracked a smile. His fundamental lack of Christmas spirit personally offends me. I’m not sure the man even knows how to smile. Eric Williams should give him some pointers.
Christmas Comparison - Ebenezer Scrooge. You can just imagine Juwan Howard yelling “Bah humbug!” as he ran back up the court following each one of his buckets in overtime.
Drew Gooden (ORL) - 42 minutes, 12 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks
Not only was Drew Gooden rocking the two-tone headband, which was all the rage in 2003, but late in the 1st quarter, Gooden sets a screen for McGrady and in the midst of setting that screen, he gets his wrist band ripped off. With the play still ongoing, Gooden abandons the action to pick up his wrist band and put it back on. Understandably, this perplexed Bill Walton.
“I’ve seen it all!” an exasperated Walton said. “You’re not going to develop that much new sweat in the 30 seconds before you get it back!” Unless Drew Gooden is a sweater on par with Patrick Ewing or Shaquille O’Neal, Walton is right.
Christmas Comparison - A Christmas Sweater.
Carlos Boozer (CLE) - 43 minutes, 18 points, 19 rebounds
Did you forget that Carlos Boozer was once a Cleveland Cavalier? Even if you didn’t, you might’ve forgotten how things ended. Let’s revisit the entire saga:
With the 35th pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Carlos Boozer, a three-year starter from Duke University. In his third and final season at Duke, Boozer averaged 18 points and 9 rebounds per game while shooting a staggering 67 percent from the field. He was a 1st Team All-ACC Selection, 3rd Team All-American, and was named the MVP of the 2002 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament. I mention all of this in order to convey that there was no good reason why Boozer would slip out of the Lottery, let alone the 1st Round entirely, but he did, and in his rookie season, Boozer found modest success, averaging 10 points and 7 rebounds per game, earning 2nd Team All-Rookie honors.
In year two, now with LeBron James in the picture, Boozer blossomed into what he would be for the next decade… a walking double-double. A legitimate banger with a decent outside touch. A man in his 20s with the chest hair of a man in his 50s. Along with Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan, Boozer was the only player in the NBA to average at least 15 points and 11 rebounds per game during the 2003-04 season.
It was a no-brainer that the Cavaliers would want to retain Boozer, who due to being a 2nd Round pick, only had two guaranteed years on his contract. Common sense would indicate that Boozer would want to continue playing alongside LeBron James, the league’s brightest young star whose presence practically guaranteed contention and attention.
After the 2003–04 season concluded, the Cavaliers had the option of allowing Boozer to become a restricted free agent, or keeping him under contract for one more year at just under $700,000. The Cavaliers, owned at that point by blind business man Gordon Gund, claimed to have reached an agreement Boozer on a deal with approximately $39 million over the next six seasons, which he would have signed if they let him out of his current deal. Cleveland played ball, releasing Boozer from his contract, making the 22-year-old forward a restricted free agent.
This is when the Utah Jazz entered the chat and offered Boozer a six-year, $70 million deal. The Cavaliers chose not to match the deal, and with that, Boozer officially signed with the Jazz.
In the aftermath, things got understandably testy between the two sides. Gund stated, “I decided to trust Carlos and show him the respect he asked for. He did not show that trust and respect in return." Boozer fired back, "There was no commitment. I'm not a guy that gives my word and takes it away. I think I've made that clear."
Whether you choose to blame Gordon Gund and the Cavaliers for being naive enough to think that Boozer wouldn’t accept a more lucrative offer, or choose to blame Boozer for balking on the deal after the Cavs showed him enough good-will to let him out of a deal worth under $1 million, that’s your call. As someone who had a rooting interest in the Cleveland Cavaliers, I was and remain bothered and bewildered by the idea that Boozer wouldn’t want to stick around and play alongside LeBron James.
At the very least, this is an interesting, and rarely discussed, NBA what-if.
Christmas Comparison - Jack Frost, because only the coldest man alive could stab a blind man in the back. Sorry Carlos, but the comparison was right there.
LeBron James (CLE) - 47 minutes, 34 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals
Look, LeBron James is going to be covered at-length throughout the Throwback Tapes series here on NBA Campfire — including next week when we dive into The King’s first game as a member of the Miami Heat — so I won’t go too crazy with my observations here. Instead, I’ll leave you with six quick thoughts on this performance, and more specifically, on LeBron James’ first season in the National Basketball Association.
1. This game against the Magic took place just five days before LeBron’s 19th birthday, and even though the book on LeBron James has always been that he looked older than he actually was, LeBron very much looks like an 18-year-old kid in this game when you compare his photo side-by-side with a photo from Christmas Day 2025, when LeBron was nearing his 41st birthday.
2. LeBron started this game on-fire, hitting 4-of-5 shots from three-point range and 7-of-9 from the field in the 1st half, and let me tell ya, when this version of LeBron had his jumper going, it felt like his potential was literally limitless. But the scouting report on a young LeBron states that his jumper will come and go just as quickly as you could say The Chosen One, and the 2nd half was proof of that. LeBron hit just 6-of-19 shots in the 2nd half and overtime, and there were two airballs within those 13 misses.
