Kobe Bryant's presence is everywhere at 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, who was the centerpiece of the show the last time the game was held here in 1988.

But that was before a helicopter crashed in hills of Los Angeles county and took the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other passengers. 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.

Before the doors ever opened to the arena Bryant’s presence was felt. Above the Fadó Irish Pub downtown a billboard appeared with no picture or image, just the words, “Mamba Mentality 1978 --" with no ending to it.

And inside the arena his presence was everywhere. Magic Johnson was the first to take the microphone and he spoke of the late NBA commissioner David Stern, crediting him with saving his life, letting him be a part of the All-Star Game when he was diagnosed with HIV in 1992. Then he turned his attention to Bryant.

He announced, “No. 8 and No. 24, Kobe Bryant,” eliciting a cheer from the crowd. And when it wasn’t loud enough he said, “I’m going to say that one more time. That cheer should be a little bit louder.” The fans obliged, loudly cheering and then chanting, “Kobe, Kobe, Kobe.”

Like Dwyane Wade a night earlier asking for 24.2 seconds of cheers rather than silence, Johnson broke from tradition and asked the crowd to hold hands and embrace each other, and then finally to take eight seconds of silence.

Jennifer Hudson sang, “For All We Know,” ending with the lines, “Tomorrow may never come, for all we know,” as the crowd stood and chanted again.

“We know that he's watching over us,” LeBron James said Saturday. “It's our responsibility to just represent the purple and gold not only for him but for all the greats, everybody that's ever come through the Lake Show. I really don't want to sit up here and talk about it too much. It's a very, very sensitive subject, but he's with us every day.”

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 Bryant’s jersey number. And the final quarter, rather than the clock that normally was running, was set with a scoring system setting the number to win as 24 plus the total of the team leading through three quarters.

“We’ll never see another basketball player quite like Kobe,” Johnson said. “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.”

The Most Valuable Player Award on this night and for every All-Star Game to follow, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced Saturday would be named for Bryant, who holds the record of being selected to 18 consecutive All-Star Games and is tied for the record with four MVP Awards.

“I know it will be especially meaningful to that player that wins the first Kobe Bryant MVP,” Silver said. “So I'm sure there will be other honors as well . . . There are other things that we will be discussing with our board, the NBA board, when they meet in April to honor David. But this one seems so appropriate here at All-Star because nobody embodied All-Star more than Kobe Bryant.”

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.