Tonight marks the beginning of the 2016 NBA All-Star Weekend ... and the league is pulling out all the stops.
To celebrate its All-Stars, the league used Thursday to launch its series of NBA emojis for every All-Star Game starter and reserve player. All you have to do to activate them is use hashtags of their names on Twitter.
Giving credit to the league, they had fun and were pretty clever with this batch of emojis. While some are simply animated versions of the players' faces, others tune into their nicknames.
For example, typing #KobeBryant on Twitter will reveal an emoji of a snake for the five-time champion's "Black Mamba" nickname. Punching in #LeBronJames will generate a crown for his own "King James" moniker. #AnthonyDavis generates a unibrow for the New Orleans Pelicans power forward's "The Brow" nickname and #DeMarcusCousins "Boogie" nickname is represented by a bandana-wearing ghost emoji.
Tech Times especially loved the PG-13 movie-ticket-stub emoji used to represent Indiana Pacers small forward Paul George and his nickname "PG-13."
The NBA didn't stop with creating the emojis for its All-Star starters and reserves, either. It extended the treatment with emojis for the NBA on TNT crew, giving Shaquille O'Neal a piece of chicken, Ernie Johnson a bow tie, Kenny Smith a jet and Charles Barkley a donut. Longtime sideline reporter Craig Sager even received a multicolor tie emoji, referencing his penchant for throwing together gaudy outfits.
It's pretty cool that the NBA launched this set of emojis for All-Star Weekend, considering this just isn't any ordinary All-Star Weekend with Kobe Bryant's 18th and final All-Star Game capping the three days on Sunday night. The future Hall of Famer will certainly get the red-carpet treatment Sunday night.
But thanks to these emojis, fans could get a jumpstart saluting the Black Mamba.
