On February 13th, the NBA league announced on Twitter that Jennifer Hudson, an Oscar winner and American Idol alum will pay tribute to Kobe Bryant, his daughter GiGi, and the seven other people who tragically passed away from a helicopter crash last month.
What We Know:
GRAMMY® Award-winning recording artist and Academy Award-winning actress and Chicago native @IAMJHUD will perform a special tribute to the late Kobe Bryant ahead of player introductions for the 69th #NBAAllStar Game on Sunday, Feb. 16, airing live at 8:00pm/et @NBAonTNT. pic.twitter.com/NR1OIwtczH
— 2020 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) February 13, 2020
- During Hudson’s performance of “For All We Know (We May Meet Again),” which was originally sang and orchestrated by legendary vocalist Nat King Cole, images of Bryant and GiGi were shown in the background. Hudson was introduced by NBA legend Magic Johnson, who said a few things about the former Los Angeles Laker. “We will never see another basketball player quite like Kobe,” he said. “He was passionate about being a great father, husband, filmmaker.” He also mentioned the death of NBA commissioner, David Stern, who died on New Year’s Day.
- Bryant was previously memorialized at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, which took place hours after it was announced that he and seven others were killed in a helicopter accident. The host, Alicia Keys, sang an acapella rendition of “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” to honor the fallen legend.
- In addition to Hudson, there were also performances by Chicago native Chance the Rapper, Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled, and Quavo.
- Rapper Common shared a narrative about what basketball means to the city. On February 14, Chance’s brother performed at the halftime of the NBA Rising Stars game. Music legend Chaka Khan sang her rendition of the national anthem before the February 16th game.
- During the game, players promised to wear Bryant’s and his daughter’s jersey numbers. Team Lebron wore Gianna Bryant’s No. 2 while Team Giannis wore Bryant’s No. 24.
The NBA All-Star game aired Sunday on TNT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMW8FVF0SmU&feature=youtu.be
