While the death of Kobe Bryant’s death has affected people all across the nation, his death has also impacted the National Basketball Association (NBA) in many ways. 

NBA released an official statement, announcing that they would postpone the Tuesday, Jan. 28 game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers.

“The decision was made out of respect for the Lakers organization, which is deeply grieving the tragic loss of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash on Sunday,” the organization wrote in a press release. 

NBA has not officially released an announcement for when the game would be rescheduled but said they will make up the game eventually.

In addition to the postponed game, the NBA announced a new rule that the organization will use during the NBA All-Star Game. The goal of the rule is to remember Kobe Bryant and his contributions to the league as a whole.  

The rule will get rid of the time clock during the fourth quarter, and instead, make it a “target score” to win the game. The target score will be set 24 points higher than the total of the team that leads. The first team to reach that number will win the game. The number 24 was chosen to honor Bryant because that was his jersey number.   

This rule has never been used in the NBA or its development league, also known as the NBA-G. This rule is called the Elam Ending and is used in The Basketball Tournament (TBT). TBT made the switch in 2019.  

The rule currently used in the TBT states that the time clock will shut off once it reaches four minutes. After that, they add eight points to the winning team’s score and the first team to reach the target score wins.  The league says this prevents the endless end-game fouling and makes sure the game ends in a made basket. 

Team Giannis will al wear the number 24,  Team Lebron will wear number two in honor of Ginna.

The announcement to implement this new rule in the NBA All-Star Game comes after Bryant and Ginna died in a helicopter crash. It is still unclear whether the organization will add the rule to all regular NBA games.