CHICAGO — The N.B.A.’s 69th All-Star Game played out just as it was billed — and it also veered wildly off script to a delicious degree.
The evening, as promised, served as the emotional culmination of a days-long Windy City tribute to Kobe Bryant, the former All-Star killed in a helicopter crash last month.
And then, without warning, Sunday’s All-Star Game managed to deliver a second-half dose of the best, most competitive basketball seen on this stage in years.
The result was the sort of spiritual lift, however fleeting, that this All-Star weekend, and frankly this league, needed.