NBA announces custom Twitter emojis, MVP voting for All-Star Game

Twitter will aim to enhance the experience of the NBA All-Star Game this year by adding custom emojis for each player, and letting fans vote on the MVP.

The NBA All-Star Game has always been for the fans. It’s the reason why were nearly able to call Zaza Pachulia an All-Star, and why the fan vote still accounts for 50 percent of the total.

Since Twitter has become a digital outlet for NBA fans across the globe, the league is always looking for ways to enrich the experience during All-Star weekend. Well this year, the NBA has come up with some clever ideas.

Every player participating in the All-Star Game has his own custom emoji. It just went live, and will continue to run until Feb. 20. All you have to do is type in the first and last name of a player as a hashtag:

The NBA on TNT personalities got their own emojis as well, and you can see them unveiling it all right here:

The lone exceptions are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shaquille O’Neal, who only require their first name — or, in Shaq’s case, his first nickname.

While Twitter has had custom emojis for past All-Star Games, they weren’t very inventive. Last year’s ones only involved a player’s jersey number, but this year’s are much more creative. It’s worth noting that Carmelo Anthony’s emoji is just his number, but that’s probably because he was a last-minute addition.

There are a host of other new features that Twitter has planned, which are outlined in this post. But the most important one is the return of rewarding the MVP through fan voting. The All-Star MVP will then receive a Kia Sorento to donate to a charity of their choice, because the last thing these players need is another car. Fans can also vote on the MVP for the Rising Stars Challenge, so as to give people a reason to tune in on Friday.

Next: The five best NBA All-Star Game performances ever

Twitter has really outdone itself for this year’s All-Star Game. All the cool features should really make All-Star Weekend a great one. So long as the fans don’t run a campaign to vote Alex Abrines and Carmelo Anthony as the respective MVPs, we should see these back at the All-Star Game for years to come.