Later this evening, the NBA will announce the pool of reserves from the Western Conference and Eastern Conference to be selected by Team Giannis and Team LeBron during the draft for the 2020 NBA All-Star Game in Chicago. But before the rest of the All-Star players are announced, the league announced some changes to how the game will be played, including a tribute in the fourth quarter to Kobe Bryant.
In a change from the past few years, each of the first three quarters of the game will start at 0-0. The winner of each quarter will win $100,000 to a Chicago-based charity of their choosing. Then the fourth quarter will begin with a cumulative score from the first three quarters. Then as a tribute to Kobe Bryant, they will add 24 points to the leading team’s point total after three quarters to create a target score that both teams will play to in an untimed fourth quarter.
The tribute to Kobe is an adapted version of the Elam Ending, which is most famously used in the summer event called “The Basketball Tournament.” In the Elam Ending, the clock is shut off in the final four minutes and the winning team adds seven points to create the game’s target score. In the All-Star version, the entire fourth quarter will be untimed with the target score decided by an extra 24 points.
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