The 2020 NBA All-Star Game kicked off Sunday night in Chicago with Magic Johnson remembering former commissioner David Stern and former star player Kobe Bryant, who both recently lost their lives.
Johnson said Stern “saved my life, and the lives of millions of people” when Stern allowed him to play the 1992 All-Star Game in Orlando after Johnson announced he was HIV positive.
After Johnson gave his moving tribute to Stern and then Bryant, Chicago native Jennifer Hudson entered the stage at the United Center. Hudson, who is an Oscar-winning singer and actress, sang a stirring rendition of “For All We Know (We May Meet Again)” while images of Kobe Bryant were shown in the background.
Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, along with seven other people, were killed in a helicopter crash on January 26 outside of Los Angeles.
Bryant was an 18-time all-star, a five-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist. He is fourth on the NBA’s career scoring list, falling from third to fourth on the night before he perished.
On Saturday night, NBA commissioner Adam Silver officially made the announcement that the all-star MVP award would be named after Kobe Bryant, who won the award four times.
“We will never see another basketball player quite like Kobe,” said Johnson, who asked everyone in attendance to hold someone’s hand. He then held an eight-second moment of silence, as one of Kobe’s retired numbers was 8. The other was 24. Johnson continued, “He was passionate about being a great father, husband, filmmaker.”
Players from Team LeBron James wore No. 2 on all of their jerseys, which is the number Gianna wore in her youth basketball league. Team Giannis wore No. 24 in honor of Kobe.
But before the game, and before the U.S. national anthem by Chaka Khan, Hudson took the stage and gave a moving performance had Twitter getting emotional as well.
Common got on stage after Hudson and gave a tribute to players who originated from Chicago, and then to players like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, who came to the city and guided the hometown Bulls to six NBA titles in the 1990s.
Common then introduced each player in the all-star game, equipped with a rhyme to coincide their introductions.
As for the game’s format, the teams are scheduled to play three separate 12-minute games, with the winner of each of those quarters (games) getting $100,000 for a win, with that money going to a local Chicago charity. The total scores are added up to start the fourth quarter, and the teams will play to a set score (the higher score plus 24, in honor of Kobe).
