NBA to debut male cheerleaders during Christmas games? What we know

A post on X claimed that NBA would debut male cheerleaders in Christmas day games for the first time ever, sparking reactions online.

Published on: Nov 2, 2025, 02:10:11 IST

By Shuvrajit Das Biswas

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NBA will be debuting male cheerleaders in Christmas day games for the first time ever, a post on X claimed. “BREAKING: The NBA will debut male cheerleaders during its Christmas Day games for the first time ever,” the post said, sparking reactions online. The NBA is yet to address these claims.

Five Christmas day games are scheduled for this year. Image for representational purposes. (Unsplash)

One person responded to the post saying “Woke." Another person shared a photo, saying, “I no longer recognize my club.”

Yet another person added, “Bro, next rally’s gonna be even crazier.” Notably, there was backlash this time when the Minnesota Vikings, the NFL team, announced male cheerleaders as well. However, football teams have had male cheerleaders for years.

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Similarly, there is nothing new about male cheerleaders in the NBA. Here's what we know about the claims made in the post.

Will NFL debut male cheerleaders in Christmas day games?

There are five Christmas day games in 2025. These include Cleveland Cavaliers vs New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs vs Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks vs Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets vs Los Angeles Lakers, and Minnesota Timberwolves vs Denver Nuggets.

The post on X claimed that this would be the first time NBA would introduce male cheerleaders. However, the truth is many NBA teams have had male cheerleaders for quite some time. In 2019, TIME had reported that basketball teams were slowly eliminating all-female dance squads. Since then, there have been reports of male cheerleaders in NBA teams. In 2022, Arizona Central reported that Phoenix Suns dancers were coed for the first time.

Thus, NBA teams have already had male dancers before. As for whether they've performed on Christmas days before, Golden State Warriors took on Los Angeles Lakers during the 2024 Christmas day game, and the Blue Crew was the entertainer. As per the Warriors' site, the Blue Crew is a group of dynamic hip-hop dancers who bring the energy on game day'. A video from the performance is there on YouTube as well, where the male performer can be seen.

This time too, the Warriors have a Christmas day game against the Dallas Mavericks, so both teams can be expected to bring out their male cheerleaders. The Warriors have their Blue Crew while the Mavs have their Mavs ManiAACs.

Thus, the claim in the X post is false. There is no male cheerleader debut for NBA Christmas day games. Some people pointed out that male cheerleaders in the basketball league is commonplace. “They already have em,” a person wrote on X.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shuvrajit Das Biswas
Shuvrajit has over seven years of experience covering US, India, and world news. An English Literature postgraduate from Jadavpur University, Shuvrajit started off covering entertainment, gaming and all things pop culture. There were brief periods away from the media industry, with short stints in content marketing, ed-tech and academic editing. However, the newsroom beckoned and over the last few jobs, Shuvrajit has exceedingly focused on team functioning as well, including tracking news and assigning tasks, working on everyday breaking news, framing detailed coverage plans, and creating immersive and data-driven stories. In his time as a digital journalist, he has covered a Lok Sabha election, multiple state elections, Union Budgets and award ceremonies. He has also helped in planning content for company event panels in the past. For work, Shuvrajit enjoys dabbling with data visualization, editing tools, and AI chatbots and attempts to incorporate AI workflows in everyday tasks. He is deeply interested in geopolitics, sports, films and music. Prompting is a new fascination for Shuvrajit now. Apart from that, he can be found doom-scrolling, sharing memes, or cheering on his favorite football team.Read More

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