The NBA announced on Thursday that it will be changing the All-Star game format, which will pay homage to Kobe Bryant.
According to the Associated Press, the first three quarters of the game will be like separate mini-games played for charity with the score resetting at the start of each quarter. The fourth quarter will determine the winner of the All-Star game. This quarter will be untimed with the two teams aiming for a set score. The team that wins the All-Star game will be the first to reach 24 points as a tribute to Kobe Bryant, who wore the no. 24 during the latter half of his career.
Chicago will host this year's All-Star game and all the proceeds from the charity portions of the game will go to local charities. Team LeBron and Team Giannis will each be assigned a charity. At the end of each quarter, the team with the most points will be awarded $100,000 for their respective charities.
After the third quarter, each team will get their respective point totals to begin the fourth quarter. From there, the target score will be 24 additional points to the leading team's total. So for example: If the score is 80 to 100 at the top of the fourth quarter, then the score to win the game will be 124 points. The first team to get 124 points will win the All-Star Game.
The 24-point target is one of the many tributes the NBA has planned for Kobe Bryant during All-Star Weekend. Kobe played in 18 All-Star games during his 20-year career, giving him the second-most All-Star appearances in NBA history behind only Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Bryant also won the All-Star Game MVP four times, joining Bob Pettit as the only players to win the award on four separate occasions.
"We spent a lot of time considering the right target number to use for the fourth quarter," the NBA’s president for league operations, Byron Spruell, said. "Through the events of this week it became clear to us that the only appropriate number for this season’s All-Star game is 24."
