Kawhi lights out from beyond arc to claim MVP
CHICAGO — The 2020 All-Star Game saw Kawhi Leonard win the first-ever Kobe Bryant MVP award, and saw both teams honor the late Los Angeles Lakers legend in the most fitting fashion possible: by playing hard to the very last second.
Under the new “Elam Ending” rule instituted this season, with the game ending when one team or the other reached a specific final score, the game ended when Chicago native Anthony Davis sank the second of two free throws to lift Team LeBron to a 157-156 victory over Team Giannis here at United Center.
The format change provided all the drama the league could have possibly hoped for, with the final few possessions leaving the crowd hanging on every bounce of the ball, and players on both teams playing the untimed fourth quarter like it was a playoff game.
After James Harden made two free throws to make it 154-152, Pascal Siakam went 1-for-2 from the line to make it 154-153. From there, the two teams — playing without the benefit of any television timeouts during an untimed fourth quarter — went back-and-forth, trying to make a basket.
Leonard, who finished with 30 points and made 8 of 14 3-pointers — one short of the all-time record for the All-Star Game, and LeBron James each missed potential game-winning 3-pointers, while both teams committed turnovers and before James eventually drove down the lane and dunked the ball to move to within one point of closing the game out.
“It means a lot to me,” Leonard said. “Words can’t even explain. Just making this the first Kobe Bryant MVP trophy, I wanna thank Kobe for everything he done for me. All the long talks and workouts. Thank you. This one’s for him.”
After Siakam missed at the other end, Chris Paul — who helped come up with this new format during the offseason — had a chance to close out the game himself, but missed yet another potential game-winning 3-pointer for Team LeBron. That gave Joel Embiid a chance to draw a foul in the post on James at the other end to make the score 156-155 — and setting up a situation where the next time either team made a basket, they would win the game.
Team LeBron coach Frank Vogel then called a timeout to draw up a play — one that resulted in 7-foot Davis posting up 6-foot Kyle Lowry in the post. After Lowry was called for a foul, Davis — a Chicago native — missed the first free throw while being booed by almost the entire crowd. After he walked away from the line and smiled, he then made the second one, spreading his arms wide as his teammates mobbed him in what was a terribly anti-climatic ending to an otherwise thrilling game.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced during his press conference Saturday night that, starting Sunday night, the All-Star Game’s MVP trophy would be permanently named after Bryant, who won the award during his legendary 20-year career a record-tying four times.
The more fitting tribute to Bryant, however, was the way the game played out, as the NBA’s decision to change the format to give each quarter meaning — and have an untimed fourth quarter played to a target score — provided every ounce of drama, and then some, that the league could’ve possibly hoped for.
After the score was Team Giannis 133, Team LeBron 124 through three quarters, whichever team got to 157 points first — Team Giannis’ score plus 24, to honor Kobe Bryant — would be deemed the winner under the new “Elam Ending” rule the league instituted for this year’s game.
And following years of complaints about a lack of effort or interest in how the game would be played, the fourth quarter under this new format provided everything the fans could’ve wanted. There were tactical fouls taken at both ends of the court. There were clamors for calls from players on both teams. And there was hard defense being played — including Antetokounmpo blocking James on a fadeaway jumper and Anthony Davis at the rim on an attempt a dunk.
There was even a charge taken by Kyle Lowry on a Leonard drive, and a challenge used during the fourth quarter that took away two potential free throws from Embiid.
That all preceded a frenetic final few possessions that saw both teams scratching and clawing for every possession.
It all combined to give the festivities the kind of energy they have lacked far too often — and produced precisely the kind of drama the NBA was hoping it would.
That is why the league — on an attempt to revive interest in the game and, concurrently, cause the players to have more at stake throughout — enacted two significant changes designed to make it more competitive. The first was having the score reset to zero after the first, second and third quarters, with the winning team from each quarter earning $100,000 to go to local charities selected by the team captains, James and Antetokounmpo.
Children involved with both charities were sitting courtside during the game, and each player was given a letter from a child from their team’s respective charity before the game.
The second was the introduction of the Elam Ending, which has become popular thanks to The Basketball Tournament over the past few summers. So, rather than having a full 12-minute fourth quarter, the game would instead end whenever one of the two teams reached the score of the leading team after three quarters — plus 24, in honor of the number Bryant wore for the second half of his NBA career.
It was an idea that Paul, who also is the head of the National Basketball Players Association, helped come up with as part of the league’s competition committee over the summer.
“I think for me, being in the league so long, being on the competition committee, I’m always trying to figure out different ways that our game can continue to grow, especially the All-Star Game, even though I haven’t played in a few years,” Paul said Saturday morning. “So [the new format], it’s a way to keep the game even more exciting, and because I watch [The Basketball Tournament] all summer.”
In addition to the MVP trophy being named after Bryant, the night was full of tributes to him in the wake of his passing — along with his daughter, Gianna, and seven of their friends — in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. In a nod to Bryant and his daughter, every member of Team Giannis wore No. 24 in honor of Bryant, while every member of Team LeBron wore No. 2, which was the number worn by Gianna.
Before the game, Magic Johnson gave a speech about both Bryant and former NBA Commissioner David Stern, who passed away on Jan. 1, with all of the All-Stars standing behind him on the stage — many of them holding hands.
Then a pair of Chicago natives — singer Jennifer Hudson and rapper Common — took the stage, with Hudson performing a tribute to Bryant, followed by Common introducing the starting lineups for both teams. Another Chicagoan, Chance The Rapper, was the star of the night’s halftime show.
When the game itself finally got underway, the combination of the rule changes and Bryant’s passing hung over the festivities, and set up the expectation that this year would see more effort put in by players on both sides.
And, as it turned out, those expectations were justified, as the two teams engaged in a back-and-forth affair that had the crowd invested in how it played out.
The first quarter wound up going to Team LeBron, which used a 17-4 run midway through the period to break the game open, before eventually taking the quarter by a score of 53-41.
But just when it looked like the talent might be tilted too far in one direction, Team Giannis roared back in the second quarter, winning the quarter 51-30 after closing the quarter with a 29-12 run over the final 4 minutes 24 seconds.
That run was punctuated by Trae Young ending the first half with a halfcourt bomb from 3-point range that perfectly dropped through the net, causing his teammates to lift him into the air and mob him at centercourt as both teams headed into the locker rooms.
Despite Young’s heroics, the first half also set up a pair of clear candidates to win the inaugural Kobe Bryant MVP award: Kawhi Leonard, who scored 25 first half points on 9-for-12 shooting, including 7-for-10 from 3-point range; and Antetokounmpo, who had 20 points on 10-for-14 shooting to go with five rebounds.
After trading blowouts in the first two quarters, the third was tied at 27 with four minutes to go, the third quarter went down to the final possession, with Team LeBron taking a 40-39 lead with 22.2 seconds left, causing Team Giannis coach Nick Nurse to call timeout to draw up a play — only for his point guard, Kyle Lowry, to throw a bad pass and turn the ball over.
Team LeBron then fouled Westbrook to get the ball back, and he made one of the two free throws, making the score 41-39. But as Team LeBron tried to press, Lowry kicked the ball ahead to Young, who threw up a perfect alley-oop to Gobert for a slam to tie the game at 41 with 2.2 seconds remaining in the fourth. Vogel called a timeout to draw up a play, but Westbrook’s runner missed, meaning the two teams tied. That also meant the $100,000 on the line for that quarter was pushed to the fourth, adding even more reason for both teams to give more energy than they typically have in these situations in the past.
And, just as the NBA hoped, they did.