NBA All Star Game Recap
Image courtesy of Business Insider
By JEHAN BOER ‘21
This past weekend on February 16, the National Basketball Association held its 69th All-Star game in Chicago, Illinois. This was the 69th All Star Game held by the NBA, and it didn’t disappoint. Taking place only a few weeks after the passing of Kobe Bryant, this year’s all-star game paid homage to the Lakers legend by permanently renaming the game’s award the NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player Award.
The game was opened by Cannon, a legendary Chicago local who rapped about the life of Kobe, with fellow Chicago native Chance the Rapper making an appearance. After an emotional opening performance, the game started. Traditionally, the all-star game has two teams, with a captain from each NBA conference: east and west. The teams are chosen by conference captains, which are determined by voting. In terms of voting, fans get a 50% say, whereas the media and other players in the league each have 25% say. Fans, the media, and players from around the league, have the opportunity to vote for any 10 players they wish, daily, meaning an individual has a lot of opportunity in the vote. The two players from each conference with the most votes are named captains, and get to pick their teams draft-style from the next 8 players with the most votes. This year's captains were LeBron James, from the Western Conference, and Giannis Antentekoumpo from the Eastern Conference. LeBron loaded his squad with Anthony Davis, his Los Angeles Lakers teammate, along with Kawhi Leonard, Luka Doncic, and James Harden, while Giannis picked Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam, both natives of Cameroon (Embiid “wanted to be with his African Brothers”), as well as Trae Young and Kemba Walker.
Although it had 68 similar games before it, the 2020 all star game was unique, as it included a revamped format that managed to restore competitiveness to the game and pay homage to the Black Mamba. Rather than score more points than the other team at the end of four 12 minute quarters, the winning team needed to reach a target score. Each of the first three 12 minute quarters were played as mini-games, with the winning team’s charity gaining $100,000 for every quarter win, and the scores resetting to 0-0 at the start of each quarter. Then, during the fourth quarter, the target score was set by summing the scores of the first three quarters and, in another nod to Kobe, adding 24 points to the leading team’s 3 quarter sum.
The first three quarters of the game went like most any all star game, with many uncontested dunks and an evident lack of effort. Lebron’s team won the first quarter, with Giannis’ team coming back and winning the second, while they shared the spoils with a tie in the third. Team Giannis went into the final quarter with a lead and 133 points, therefore making the target score 157.
The fourth quarter crackled with all the intensity of a Finals game, with foul calls being challenged and every point being contested. After coming into the game down 9, Team Lebron came out on with Anthony Davis, another Chicago local’s, icing the game on the free throw line, a fitting ending to a passionately played game. Kawhi Leonard, a mentee of Kobe’s, dropped a game-high 30 points and walked away with the first ever Kobe Bryant All-Star MVP trophy.
The deadline-like inevitability of the target score system meant that the players left it all on the floor in the fourth quarter, in a spectacle that fans are calling the most competitive all-star game in recent memory. It is fair to say that the 2020 NBA All Star game was a success.