2020 NBA All-Star Game

Result

MVP: Kawhi Leonard

Played days after Kobe Bryant's death; the game introduced the untimed, target-score "Elam Ending" for the fourth quarter in his memory, and the MVP award itself was renamed the "NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player Award" this February.

Box score

Draft format continued: captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo. First year of the untimed, target-score 'Elam Ending' for the fourth quarter, introduced in memory of Kobe Bryant.

Bench (10+ points): Chris Paul (23), Ben Simmons (17)

Bench (10+ points): Rudy Gobert (21), Kyle Lowry (13)

Game context

The 2020 All-Star Game, played February 16 at Chicago's United Center, unfolded barely three weeks after Kobe Bryant's death in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020, which also killed his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others. The tragedy reshaped the entire weekend: Team LeBron wore uniforms numbered 2, honoring Gianna, while Team Giannis wore uniforms numbered 24, honoring the number Bryant wore in the second half of his career, and tributes to both Bryant and Gianna ran throughout the broadcast. Most significantly, the league permanently renamed the game's MVP trophy the "NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player Award" that same month, cementing Bryant's connection to the exhibition he had dominated as a four-time MVP during his playing career. The game itself introduced a genuine structural innovation conceived specifically as a tribute: the untimed "Elam Ending" — named for its inventor, math teacher and league consultant Nick Elam — replaced the standard fourth quarter with a target-score format. Rather than playing a fixed number of minutes, the fourth quarter ran with no game clock, and the winner was whichever team first reached a target score set at 24 points above the leading team's total through three quarters — a number chosen specifically for Bryant's jersey number. Team LeBron and Team Giannis played a back-and-forth first three quarters (Team LeBron won the first quarter 53-41, Team Giannis the second 51-30, and the third quarter was tied 41-41), with the leading team's cumulative total plus 24 setting the target score for the untimed finish. The finish was tense and hard-fought, precisely the kind of decisive, clock-independent, foul-and-defense-heavy finish the format's designers had hoped for; Anthony Davis, playing for Team LeBron, made the free throws that ultimately clinched the 157-155 win amid a flurry of defensive possessions in the untimed final stretch. Kawhi Leonard, then in his first season with the Los Angeles Clippers, won the MVP award — the first ever presented under the Kobe Bryant-named trophy — in a performance that, fittingly for the tribute-laden broadcast, was overshadowed in most retrospectives by the format innovation and the emotional tenor of the event rather than by any single highlight of Leonard's own play. The Elam Ending was met with broad approval from players, coaches, and fans alike, praised for finally solving the long-standing problem of All-Star Games devolving into low-effort exhibitions once a comfortable lead was established, since a fixed target score meant leads could no longer simply be run out on the clock. The format's warm reception led the league to make it permanent for the fourth quarter of every All-Star Game through the 2024 game, and the broadcast itself later won the Emmy for Outstanding Live Sports Special, a rare accolade for a midseason exhibition.

Sources

• Wikipedia — NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player Award
• Basketball-Reference — NBA All-Star Game History