I know there are plenty of people who gripe about All-Star Games in sports, especially the NBA’s version of it, but I have to say, I really enjoy the entire weekend.
It’s all about fun, which is probably why the NBA just released customized emojis for every single NBA player who’s participating in the game on Sunday night—and there are some pretty clever ones for fans to use.
Even cooler than the clever designs, fans are encouraged to use the emojis to vote for who they think should be the game’s MVP, bringing a new twist to the player of the game award.
Here’s what the league had to say about the purpose of the emojis, per the NBA press release:
“For the first time, the Kia NBA All-Star MVP Award fan vote will be conducted exclusively through Twitter. Beginning at the start of the fourth quarter of NBA All-Star Game on TNT, fans can register MVP votes during a 30-minute window by tweeting #KiaAllStarMVP and #firstnamelastname in the same tweet.”
“Announced tonight on TNT, emojis have also been created for the Turner Sports’ Emmy Award-winning Inside the NBA studio team and game broadcast team for use during NBA All-Star 2016 in Toronto. With the lone exception of #shaq, the Turner Sports emojis are also revealed by entering #firstnamelastname.”
And for those future commentators and analysts out there, don’t worry, the league is providing some personalized emojis for the TNT guys like Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Craig Sager, among others.
This is a pretty dope idea by the league, so good work, NBA.