2020 NBA-All Star Game the Best of All-Time?

The 2020 NBA All-Star Game may have set a new precedent for how the game is conducted. Three years ago, the league decided to have the best player from each conference (in this case, LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo) pick their teams - regardless of conference. This was the first step in making the game more competitive.

In honor of Kobe Bryant, the game clock was turned off in the fourth quarter and both teams had to reach 24 (one of Kobe’s numbers) more points than the team who was leading coming into the fourth.

So for example, last night Team Giannis was leading with 133 points. Add 24 to that, and the first team to score 157 points won.

Team LeBron was trailing by nearly 10 points but with the help of Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis and James Harden they fought back to win. ALL of Twitter was raving about how much they enjoyed the competitive nature of the fourth quarter. Some even said it felt as intense as an NBA Finals game 7.

Kawhi Leonard took home the newly named, Kobe Bryant All-Star Game MVP trophy and was the first player in NBA history to do so. Leonard was overjoyed to win the award for his mentor after dropping 30 points and going 8-14 from three-point range.

The only knock on the game was that the game-winning point was scored on an Anthony Davis free-throw. Once the NBA tweaks this rule to have no free-throws in the fourth or to allow the opposing team one more possession to score, I think everyone will be enthused.

This was an ultra competitive All-Star Weekend. Buddy Hield won the three-point contest on his last shot. The dunk contest had the basketball world divided between Aaron Gordon, who many feel was cheated out of winning a second dunk contest championship, and Derrick Jones Jr., who won by just a few points.

I bet Kobe and Gianna were smiling down on us all weekend long watching the best players in the world compete at the highest level.