Jennifer Hudson was one of several performers during Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, taking center court at the United Center in Chicago to perform a musical tribute to Kobe Bryant ahead of the annual game.
Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26 along with eight others including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. As Hudson sang Donny Hathaway’s classic “For All We Know (We May Meet Again),” photos of Bryant and Gianna appeared on the screen behind her, as well as photos from Bryant’s legendary NBA career.
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The Oscar winner’s performance was introduced by Magic Johnson, who made a speech honoring Bryant and asked everyone present to hold hands during an eight-second moment of silence.
“We will never see another basketball player quite like Kobe,” Johnson said. “He was passionate about being a great father, husband, filmmaker.”
Rapper Common also shared an emotional tribute to Bryant, speaking about the late athlete in a spoken-word piece. “He used his game to touch the world’s soul, a king named Kobe Bryant who wore purple and gold,” Common shared.
Before the game, a pre-recorded video from Dr. Dre featured clips from Bryant’s career, and during the matchup, Team Giannis wore Bryant’s No. 24 jersey and Team LeBron wore No. 2 jerseys in honor of Gianna. Both teams also wore patches with nine stars to honor the nine victims in the crash, who also included Gianna’s basketball teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, Altobelli’s parents John and Keri Altobelli, Chester’s mom Sarah Chester, girls’ basketball coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan.
At halftime, Chance the Rapper honored Bryant and Gianna during his set before being joined by Lil Wayne, Quavo and DJ Khaled.
Team LeBron, captained by LeBron James, won the game, and James told reporters after the game that it was “a beautiful day.”
“I mean, anything else would be uncivilized,” he said, via Sports Illustrated. “He’s one of the greatest basketball players, one of the most impactful players, and the inspiration that he has, it’s showing. How many people not only in the basketball world, but also outside the basketball world, that was touched by a person such as himself.”
On Feb. 24, Bryant and Gianna will be honored with a public memorial at Staples Center in Los Angeles, where Kobe played for much of his 20-season career with the Los Angeles Lakers. The date is significant for the family as it combines Bryant’s jersey number, 24, Gianna’s jersey number, 2, and 20, the number of years Bryant spent as a Laker. Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, added on Instagram that 20 is also the number of years that she and her husband were together.
Photo Credit: Getty / Kevin Mazur
