NBA Honors the late Kobe Bryant with New Trophy for MVP
NEW YORK – (Staff Report from Official News Release) – The National Basketball Association unveiled newly designed NBA All-Star trophies in celebration of the league’s 75th Anniversary season. Designed in partnership with artist Victor Solomon, the trophies will be presented for the first time during NBA All-Star 2022 in Cleveland. The lineup of hardware is headlined by The Kobe Bryant Trophy, which will be awarded to the Kia NBA All-Star Game MVP on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.
“As the NBA celebrates its 75th Anniversary season, this collection of All-Star trophies represents the continued growth and evolution of our game,” said Christopher Arena, Head of On-Court and Brand Partnerships at the NBA. “Through our collaboration with Victor Solomon, these trophies incorporate deep storytelling, reimagining our previous All-Star trophies in a modern aesthetic, and now serve as the new standards of excellence that future generations of All-Stars will strive to reach each year.”
Solomon’s work in this space includes his “Literally Balling” project, where he explores the icons and symbols of basketball as a platform for conceptual storytelling. His art has detailed the high process techniques involved in creating and designing stained glass basketball backboards, crystal basketballs and cast ceramic basketballs reconstructed with a Kintsugi process, and has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Shanghai.
“For the past few years, the NBA and I have proudly and tirelessly worked to reconsider what a trophy is, has been and could be,” said Solomon. “Redesigning the All-Star trophies gave us a special opportunity to create event awards worthy of the energy and excitement the moment creates, while introducing the full collection’s visual, aesthetic language. The occasion also gave us the privilege and responsibility to develop an entirely new silhouette worthy of being named ‘The Kobe Bryant Trophy’ for the Kia NBA All-Star MVP for which, in the spirit of its namesake, we threw out all conventions and challenged ourselves to reorient how we thought about ‘the game.’”
