To promote its upcoming quintet of Christmas Day games, the NBA has re-engineered its most popular television commercial ever, “Jingle Hoops,” with a current-day animated version entitled “Jingle Hoops Regifted."
The original Jingle Hoops ad in 2013 featured Kevin Durant (then with the Thunder), James Harden (then with the Rockets), Derrick Rose (then with the Bulls), Steve Nash (then with the Lakers) and the Warriors’ Steph Curry sequentially making shots into baskets tuned with bells -- to reprise the song “Jingle Bells." The spot ended with LeBron James (then with the Heat) dunking an alley-oop from Nash and saying, “Please tell me the camera was on." The NBA says it remains the league’s most-viewed commercial and most-watched video on its YouTube channel.
The five players shooting jumpers in the remake are Curry (saying, “Think we still got it?"), the Suns’ Durant, the Lakers’ James, the Mavericks’ Luka Dončić and the Celtics’ Tatum. Animated replicas of the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson and the 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey also play roles, joined by a toy figurine of ESPN’s Malika Andrews and a Mike Breen bobblehead (who describes a Tatum dunk with a “Down the chimney!").
This year’s five Christmas Day broadcasts will simulcast across ESPN, ABC, ESPN+ and Disney+, and the noon ET matchup between the Knicks and Spurs will feature the first animated alt-cast called “Dunk the Halls” that will appear on ESPN 2, Disney+ and ESPN+. The other games are the Mavericks-Timberwolves at 2:30pm ET, 76ers-Celtics at 5pm ET, Warriors-Lakers at 8pm ET and Nuggets-Suns at 10:30pm ET.
The original Jingle Hoops ad from 2013, with players shooting actual jump shots, was filmed at multiple locations. Curry, Harden and Nash were in one venue, while the others -- James, Rose and Durant -- filmed their shots in alternate places.