The NBA’s special tribute to Craig Sager showcased the league’s best values

After the 3-Point Contest, NBA All-Star Saturday night took an unexpected turn. Reggie Miller stepped into the middle of the court after Eric Gordon’s victory and began inviting players and celebrities alike to shoot three-pointers to support the Sager Strong Foundation.

Each made shot saw $10,000 donated to the cause. After that, Ernie Johnson asked Stephen Curry to make a shot from halfcourt to take the total amount from $130,000 to $500,000. (When he failed, Johnson called on Craig Sager’s son to finish the job.)

It was a wonderful impromptu moment that exemplified why the NBA thrives beyond the on-court product. The league celebrates its people unabashedly, embracing their abilities and personalities like no other.

There are few better examples than Sager, both during his life and after his death. Sager was a light of his own, but he also symbolized the best of the NBA. He was tremendously professional at his craft, but he also managed to infuse some lightheartedness and style into a normally mundane job doing sideline interviews. The league as a whole — the analysts, fans, players, and coaches — embraced that combination and lauded it even after his death.

It’s hard to imagine something like that 3-point shootout for Sager’s charity happening anywhere else, at least not without charging the foundation for the airtime or some corporation secretly funding the competition.

This same attitude of paying tribute to the league’s personalities was on display during Kobe Bryant’s retirement season. The second he announced he would step away, the league as a whole made it a mission to show him love and appreciation for his contributions to the game’s culture.

Teams showed videos of him and gave gifts before games. Fans chanted his name in opposing arenas. Analysts took time to relive his greatest moments. His poor play that year was secondary, though his 60-point performance in his final game capped off the tribute perfectly.

The league bent itself for Kobe’s story rather than treating him as a worker in the long assembly line of workers. Rather than doing the bare minimum for a tribute, its constituents turned Bryant’s farewell into a league-wide, year-long event.

The same happened with Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan (though to a lesser degree to acquiesce to his wishes). It will happen when players like Dirk Nowitzki and Manu Ginobili call it quits.

But the league also showcases the wide range of personalities and oddities in its current stars. Kawhi Leonard’s stoic nature is as beloved as Russell Westbrook’s energetic approach. Westbrook’s pre-game dance routine with Cameron Payne is glorified as part of the overall show.

The Warriors get to celebrate threes before they go in without fear of being buried under respectability. Damian Lillard received league-wide support for his rap album. Joel Embiid’s Twitter game isn’t admonished as childish. Activism from players and coaches alike are encouraged. Pregame outfits even get their own SportsCenter spot.

The NBA isn’t just diverse; it also tries to be inclusive in a productive manner. The league has people of different walks of life, but rather than accept that as a static fact, it provides a platform where those people can showcase their professional skills and what makes them special as individuals. There’s space for everyone, as long as their actions remain respectable.

The league knows that this is a strength and not a weakness. The differing personalities are an attraction because they appeal to a wider community that is just as diverse itself. It’s easy to find an NBA player that relates to you. And when a league is willing to look at its players beyond their on-court performances, it opens a bigger world for marketing purposes.

The NBA has harnessed the simplest truth about sports and life: The people make the product, not the other way around. It’s why the league isn’t tough on the sharing of GIFs and videos through social media. Those are entry points into the show.

This, of course, is why the All-Star game was moved away from Charlotte in the first place. A company that celebrates the differences between people could not have a marquee event in a state that’s passed legislation working against those ideals. And though Adam Silver wouldn’t commit to future All-Star boycotts of states that have passed similar laws, he did say places like Texas, which has its own version of a “bathroom bill” on the table, are “on notice.”

An overall stance like that gives people like Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr the support to speak out against Donald Trump’s discriminatory executive orders. It allows players like LeBron James to protest police brutality. It gives players and teams the room to tweet, Snapchat, and share themselves as much as possible, with limits of course. It creates a world where expression of self is valued as much as ability.

The NBA isn’t perfect. It still has to balance the freedom it grants with rules and regulations that prevents it from becoming counter-productive. The personalities must match the end product. It is still a company that has to keep profits first.

But relative to other sports leagues, it’s far ahead of the game. Before the festivities began on Saturday night, Silver answered a question about Trump’s travel ban with the following line:

“If you think about what the NBA stands for, it’s the very best all coming together to perform at the highest level,” he said.

That is a straightforward truth, but it also does the NBA a disservice. It’s not just that people come to perform at the highest level, but they’re able to do what they do best while also knowing that their personalities will be lionized rather than berated.

In such a world, an unscripted three-point competition to raise money for the Sager Foundation doesn’t feel out of place. It’s instead a perfect illustration of the NBA’s belief that its people are worthwhile beyond their jobs.