{"id":10425,"date":"2020-02-18T09:43:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T09:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=10425"},"modified":"2020-02-18T12:43:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T12:43:24","slug":"kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg\" alt=\"Kawai Leonard wins first ever Kobe Bryant MVP Award\" title=\"Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game\" width=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10426\" \/>In his annual All-Star news conference, <strong>Adam Silver<\/strong>, commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA), announced that the All-Star MVP Award will now be named after <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2020\/01\/26\/us\/kobe-bryant-obituary\/index.html\">the late superstar Kobe Bryant<\/a> to commemorate him and his vast accomplishments in the game.<\/p>\n<p>Silver said that the league has discussed a number of ways to commemorate Bryant\u2019s memory, and decided on the All-Star award due to Bryant\u2019s long and storied history in the all-star festivities\u2014Bryant was most known for winning five championships, but he was almost as known for making 18 All-Star teams and tying the league record of four MVP awards.<\/p>\n<p>Kawhi Leonard, the star forward of the Los Angeles Clippers was the first recipient of the Kobe Bryant MVP Award. Leonard was part of Team LeBron, who overcame Team Giannis (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/betting-opportunity\/nba-all-star-game-2020-preview\">which we predicted<\/a>) to eke out a win in the final seconds of the game <em>157-155<\/em> due to free throws made by Leonard\u2019s All-Star teammate Anthony Davis.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ESPN<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d4BIgAqGRxM?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is the first All-Star game to be won through a target score (157), instead of a specific duration of time of gameplay. The winning team earned $300,000 to donate to charity; in this case, the winnings were received by <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagoscholars.org\">Chicago Scholars<\/a>, a nonprofit organization focused on helping students from Chicago achieve their academic dreams. <\/p>\n<p>Tributes to Kobe Bryant\u2019s life and career were included throughout the All-Star Weekend\u2019s festivities. <strong>Magic Johnson<\/strong> led an 8-second moment of silence for Bryant and former NBA commissioner <strong>David Stern<\/strong>, who died Jan. 1. <strong>Jennifer Hudson, Chance the Rapper and Dr. Dre<\/strong> all provided tributes to commemorate how Bryant changed the game of basketball. <\/p>\n<h2>Bryant\u2019s Long All-Star History<\/h2>\n<p>The MVP6 award has long been nameless; it will now be permanently named after Bryant, who made his first All-Star game in 1998 at 19 years old, the youngest player in history. Bryant, who spent his entire playing career for the Los Angeles Lakers, still holds the record for making 18 straight All-Star teams, from 1998 to 2016\u2014barring the 1999 lockout season, when the NBA cancelled its All-Star game. <\/p>\n<p>Bryant died on Jan. 26, 2020, along his daughter Gianna, and seven others in a helicopter crash. The NBA changed the jersey numbers of Team LeBron to \u201c<em>24<\/em>\u201d for Bryant\u2019s jersey number, and Team Giannis to \u201c<em>2<\/em>\u201d for Gianna\u2019s number.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In his annual All-Star news conference, Adam Silver, commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA), announced that the All-Star MVP Award will now be named after the late superstar Kobe Bryant to commemorate him and his vast accomplishments in the game. Silver said that the league has discussed a number of ways to commemorate Bryant\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","category-usa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The commissioner of the NBA, announced that the All-Star MVP Award will now be named after the late superstar Kobe Bryant to commemorate him\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The commissioner of the NBA, announced that the All-Star MVP Award will now be named after the late superstar Kobe Bryant to commemorate him\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-18T09:43:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-18T12:43:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Landon Wheeler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\"},\"headline\":\"Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-18T09:43:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-18T12:43:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":389,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/02\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\",\"USA\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/\",\"name\":\"Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/02\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-18T09:43:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-18T12:43:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\"},\"description\":\"The commissioner of the NBA, announced that the All-Star MVP Award will now be named after the late superstar Kobe Bryant to commemorate him\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/02\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/02\\\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg\",\"width\":380,\"height\":250,\"caption\":\"Kawai Leonard wins first ever Kobe Bryant MVP Award\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\",\"name\":\"Landon Wheeler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Landon Wheeler\"},\"description\":\"All things casino related are what interests Landon, and having been involved in that industry for the last thirty years and having actually worked in several different roles in the casino industry he is definitely very well placed to keep you in the know in regards to what is happening in the casino industry as a whole.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/landon-wheeler\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game","description":"The commissioner of the NBA, announced that the All-Star MVP Award will now be named after the late superstar Kobe Bryant to commemorate him","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game","og_description":"The commissioner of the NBA, announced that the All-Star MVP Award will now be named after the late superstar Kobe Bryant to commemorate him","og_url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/","article_published_time":"2020-02-18T09:43:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-18T12:43:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Landon Wheeler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Landon Wheeler","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/"},"author":{"name":"Landon Wheeler","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d"},"headline":"Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game","datePublished":"2020-02-18T09:43:04+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-18T12:43:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/"},"wordCount":389,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg","articleSection":["Sports","USA"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/","name":"Kawhi Leonard Wins First Kobe Bryant MVP Award In All Stars Game","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg","datePublished":"2020-02-18T09:43:04+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-18T12:43:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d"},"description":"The commissioner of the NBA, announced that the All-Star MVP Award will now be named after the late superstar Kobe Bryant to commemorate him","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-wins-first-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-in-all-stars-game\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/kawhi-leonard-wins-kobe-bryant-mvp-award-2020.jpg","width":380,"height":250,"caption":"Kawai Leonard wins first ever Kobe Bryant MVP Award"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/","name":"","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d","name":"Landon Wheeler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","caption":"Landon Wheeler"},"description":"All things casino related are what interests Landon, and having been involved in that industry for the last thirty years and having actually worked in several different roles in the casino industry he is definitely very well placed to keep you in the know in regards to what is happening in the casino industry as a whole.","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/author\/landon-wheeler\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}