By Gio Gennero | Sports Writer

Growing up, there was almost nothing better than the NBA on Christmas day. The matchups are always good and the uniforms are always at the very least different. However, since high school, I’ve slowly swapped sides to Thanksgiving football being more enjoyable than Christmas basketball.

It used to be a lot easier to prefer basketball because when my favorite team, the San Antonio Spurs, was good every year they would consistently get big games with cool jerseys. Since around the time Nike took over as the one who makes NBA uniforms is around the time I stopped caring as much for Christmas games. They no longer make special jerseys for such games and with the Spurs no longer in the typical matchups, I have simply lost interest. Especially when you realize no matter how bad the Lakers and Knicks are, they’re going to get a game on that slate because they play in Los Angeles and New York.

Fortunately for me, the Dallas Cowboys play every single year on Thanksgiving because they are the Lakers/Knicks of the NFL, a team so popular that they will always get big games. Coming from a family of die hard Cowboys fans, this is always fun for me. At this point, nothing beats sitting down on my Grandma’s couch with my third plate of Thanksgiving food while the Cowboys are giving us reasons to scream at the TV.

Another big plus, Thanksgiving always has better weather than Christmas. In my family, all the cousins and uncles will go outside to throw the football in the street and things always get super competitive. That just hits different on Thanksgiving, it’s more of a football feeling and the weather makes it perfect to run around without boiling in the Texas sun. Normally by Christmas the football feeling isn’t nearly as strong and it’s too cold to go play basketball at the park. Not to mention there are now NFL games on Christmas too, so the NBA might not even own Christmas day anymore especially without their iconic Christmas day jerseys.