3. The top-selling jerseys in the NBA through December 2003: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, and Kobe Bryant. In every single season of his NBA career thus far, LeBron has ranked in the top five in jersey sales, and interestingly, 23 years after he arrived in the NBA, LeBron would break the Fanatics record for most jerseys ever sold for a player joining a new team within 48 hours of the acquisition, surpassing Shohei Ohtani's move to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023.
Serious question: since 2004, who do you think has moved more NBA merchandise… the entire Sacramento Kings franchise or LeBron James all by himself?
4. There was a possession near the start of the 4th quarter that I want to highlight, because it’s a type of moment that is among my favorite types of moments that can possibly happen on a basketball court. Cavs have possession with the shot clock running down, and the ball gets swung to LeBron on the left side of the floor with T-Mac guarding him. LeBron hits him with a couple of jab steps but McGrady doesn’t bite, so LeBron takes one hard dribble toward the baseline, tries to get McGrady to bite on a shot fake but again T-Mac plays him perfectly. So LeBron, with nothing left to do, shoots a deep baseline jumper as high into the air as the Tower of Terror takes thrill-seekers at Disney, and both he and McGrady watch it graze the rafters and fall perfectly through the net.
And here’s the moment that I love most, and the moment that even nearly 23 years later I remember loving so much back when I was an 11-year-old kid who adored both of these guys: After the shot goes down, T-Mac jogs back up the floor smiling ear to ear, knowing that he’s met his basketball equal. The rare player, like McGrady, Kobe, Jordan and just a handful of other difficult shot makers in league history, who could make the impossible look possible, and make opposing crowds make the sound that the Magic crowd made after LeBron made this shot.
5. There’s a point in the 1st half, immediately following a sequence where LeBron hits a wing jumper, steals an inbounds pass and hits an elbow jumper in a span of about 6 seconds, and on the way back down the court, a chortling Bill Walton asks John Saunders, “How much longer do you think LeBron’s gonna be in the first game of the day on Christmas?”
To answer Bill Walton’s question, LeBron James would play in the opening game of the Christmas Day slate just one more time in his career, and from 2007 through 2025, his team has been on the Christmas Day schedule every single year.
Christmas Comparison - A fully-decorated Christmas tree. The iconic centerpiece of a cozy living room, where generations gather to open gifts and create memories. The visual that you can’t imagine Christmas without.
Tracy McGrady (ORL) - 50 minutes, 41 points, 8 rebounds, 11 assists, 3 steals
I could choose to use this section to talk about… How this game was essentially an extended highlight reel of Tracy McGrady’s unreasonable athleticism, utterly effortless scoring, and truly underrated passing... But that’s not what I want to do.
Or I could choose to use this section to talk about… How one time Kobe Bryant said this about Tracy McGrady: “The guy that always gave me the most problems, actually, was Tracy McGrady. He had all the skills and all the athleticism, but he was 6’10”, and he was really tough to figure out. He could do everything I could, but he was 6’10”. He had no weaknesses in his game; he could score from anywhere and defend. He’s the hardest player I have ever had to guard.”… But I won’t.
Or I could choose to use this section to talk about… How there was a play in the 1st half where T-Mac attacked the basket, and for a split second it looked like he was about to put Tony Battie on the nastiest fucking poster of all-time, but then he finishes with finger roll that was even nastier than the poster would’ve been… But I’m not going to.
Or I could choose to use this section to talk about… How there was a late 4th quarter possession where T-Mac was iso’d at the top of the key, and playing throughout the arena in that moment was the 50 Cent smash hit In Da Club. There is absolutely nothing more 2003 than this sequence, and there is maybe no other moment where an NBA player was unequivocally the coolest mother fucker alive… But I don’t want to talk about that either.
Instead, I just want to focus on Tracy McGrady’s Christmas comparison …
Christmas Comparison - The defining tragedy of both Tracy McGrady and Frosty the Snowman is impermanence. They both left us wondering, "What if we had just gotten a little more time?" Frosty arrives, dazzles all of the kids around town, and before anyone can fully appreciate him, the weather changes. McGrady was the same kind of basketball phenomenon. Whether it was in Orlando, in Houston, or in flashes elsewhere, he was capable of reaching breathtaking heights only for injuries to melt everything away.
Frosty's enemy wasn't another snowman. It's the sun. McGrady's greatest opponent wasn't Kobe, Duncan, or LeBron. It was his own body. No defender ended his prime. Injuries did.
Frosty the Snowman was made of snow and a little bit of magic. Tracy McGrady was made of impossible talent and a little bit of borrowed time.
Both arrived almost out of nowhere, amazed everyone who saw them, and disappeared before anyone was ready to say goodbye.
And every time we sing his song or watch his highlights, we remember just how magical they really were.
Next Up on Throwback Tapes: ‘The Heat Index’ (August 13th)
