Tied for the most All-Star game MVP awards all time, the NBA announced they would rename the award after the late, great Kobe Bryant.
Commissioner Adam Silver has officially announced that the NBA All-Star Game MVP Award has been permanently renamed for the four-time All-Star MVP, Kobe Bryant. pic.twitter.com/VhSgpvkqOP
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 16, 2020
The league couldn’t have named the award after a player more deserving than Bryant, who was an 18x All-Star, winning the MVP 4x. At this point it would, I think the only thing left for the league to do is retire the numbers “8” and “24” (won by Bryant) throughout the entire league. It’s not really feasible to rename the other two major trophies: the championship (Larry O’Brien) or the MVP (Maurice Podoloff) trophies.
Tonight we’ll see the second installment of Kobe-related tributes this All-Star weekend, as the game rules were changed to honor the Black Mamba. In tonight’s game, the “Final Target Score” (as they’re calling it) will be determined by taking the leading team’s total cumulative score through three quarters and adding 24 points (Kobe’s number). I said I thought it would make both teams play harder, and I still hold that belief. But with emotions high and the cloud of Kobe’s untimely death present as ever, these players are going to have to dig deep to put on a show Kobe would be proud of. Now that the damn MVP award is named after him, whoever wins it better be deserving of the honor.
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