Pax sees All- Star Game as motivation

By the time February 2020 rolls around, Chicago won’t merely be hosting the NBA All- Star Game and other related festivities. Not according to league commissioner Adam Silver, who was at the United Center on Friday afternoon to make it official that the midseason event is headed here for the first time in 32 years.

“This will truly be, in 2020, the epicenter of basketball around theworld,” Silver said.

Is that a big enough deal for you?

The sport’s superstars likely will pour 300- plus points through the baskets in the 69th All- Star Game. We’ll get a three- point shootout, the annual showcase of the league’s top rookies and second- year players, a celebrity game ( at Wintrust Arena) and the first All- Star dunk contest in Chicago since Michael Jordan edged Dominique-Wilkins.

But will we get a look at any Bulls involved in the action?

“I look at this as a way, maybe, for us to use as a little motivation for a few of our young kids that we have really high hopes for,” vice president of basketball operations John Paxson said. “Maybe they can participate in some capacity when that comes along.”

Rookie Lauri Markkanen referred to becoming an AllStar as “one of my personal goals.”

Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf had to comearound to the idea of a third All- Star visit to Chicago, which also hosted the game in 1973. The previous games were played at the Chicago Stadium, which closed in 1994.

“His direct quote was, ‘ They’ll have to force me to take the All- Star Game,’ ” president and COO Michael Reinsdorf, the chairman’s son, recalled.

Sometimes things change — as Silver knows, having sat in the upper level at the 1988 game, when he was a law student at the University of Chicago.

“I’m looking forward to better seats,” he joked.

Will they come with a view of a Bull or two? It would make Friday’s news a lot better.