CHICAGO — NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Saturday that the league’s All-Star Game MVP award will be renamed in honor of late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in January.
Silver announced that the award will now be called the Kobe Bryant MVP Award.
Adam Silver unveils newly named Kobe Bryant MVP Award for #NBAAllstar 🙏
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 16, 2020
(via @SNYtv)pic.twitter.com/OFxboiD0GB
"I'm sure there will be other honors as well and as I mentioned there are other things that we will be discussing with our board," Silver said. "The NBA will board will re-meet in April to honor David [Stern], but this one seemed so appropriate here at All-Star because no one embodied All-Star more than Kobe Bryant."
On Jan. 26, Bryant, the 41-year-old former NBA star, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were aboard a helicopter when it crashed in Calabasas around 10 a.m. PST. Also on board was Orange Coast College head baseball coach John Altobelli. His wife Keri and his daughter Alyssa were among the nine people killed in the Calabasas, California crash.
NBA All-Star Weekend 2020 is currently underway in Chicago. The All-Star Game will tip-off at 8 p.m. Sunday featuring team captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo. The MVP of the game will be the first recipient of the newly renamed award.
Cleveland is set to host All-Star Weekend in 2022.
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