The Denver Nuggets are conspicuously absent from the NBA’s Christmas Day schedule this year, and the irony is not lost on guard Austin Rivers.
The league officially released the schedule for the 2021-22 season on Friday. Rivers commented on the Instagram post of the announcement, calling out the NBA for doing Nuggets teammate Nikola Jokic dirty.
“The mvp doesn’t get a Christmas game,” Rivers wrote. “Yup that makes a lot of sense.”
Jokic, who won the honors for 2020-21, becomes the first reigning MVP since 2008 to be excluded from the Christmas Day slate, per StatMuse. What is interesting is that the Nuggets actually played on Christmas last season, falling to the LA Clippers in the final game of the day.
Ten teams are featured on the 2021 Christmas Day schedule. The Nuggets not being one of them is the latest in the disrespect they feel they are getting.
