Kobe Bryant honored as Team LeBron ekes out win over Team Giannis in NBA All-Star Game

CHICAGO — In any other time, the star of this 69th NBA All-Star Game would have been the city of Chicago, with tributes to the players who came from the playgrounds all the way to its greatest star, Michael Jordan, the show’s centerpiece the last time the game was held here in 1988.

But that was before a helicopter crashed in the hills of Los Angeles county and took the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others on Jan. 26. So this time the game was to serve as a tribute and a remembrance to the player who was as close to a copy of Jordan as any who have come along.

The accolades flowed for Bryant, but the notion that his example of taking a Mamba Mentality into even these showcases would inspire the All-Stars to follow suit seemed to disappear under a flurry of open three-point attempts and uncontested dunks at the United Center.

The teams scored a combined 94 points in the first quarter alone, with Team LeBron tying the record for a period with 53 points. But with the new scoring formats and charitable donations changing things, the mood turned. There were fouls, timeouts, exhausted stars and even a pair of coach’s challenges.

Kyle Lowry took a charge, with the whistle blowing just as James Harden let fly what would have been a winning three-pointer. The teams played on with a fire that Kobe would have loved until Anthony Davis hit a free throw to give Team LeBron a 157-155 win over Team Giannis.

“I think everyone liked this format,” Davis said. “It brought intensity back to the game. It was fun.”

“There was no discussion about raising the level of intensity to Bryant’s] because we’re all competitors,” LeBron James said. “We all compete at the highest level . . . But you could definitely feel his presence just from the start. From every moment, from the fans chanting his name till you saw the numbers. Every time you saw Giannis’ team run the floor, you saw the 2-4. So he was definitely here.”

Team LeBron’s Kawhi Leonard had 30 points, shooting 8-for-14 on three-pointers, and was named the Kobe Bryant All-Star MVP. “It’s very special,” he said. “I had a relationship with him and words can’t explain how happy I am for it, able to put that trophy in my trophy room and see Kobe’s name on there. It means a lot. He’s a big inspiration in my life. He did a lot for me.”

James and Chris Paul scored 23 points each and Davis added 20. Giannis Antetokounmpo led Team Giannis with 25 points. Kemba Walker had 23, Joel Embiid 22 and Rudy Gobert 21.

The teams took the court adorned in jerseys with one number for each squad — Team LeBron wore No. 2, the jersey number that Gianna wore, and Team Giannis wore No. 24 for Kobe’s jersey number. And instead of a timed fourth quarter, a scoring system set the number to win as 24 plus the total of the team leading through three quarters.

With Team Giannis up 133-124 through three quarters of cumulative scoring, 157 was set as the target score to win.

The winning team in each quarter earned $100,000 for its Chicago-area children’s charity. Team LeBron took the first, Team Giannis took the second and they tied in the third, so that $100,000 was carried over to the fourth for a $300,000 charitable donation for the winner.

With Bryant’s No. 24 the goal, the teams changed styles — playing defense and even taking charges in a battle to the finish.

“We’ll never see another basketball player quite like Kobe,” Magic Johnson said before the game. “Scoring 81 points in one game, scoring 60 points in his last game, winning five NBA championships. What I’m really proud of, there’s millions of people in Los Angeles that don’t have a home; Kobe was fighting to get them homes every single day. He was passionate about that. Passionate about family. Film. We all are hurting, a tough time for the NBA family.”

“It was tough early, especially early,” Paul said. “For a lot of us, it’s still surreal. It’s not real until you start showing pictures and talking about it. But I think the best way we could honor Kobe, Gigi and everyone involved was to play like we played.

“Me and Russ kept talking about it. That’s the one thing about Kobe: Whenever he was on our team in the All-Star Game, there was none of that cool stuff. There was none of that. It was like, as long as they throw the ball up, let’s get to it.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.