Many tributes will be paid to Kobe and Gianna Bryant during the All-Star Game 2020. - Melissa Majchrzak / NBAE / Getty Images / AFP

All the NBA met in Chicago this weekend to pay homage to Kobe Bryant, tragically disappeared three weeks ago, during an All-Star Game entirely turned towards the legend of the Lakers, who will see French Rudy Gobert play his first all-star game.

"This year is different," announced Chicago child Chance the Rapper in a promotional video from cable TNT, which will air the game, the highlight of the weekend Sunday. “The match will have more meaning than it ever had. "

The professional North American basketball league will therefore be able to put in brackets, for a year, questions about the interest of this meeting without issue and its format, which have come up tirelessly for decades. On Sunday, the 24 players selected from the 500 or so that make up the league will be there for "Kobe", who has played this All-Star Game 18 times, the second total behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Bryant numbers in the spotlight

Reactive, the NBA had reshaped the event just hours after the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of the former Los Angeles Lakers player (41) and his daughter, Gianna (13), as well as 'to seven other people.

All players on the team whose captain is LeBron James will wear the same number, number 2, that of Gianna Bryant, who played the same sport as his father. The opposing team, that of last season's best player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, will sport the only number 24, that of Kobe Bryant during the last ten seasons of his career (he initially wore 8).

Continue the legacy. #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/Aasj06JWPW

- Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) February 8, 2020

Donations to charities

To salute the memory of "Black Mamba", nickname of Kobe Bryant, the league did not stop at the jersey numbers and imagined, for the star match, new convoluted rules which will finish giving an air of gravity to usually a purely festive event.

Each of the four quarters will be like a mini-game, with a sum of money to be awarded by the winning team to charities in the Chicago area. In addition to collective tributes, the marks of individual respect should rain this weekend, between declarations, custom shoes, or messages posted on social networks.

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