Booing Kobe, laughing with Jordan, and marveling at Ali: Reflecting on the 2002 NBA All-Star Game in Philly

Turn the clock back 20 years to the 2002 NBA All-Star Game, held on Feb. 10 at what was then called the First Union Center, and it all comes into focus.

On that night hometown product Kobe Bryant, the pride of Lower Merion, scored 31 points to earn MVP honors as his West team won 135-120, over the East, only to hear the wrath of the fans he’d left 3,000 miles behind.

Months after proclaiming, “I’m coming to Philly to cut their hearts out,” in the midst of the 2001 NBA Finals between the Sixers and his Lakers, this was their payback. And they were relentless, booing No. 8 from the time his name was called out during pregame introductions, to the moment ommissioner David Stern handed him the MVP trophy, which is now named after Bryant. He won the award four times and made 18 All-Star Game appearances.

Bryant, who was killed in a Jan, 26, 2020, helicopter crash that also took the lives of eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, couldn’t understand why they were turning on him.

“My feelings are hurt, man,” he told NBC’s Jim Gray during a break late in the game. “I mean, I’m just out there trying to play and have a good time.

“My feelings are hurt being from Philadelphia. But all I can do is go out there and continue to play and have a good time and support the city where I started my basketball career.”

Two decades later, some of those who played in that game have a different perspective.

“Of course we knew the history of him living in Philadelphia and playing high school ball around there,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who was playing in the first of 14 All-Star Games in his Hall of Fame career. “We knew that Philly fans can be pretty brutal, but I don’t think he made that big a deal of it.

“I think he was kind of smirking about it. You know how Kobe thinks. When people are against him, he turns it up a notch. That’s just the competitor in him.”

Nets guard Jason Kidd, playing in his sixth All-Star Game in 2001, agrees. “I think for Kobe being just the competitor he is, I think when you say something like that and understanding the fans you’re dealing with, they will never forget,” said Kidd, now coaching the Dallas Mavericks. “So when they had the opportunity to let him know, they let him know.”

Public address announcer Matt Cord, now in his 25th year with the Sixers, wasn’t surprised when the boos started raining down.

“If you’re from Philadelphia, you’re going to boo him,” he said. “That’s what we were doing eight months earlier. He wasn’t liked.

“And he didn’t really help his cause by saying we’re going to rip their hearts out.”

The night may have ended with Bryant’s being serenaded with boos, but it began with a far different tone. Local legend Patti LaBelle performed the national anthem. She was followed by Elton John, appearing at midcourt for a rousing rendition of “Philadelphia Freedom.” That, of course, was the song he’d written back in the 1970s for his friend Billie Jean King to celebrate her World Team Tennis team here.

Next came Alicia Keyes and Angie Stone singing a medley of “America the Beautiful” and “Lift Every Voice.”

“Elton John, Alicia Keyes early in her career, that was big-time,” said Kidd, a 2018 Hall of Famer. “I think we did come out and watch some of that. Not too many times you get to see Elton John.”

» READ MORE: 25 years ago, Allen Iverson was booed in Cleveland. He didn’t let it change him.

Through it all, Cord was mesmerized. “They’d had rehearsals all week with Elton John,” Cord said. “They took over the building and put in their own P.A. system.

“It was kind of neat. I did all the events. The Saturday rookie game, the 3-on-3, with a former NBA player, a WNBA player, and a celebrity. I think they had Dawn Staley, Moses Malone, and Justin Timberlake on the Sixers team. Then the dunk competition and three-point shootout.”

And that was just the warmup for Sunday.

“It was crazy,” Cord said. “It was special because of the amount of celebrities. I’m looking across and see the entire cast of The Sopranos. There’s Muhammad Ali sitting next to Joe Frazier. Justin Timberlake sitting next to Britney Spears. Will Smith and Oprah and Samuel Jackson.

“Even [Donald] Trump was there.”

Philadelphia had actually been chosen to host the 1999 All-Star Game only to have it canceled by an NBA lockout, which lasted until players and owners came to terms on a 50-game season that started in February.

“When we found out we were hosting in 2002, we all went down to Washington,” then-Sixers executive vice president Dave Coskey said of the 2001 All-Star Game site. “That’s where they made the official presentation on the court and said, ‘See you next year.’”

Thousands of holders of partial season-tickets were shut of the 2002 game, and Coskey remembered a lot of people being upset. But none of that mattered to the players, who were excited simply being there.

“It was an amazing feeling to become an All-Star,” said Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash, the first Canadian player to ever play in the annual showcase. “Here’s a kid with one scholarship offer who scrapped his way into the draft and found a way to stick in the league.

“To be rewarded for that was sweet and justification for all the hard work and sacrifices I put in.”

Fellow Mavs teammate Nowitzki soaked in as much of the experience as he could. “I’ll always remember my first All-Star Game,” he said. “I was nervous, I was anxious to be in the locker room with everybody, Kobe, KG [Kevin Garnett], Shaq [Shaquille O’Neal], Tim Duncan.

“And I got to share that moment with my buddy Steve Nash, which made it even more special.”

Nowitzki was one of four international players, along with Nash, Dikembe Mutombo (Congo), and three-point champion Peja Stojakovic (Croatia) , to compete in the game. which according to Stern was broadcast to 210 countries in 41 languages.

Along with Philadelphia’s favorite son, Allen Iverson, future Sixer Chris Webber, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Gary Payton, and Tracy McGrady was one familiar face.

Michael Jordan was also back in his first All-Star Game since coming out of retirement to play for the Washington Wizards.

“I’d played against him in the West,” said Kidd, “but to be able to play with him was very cool. That’s also the All-Star Game where the movie Like Mike was filmed. A bunch of guys were involved and they used the old Spectrum for that shoot.”

Seeing Jordan in the Wizards’ blue and white was strange for the Sixers’ Lenny Currier, who was the trainer for the East that day. He met Jordan before becoming trainer for the then-fledgling Orlando Magic in 1989.

“We grew up watching Michael wearing the red and black [of the Chicago Bulls], so I have to say that was different,” said Currier, who also served as East trainer when Orlando was host city in 1992. “I always had a nice rapport with Michael.

“He was always a gentleman to me and one of the greatest competitors.”

Cord was struck by a Jordan moment he’ll never forget.

“Jordan had a steal and was going in for a dunk and he missed the dunk,” Cord said. “And then he came up to us at the table and says, ‘You ever do something and you know what you want to but at the last minute it doesn’t happen? That’s what happened right there.’

“To see him miss a dunk and joke about it, being the competitor he is, we couldn’t believe it.”

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The game featured moments of individual brilliance — like the time McGradypassed the ball to himself off the backboard, caught it, then threw down a hellacious dunk that brought the house down.

“That was a big-time play,” Kidd said. “That wasn’t something done back then as much as you can see it now.”

Twenty years have passed, a time when the nation was still healing from the shock of 9/11. A few months later Kobe, Shaq, and the Lakers completed their “three-peat” sweeping Kidd’s Nets in the Finals.

But two decades haven’t dulled the memories.

“Of course, I’ll always remember the Philadelphia All-Star Game because it was my first one,” said Nowitzki, who came off the bench to score 12 points and grab eight rebounds. “But if you told me then I’d play in 14 All-Star Games I’d have said, ‘You’re crazy.’”

“I didn’t know it was 20 years,” Coskey said. “Kind of scary how fast time goes. It’s an honor to have your city selected because it really does showcase the city. For someone like me who spent a lot of years working in sports, it’s obviously an amazing event to be a part of.”