The 2020 NBA All-Star weekend is almost here with festivities sure to grab attention from fans everywhere. New rules and styles of play will be implemented to make the games more interesting, and the league will honor the lives lost during the tragic helicopter accident that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant.
The first change is the new jerseys that will be worn during the game on Sunday, Feb. 16. Team LeBron will be wearing jerseys with the No. 2 in memory of Gianna Bryant who died alongside her father on Jan. 26.
Team Giannis will be wearing No. 24 jerseys to honor Kobe. Nine stars will also be patched onto each jersey to recognize the nine total people who lost their lives as a result of the crash.
The biggest change, however, is the new style of play that will be introduced at the start of the 4th quarter. The final quarter will be untimed, and the game ends once an added 24-point target score has been reached.
The team with the most points at the end of three quarters will have a 24 point goal added to their score marking the score needed to win. For example, if at the start of the 4th quarter Team A had 100 points and Team B had 80, the first team to reach 124 points wins the game.
All-Star weekend truly begins on Friday, Feb. 14 with the Celebrity and Rising Stars games. Saturday, Feb. 15, features the Skills Challenge, the three point contest, and the dunk contest. Sunday night marks the close of all star weekend with the 69th NBA all star game.
An adjustment has also been made to this year’s three point contest. Each contestant will have two extra shots six feet behind the three point line on the wings of the court. These shots, however, will count as three points each, allowing for a possible max score of 40 points compared to the normal 34. Ten more seconds of time have also been added to the normal 60 second time limit as contestants now must attempt 27 shots compared to the normal 25.
This year’s contest is stacked with talent featuring last year’s returning champion Joe Harris, second year phenom Trae Young, Damian Lilliard and standout hometown favorite Zach Lavine. Lavine has the opportunity to make history as the first player ever to win both an NBA Dunk and three point contest. Lavine is most famous for his dunking ability after winning back to back titles and now seeks to add a three point championship to his record.
“I would love to go out there and do that and I think I’ll show them in past years what I was known for before just being a dunker is out the window. To win a three-point contest, I think, would be historic,” Lavine said according to Bleacher Report.
This year’s dunk contest should also be an exciting one. The competition again features Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon. Gordon put on one of the most impressive dunk contest performances with Lavine who eventually claimed the title after many sudden death rounds.
Derrick Jones Jr. from the Heat, whose NBA career has been stuffed with highlight dunks, will also be participating and will surely put on a show. Pat Connaughton from the Pacers was also invited to the event, and 2008 dunk contest champion Dwight Howard will be returning.
Although it has been 12 years since his winning, the man still has incredible athleticism and could bring back his signature superman gimmick. He is expected to be one of the most entertaining performances using “everything at his disposal” according to Bleacher Report.
Joseph Whipkey, Staff Writer
