NBA Switches Up All-Star Format, Lines Up Kobe Tributes

The NBA today unveiled "major changes to the All-Star format," turning "every quarter into a mini-game for charity before an untimed final quarter." Scores will be reset back to 0-0 at the start of the second and third quarters, "then restored to begin the fourth quarter." The team that wins the All-Star Game will be the "first to reach a target score, determined by the total points the team in the lead scored in the first three quarters combined -- plus 24," an "obvious nod" to Kobe Bryant.

The NBA said that All-Star Weekend next month in Chicago will feature "multiple tributes to Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and the seven others who lost their lives in Sunday's helicopter crash." For now, this is a "one-year change, though the NBA is hopeful that the quarter-score for charity element and the target-score ending become part of the All-Star Game on a long-term basis" (AP, 1/30).