NBA Hall of Fame head coach Phil Jackson is no fan of games played on Easter Sunday – or any other day of sacred Christian worship.
He posted to his X account for the just the second time since 2018 to call out the league’s decision to hold games on Easter Sunday as well as its decision to host games on Christmas Day, which has become a marquee day for the sport, as the NY Post noted.
“Again the NBA tests faith by playing multiple games on Christmas and Easter…sacred days,” Jackson wrote.
Again the NBA tests faith by playing multiple games on Christmas and Easter…sacred days.
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) April 20, 2025
This is not the first time Jackson has seen fit to criticize the NBA.
As Breitbart News reported, in 2023 he said he has not watched the NBA since the league allowed players to put “wanky” political messaging on their jerseys during the 2020 season.
During an appearance on the podcast Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin, Jackson described the NBA’s decision to turn itself into a BLM platform as “catering” to a certain audience while turning off people who just wanted to watch sports.
FLASHBACK: Scottie Pippen #33 and Phil Jackson of the Chicago Bulls talk during Game Five of the 1991 NBA Finals on June 12, 1991 at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
“They did something that was kind of wanky, they did a bubble down in Orlando and all the teams that could qualify went down there and stayed down there,” he said. “And they had things on their back like, ‘Justice.’ They made a funny thing like, ‘Justice just went to the basket and Equal Opportunity just knocked him down.’ … So my grandkids thought that was pretty funny to play up those names. So I couldn’t watch that.”
Jackson retired from coaching in 2016 after winning 11 championships — five with the Lakers and six with the Chicago Bulls.
