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The Golden State Warriors will head to Phoenix to take on the Suns in a potential Western Conference Finals preview on Christmas Day. It is one of the most highly-anticipated games of the season and the centerpiece of the NBA’s loaded slate on its biggest regular season day of the year.
While it is a big deal to get one of the league’s Christmas games, there is a pretty obvious downside: you have to work on Christmas. Not only that, but if you’re the road team, you don’t get to spend Christmas at home. If you’re lucky, you’ll get home late at night after a win and spend a little bit of time with your loved ones.
Following the team’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night, Draymond Green expressed some frustrations about this year’s arrangement for the Warriors. Basically, the team was on the road last year for Christmas, and Green isn’t a fan of having to do it for the second year in a row.
“I have a 7-year-old, a 5-year-old and a 1-year-old,” Green said, per ESPN. “I want to spend some time at home with my kids, too. We’re not playing against a defending champion. If we’re playing against a defending champion, you understand, but we’re not. And it’s a bit frustrating to have to go on the road a second year in a row. So now I miss my daughter’s first Christmas, and I’ll miss her second one. It’s kind of f*cked up. But it’s the reality. That’s what we’re faced with.
“You have to go do your job, but we’re human beings, too,” he continued. “So like I said, I missed her first one and I’ll miss her second one. I can’t explain that to her. So it sucks. We’re not robots, we’re not machines. We’re actual human beings with actual feelings, with actual families.”
It’s a tough situation for any player, but like Green said, it’s especially tough when players aren’t able to be with their families for several years in a row. The NBA is usually pretty good at responding to these sorts of things, so we have a hunch we won’t see Golden State playing anywhere other than Chase Center if they play a game on Christmas next year.
