Christmas Day has always been one of the NBA’s biggest stages, with the league building its five-game slate around stars, storylines and games that can draw a massive television audience. This year’s lineup has all of that, from a Finals rematch between the Spurs and Knicks to a late-night Stephen Curry-Nikola Jokic matchup.

LeBron James’ Philadelphia 76ers will travel to Los Angeles to face Luka Doncic and the Lakers at 5 p.m. ET, giving James his first regular-season return to Crypto.com Arena after leaving Los Angeles for Philadelphia. The matchup also gives the league one of its biggest star-driven games in the middle of the Christmas slate. In July, commissioner Adam Silver said LeBron’s eventual team would affect how the NBA built both opening week and Christmas Day because of the television and storyline value surrounding him.

But former NBA guard Jeff Teague took that connection much further on the Club 520 Podcast, claiming James personally contacted the league because he wanted to spend Christmas at home in Los Angeles.

“You know they did that so LeBron could be at home on Christmas. They was like, ‘LeBron, where you want to play at?’ He called them and said, ‘I want to be home for the holidays.’ Bron said, ‘I want to be home opening gifts with my kids,’” Teague said.

Teague did not identify a source for the claim or explain how he knew the conversation happened.

Brandon “Bishop B. Hen” Hendricks pushed back on the idea that Philadelphia had to be the team facing the Lakers if James simply wanted to spend Christmas in Los Angeles.

“If that was the case, Adam Silver, you could have just said a blank team against the Lakers anyway,” Hendricks said. “They could have let the Heat play the damn Lakers and put Celtics and Sixers.”

Hendricks’ point was simple: if James’ only request was to spend Christmas in Los Angeles, the NBA could have put another team opposite the Lakers and used Philadelphia’s matchup with Boston to reunite former Celtics teammates Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

The NBA’s scheduling process, however, is far more complicated than simply choosing which stars want to play where. Christmas games are built as tentpole events around arena availability, historical Christmas appearances, projected viewership, star power, major storylines and input from television partners. The league creates hundreds of schedule versions before the final slate is set.

That does not mean LeBron’s presence was irrelevant. Silver said in July that “where LeBron plays will affect the schedule” and that his decision would influence “how we set opening week, Christmas Day, etc.” The league was already weighing his eventual destination because of the television interest and storylines surrounding him.

There is still a major gap between what Silver confirmed and what Teague claimed. No independent report from ESPN, The Athletic, NBA.com, major newspapers or other major NBA outlets has corroborated a call between James and Silver or any league official. There is also no evidence that the NBA had a different Christmas slate in place before announcing Philadelphia-Los Angeles.

The Brown-Tatum angle is still significant. Brown was traded from Boston to Philadelphia in July, ending the duo’s long run together that included Boston’s 2024 championship. Tatum remains with the Celtics, setting up their first matchup as opponents since the trade. But there is no credible reporting that the NBA ever planned that reunion for Christmas.

And there is a straightforward reason Philadelphia-Los Angeles made sense for the league. It gives the NBA LeBron’s return to the arena where he spent his Lakers years, a matchup with Doncic, and Philadelphia’s only road game against the Lakers. The league’s Christmas slate also includes a Spurs-Knicks Finals rematch, Oklahoma City-Minnesota and Denver-Golden State, giving the five-game schedule several major star and storyline combinations.

For now, the confirmed part is that LeBron will spend Christmas back in Los Angeles, facing his former team and Doncic on one of the NBA’s biggest stages. Bronny James also remains on the Lakers roster, making the game a potential father-son matchup if both players take the floor. But whether LeBron actually called the league to make that return happen, as Teague claimed, remains unconfirmed.