It’s hard to believe there was ever a time when the Nuggets almost never played on Christmas Day. Now, they are as much of a lock to play on Christmas as any team in the league. Maybe even moreso.
They’ll make their fifth straight appearance in a Christmas Day game this season, facing Golden State. But beyond being a fixture on the NBA’s most-watched day of regular season games, the league is saying one thing about this team, loud and clear.
The Nuggets continue to be box office.
It has been an anxious offseason for the Nuggets but they remain, by all measure, one of the league’s marquee teams and championship contenders. They are tied for the sixth-best odds to win the NBA title. They are already favorites in the Christmas Day game.
And they’ll be featured extensively in national television games all season long. A whopping over a quarter of their games (23) are on national TV.
Nikola Jokic was 10th in the NBA’s top-selling jerseys last season, and that shouldn’t change at all this season. The Nuggets were 10th in the NBA in top-selling merchandise.