Twenty years after his untimely death, The Notorious B.I.G. continues to stand as one of Brooklyn's greatest champions. So it was fitting that the borough's NBA team, the Brooklyn Nets, raised a banner honoring the rapper at the Barclays Center on Sunday night (March 12).

The night was dubbed Biggie Night, and featured brief speeches from Biggie's loved ones, including Diddy and Faith Evans. During a special halftime ceremony, Lil Kim also made an appearance.

At the ceremony, the folks at the Barclays Center raised a custom Biggie banner to rafters. The banner features the rapper's official name, the number 72, which appears to be a reference to his birth year of 1972, and his famed "Juicy" lyrics, "Spread love, it's the Brooklyn way." The rapper will hang inside Barclays Center permanently.

During his speech, Diddy referred to Biggie as the "greatest rapper of all time," and plenty of people would agree with that statement. Although he only dropped one solo album while he was alive, rappers never miss an opportunity to pay homage to the fallen MC, and his hard-hitting lyrics live on to this day.

In an interesting note, the Nets managed to triumph over the Carmelo Anthony-led New York Knicks for one of their only wins of the year. Coincidence? We think not. You can check out videos from Biggie Night below. You can see more of what made B.I.G. one of rap's most magnetic figures by checking out XXL's list of Biggie's most memorable moments.

 

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