Tobias Harris, Sixers discuss honor of playing on Christmas vs. Knicks

PHILADELPHIA–When a team plays on Christmas Day in the NBA, it’s a special day and honor for that team. It means they are one of the handful of teams the league picked to play on its premier day on the calendar. They’re one of the top teams and it means all eyes will be on them.

The Philadelphia 76ers will have that honor this Christmas when they head to Madison Square Garden to take on the rival New York Knicks. Both teams are playing well with the Sixers riding a 7-game winning streak and New York has won eight of their last 10 games.

After knocking off the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, Tobias Harris and the Sixers discussed playing their first Christmas game since 2019.

Harris on the importance of the game

“Everybody’s watching on Christmas, now. It does mean a lot. It means it’s the NBA, for all of us, everybody in here has dreamed of playing in the NBA so to be able to play on Christmas, two teams that are playing great basketball right now, it’s gonna be great game, and we’re excited for the matchup. I think when we saw the schedule early on and see that we have a Christmas game, that means a lot for our group. Especially, with the way we started the season. The NBA wanted to get us off Christmas, but they stuck with us and here we are.”

James Harden on Christmas games

“I’ve been fortunate to play on Christmas several times. If you’re playing on Christmas, you’re one of those teams. You’re one of those players so I think it’s a handful of games, four or five games on Christmas. People sit back, watch basketball, and be with their families. Hopefully, we can put on a show.”

Joel Embiid is ready for a battle

“It’s The Garden. Christmas in The Garden is always fun. One of my favorite arenas to play in so it’s gonna be fun, but it’s all business. You gotta go in with the same mindset we’re on a seven-game winning streak so we need to keep that going. We’ve been talking about it. We started the season, I mentioned whether it was the first seed and the best defense in the league, we’re right there. We’re only two losses behind Boston and Milwaukee and they had a hot start and we’ve been missing guys all over the place. So, it’s kinda insane we’re only two losses behind them. So we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing defensively and then offensively, just everybody’s got to step up at that point.”

PJ Tucker chimes in on Christmas

“It’s more about my kids for me. For my kids to see me play. When I grew up as a kid, you’d get your presents and you’d watch games. For my kids to be able to be there for me now, they’re older and they get it, it’s everything. So it’s pretty cool.”

Coach Doc Rivers

“It’s an honor. It really is. I try not to take it for—I swear I’ve played in too many of them in some ways and as a coach, you forget how special it is for players. Early on one of our guys, who’s going to play obviously, told me how excited he was about a week ago, and honestly, I had forgotten about it. He was like ‘Man, I’ve never played in a Christmas Day game. I’m so excited’ and when I was hearing him, I was like I was thinking, and then when I thought about it I said ‘Yeah, we should never take these for granted’. It means you’re doing a good job. Your players are doing a good job. We got a good team. People want to see you. It is a sacrifice, obviously, but it’s an honor and so I can’t take it for granted. Neither can our players.”

Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire