Now that Christmas Day is here and all of your shopping and holiday partying is done, you have nothing left do but sit back and wait for the real gift of today – NBA games.
As you’re watching the clock tick down til tipoff, we have some holiday cheer to send your way, compliments of the NBA.
Here are some of our favorite videos of NBA squads singing Christmas carols throughout the years:
1. Memphis Grizzles
Synopsis: Zach Randolph, OJ Mayo, Mike Conley, Sam Young, Rudy Gay, Darrell Arthur and Hasheem Thabeet sing a Memphis Grizzlies version of the “12 Days of Christmas.”
As Christmas song renditions go, this is pretty horrible. “The 12 days of Christmas” is already a long song and making it into a long advertisement makes it quite bad.
Highlight: Hasheem Thabeet hating the whole production as he “sings” with his arms crossed.
Favorite Line: “And a five game holiday pack.” – Zach Randolph. Just seeing Zach smile makes this great.
2. Golden State Warriors
Synopsis: Wearing holiday sweaters and other Christmas-related outfits, Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry, Rodney Carney, Lou Amundson, Reggie Williams, and Ekpe Udoh sing a not-in-rhythm version of “Jingle Bells.”
This Warrior team was pretty young and their youthful exuberance makes up for their horrible singing voices.
Highlight: Monta Ellis getting into the holiday spirit.
Favorite Line: “I really gotta sing?” – Reggie Williams
3.Los Angeles Lakers
Synopsis: Two of the Lakers cheerleaders get in on the act as they join Pau Gasol, Theo Ratliff, Matt Barnes, Metta World Peace, Devin Ebanks and Derek Fisher in singing “Jingle Bells.”
Kobe either was too cool to sing or was so bad that the Lakers cut it out but he does wish fans happy holidays. The outtakes at the end of the clip are great.
Highlight: Metta World Peace’s haircut.
4. Chicago Bulls
Synopsis: Jokaim Noah, Ronnie Brewer, Taj Gibson, Carlos Boozer, Derrick Rose, Kyle Korver, Keith Bogans, Luol Deng, James Johnson, Kurt Thomas, and Scottie Pippin put on Bulls Santa hats and sing the Chicago Bulls’ version of the “12 days of Christmas.”
The great thing about this version of “12 Days” is that Benny the Bull knows that the song drags on forever so he steps in and with a little bit of Christmas magic skips the song to the end. But the main reason this video is great is because Kurt Thomas is in it.
Highlight: Joakim Noah smile after singing is priceless.
Favorite Line: “5 golden rings” – Derrick Rose, perhaps foreshadowing the amount of championship rings he hopes to win.
5. New Orleans Hornets
The Hornets really get into the holiday spirit as they have gotten their players to sing on multiple occasions.
The best of the haul is their rendition of “Jingle Bells.”
Synopsis: This song has three things that make it amazing:
1. Ryan Bowen sings the whole song by himself.
2. Morris Peterson beat boxes.
3. Tyson Chandler just dances the whole time.
Highlight: My piece of advice: Watch this video. Then watch it again, but this time just focus on Chandler. You can thank me in the comments.
6. Houston Rockets
In recent years the Rockets have been one of the better teams to root for as they have always assembled a group of hard working players. Unfortunately this hard work ethic does not carry over to their singing.
Synopsis: The ’07-’08 Rockets – Chuck Hayes, Dikembe Mutombo, Shane Battier, Rafer Alston, Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, Aaron Brooks, Carl Landy, Mike James, Luis Scola, Bonzi Wells, and everyone’s favorite Rocket Steve Franics sing a joyous version of “Jingle Bell Rock.”
Highlight: Yao Ming “singing” and Carl Landry and Aaron Brooks making no pretense of memorization and reading off a script.
7. Denver Nuggets
How can you not like the Nuggets? For the last several seasons the Nuggets have been made up of so many unique personalities so it’s guaranteed that their rendition of holiday songs will be amazing.
Synopsis: A personal favorite, the Nuggets rap/cover Run D.M.C.’s “Christmas in Hollis”. Al Harrington, Chris Anderson, Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Kenyon Martin, Anthony Carter, Ty Lawson, Sheldon Williams, Nene, Melvin Ely, Renaldo Balkman and J.R. Smith spit hot fire on this track.
Highlight: This is amazing on so many levels. The Nuggets are wearing old school rap accessories, Ty Lawson is the DJ, Keynon Martin and Melvin Ely are wearing pimp hats for some reason, even Rocky the mascot and strength/conditioning coach Steve Hess get in on the act.
Favorite Line: “Its Christmas time for the Nuggets team. Mom’s Baking Cakes And Cooking Greens.” – J.R. Smith
8. Detroit Pistons
As good as the Nuggets are at holiday videos, the Pistons destroy them.
This is an ad for the greatest fake holiday album ever made, “The Pistons Holiday Classics.”
I really wish this album actually existed since it includes tracks like:
“Rodney the Red Nosed Point Guard” – Chucky Atkins
“Hark the Charlie’s Angels Sing” – Charlie Villanueva
“The Twelve Dayes of Christmas” – Austin Daye
“3-Point Bells” – Tayshaun Prince
“Ballin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – Rodney Stuckey
“All I Want for Christmas is My 3pt Shot” – Kwame Brown
“Dunk the Balls” – Jason Maxiell
“Grandma Got Run Over by Rip Hamilton” – Ben Gordon
“Ben Wallace is Coming to Town” – Will Bynum
“Kwame the Snowman” – Rip Hamilton
Highlight: Piston’s PA Announcer Mason is the hype man for the album.
Favorite Line: “Kwame the Snowman was a jolly happy soul”
The Pistons also do a version of “T’was the Night before Christmas” which is quite amusing but it’s not as great as this Rasheed Wallace masterpiece:
Nothing tops Rasheed Wallace, a young Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell and Will Blaylock “singing” “Jingle Bells.” Rasheed steals the show dropping a remix in the middle of the song.
Like Rasheed says, “Hey to everybody out there, big people, little people, everybody from all of us (At Dime) to all of you – Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year’s!”
Follow Ananth on Twitter at @Ananth_Pandian
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