Hawks’ Trae Young laughs off NBA Christmas Day snub, but is Atlanta the holiday’s biggest omission?

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While the NBA’s annual Christmas Day slate is cause for any basketball aficionado to get excited, there’s an All-Star point guard that doesn’t seem too thrilled about the league’s reported holiday offering in 2022.

After The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported the five-game slate for the NBA’s upcoming Christmas Day schedule, Trae Young didn’t waste much time sharing his disapproval. (Seriously, Young’s tweet came less than 10 minutes after Charania’s.)

With the simple usage of six emojis, Young appears to have taken issue with the fact that the Hawks were not included in this year’s Christmas Day schedule, though the emojis could also suggest that Young bought a trash can that was comically bad.

The timing, however, indicates that Young is upset about the omission.

If you need a refresher of the teams that will be involved on Christmas, the reported matchups are as follows:

  • Bucks at Celtics
  • 76ers at Knicks
  • Suns at Nuggets
  • Lakers at Mavericks
  • Grizzlies at Warriors

Of the 10 teams slated to take the floor on Christmas, the Knicks are the lone team that did not qualify for the 2022 NBA Playoffs, but their roster could receive a nice boost between August and December.

MORE: Could New York make a real play for Donovan Mitchell?

More importantly, it’s basically become a tradition to have a Christmas Day game at Madison Square Garden — a tradition that James Harden is excited to take part in.

Perhaps some of Young’s ire is drawn from the fact that the Hawks played at Madison Square Garden on Christmas in 2021, but he missed out due to being placed in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

After missing out in 2021, Young and the new-look Hawks won’t even get the opportunity in 2022 based on the reported schedule.

To be fair, there are a number of unknowns surrounding a Hawks team that, after being eliminated by the Heat in five games in the opening round of the playoffs, added another All-Star guard in Dejounte Murray while trading away the likes of Danilo Gallinari and, in a separate deal, Kevin Huerter.

MORE: Hawks look to contend in East with Dejounte Murray acquisition

With that in mind, excluding the Heat might be the biggest headscratcher as Miami finished with the East’s No. 1 seed last season and was a few bounces away from advancing to the NBA Finals. 

To take things a step further, the Heat are the only team that finished in the top four of their respective conference to not get the nod to play on Christmas in 2022. 

FTX Arena may not have the same lore as Madison Square Garden, but the Heat and Sixers make for a better matchup given the fact that it is a playoff rematch of two contenders, there is no love lost between Jimmy Butler and the Sixers organization and P.J. Tucker left the Heat to join the Sixers during the offseason.

So far, no members of the Heat have taken to Twitter to react to the leaked Christmas schedule. Not yet at least.

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