Latest news with #TeamC
New York Times
17-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
All-Star game rosters: Shaq's OGs
Follow live as the NBA All-Star Game debuts a dramatically overhauled four-team format when basketball's best take the stage in San Francisco. Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images The NBA All-Star Game debuts a new four-team format at San Francisco's Chase Center on Sunday. All-Star teams drafted by NBA on TNT analysts Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith take the court alongside Friday night's Rising Stars winner, Team C (named after and coached by Warriors legend Chris Mullin) as the NBA once again attempts to inject life into the All-Star Game with a radical overhaul of its format. Start time: 5 p.m. ET 5 p.m. ET TV: TNT, TruTV, Max Register with The Athleti c and follow our NBA writers for the latest in-depth coverage. LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors Anthony Davis, Dallas Mavericks* Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns Damian Lillard, Milwaukee Bucks James Harden, Los Angeles Clippers Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics Kyrie Irving, Dallas Mavericks* *Irving is an injury replacement for Davis on the roster. The All-Star Game, the grand finale of the NBA's 2025 All-Star Weekend, will bring a new format and hopefully a competitive game Sunday to San Francisco's Chase Center. The league's new format, a mini-tournament with four teams and three games composed of 24 of the league's top players, is a chance to make the All-Star Game more appealing for all involved — and for the fans' sake, more enjoyable to watch on television. For all three games of the mini-tournament, the first team to 40 points wins. There is a prize money pool of $1.8 million with each player on the championship team earning $125,000. Each player on the second-place team will receive $50,000 and each player on the third- and fourth-place teams will receive $25,000. Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal are honorary general managers of their respective teams, which they selected during a draft. The fourth team in Sunday's All-Star tournament is Team C, the winner of Friday night's Rising Stars Challenge. The younger stars competed in a three-game tourney, including NBA rookies, sophomores and top G League players. WNBA legend Candace Parker is the honorary GM for Team C. Here is the schedule: Game 1: Kenny's Young Stars vs. Chuck's Global Stars, 8:20 p.m. (EST) Kenny's Young Stars vs. Chuck's Global Stars, 8:20 p.m. (EST) Game 2: Shaq's OGs vs. Candace's Rising Stars at 9:10 p.m. (EST) Shaq's OGs vs. Candace's Rising Stars at 9:10 p.m. (EST) Game 3: Championship: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner at 10 p.m. (EST) Read on for the rosters and why the NBA made this change. Twenty-five years later, we are still talking about the show the Vince Carter put on in the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest in Oakland. In what is arguably the greatest dunk contest of all time, Carter ran away from a loaded field including Ricky Davis, Tracy McGrady, Steve Francis, Larry Hughes and Jerry Stackhouse. Vinsanity broke out a couple of 360 windmills, a between-the-leg dunk off a bounced lob and of course his iconic honey dip. Zach Harper has a deep dive into Carter's iconic Dunk Contest performance in his All-Star weekend preview here. GO FURTHER NBA Lookahead: Kevin Durant joins an (overly) exclusive club as All-Star weekend arrives The NBA trade deadline can be a blur, especially when it extends over five full days of dealing and leads off with a Luka Dončić blockbuster as an aperitif. This year's deadline, in particular, was a lot of information in a short time. With 26 of the league's 30 teams making some kind of move ahead of the deadline, and heads spinning from Seattle to South Beach at the dizzying speed of transactions, it's time to reset things, evaluate everyone's work and rank every team's trade deadline. I've already written on the biggest moves, and I won't repeat myself too much here, but this is also a way to dive into some of the neater and nerdier elements of deadline week. Let's get to work here. GO FURTHER Ranking every NBA team's trade deadline, from Lakers to Mavericks It's the NBA All-Star break, and when teams resume play, we'll see a two-month sprint toward the regular season's finish line. By now, we have an idea of what each team is and isn't and whether the remaining 25-30 games should be focused on title contention, short-term progress or the long-term future. What better time for The Athletic NBA staff to break out our red pens and hand out some grades? Check out each team's report card here. GO FURTHER NBA report cards: Grading every team's season at the 2025 All-Star break I am pro-NBA dunk contest. Even in 2025. I understand the criticism of it. I understand that we want stars to be in it. I understand that, at times, it feels like the best dunks have been done and we're now just in terrible reboots, like when they tried to remake 'Point Break.' I'm with you when you are upset that the dunk contest doesn't have the same gravitas and energy it once did. You're not necessarily wrong in those assessments, even if I'd push back on some of it. I still very much believe in the dunk contest. I believe in the dunk contest so much that I think it's ludicrous to claim the 3-point contest is a far better event. We can't pretend the dunk contest has regressed to Skills Challenge status. That's hyperbole that is so ridiculous it makes me want to set myself on fire. With all that said, I joined the masses when we learned the four participants who accepted invitations to be in this year's dunk contest. Read more on the decline of the dunk contest here. GO FURTHER Why is the NBA dunk contest such a disappointing air ball now? Ezra Shaw / Getty Images SAN FRANCISCO — Rising stars usually have to wait their turn to step on the big stage. They play on All-Star Weekend before it's technically the weekend, a Friday night preview of future greatness from the NBA's finest collection of precocious novices. But things changed on Valentine's Day in the Bay. The NBA's response to the recent embarrassment of Sunday's All-Star Game is a new mini-tournament format being introduced this season. The All-Star rosters were divided into three teams of eight, managed by Inside the NBA's crew of Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith. The fourth entrant in Sunday's All-Star tournament is the winner of the Rising Stars championship, which will be coached by TNT analyst Candace Parker. In a preview of Sunday's All-Star mini-tournament, the Rising Stars group also was divided into three squads with a fourth entrant comprised of G League players completing the bracket. Stephon Castle and Dalton Knecht led Team C to victory, becoming the first Rising Stars team to compete against the league's biggest names on Sunday. 'About to play my first All-Star Game. That's crazy as a rookie,' Knecht said. 'It's going to be a lot of fun. We are going to try to go out there and put on a show and try to make it competitive for sure. We're going to try to get that win.' GO FURTHER Stephon Castle, Dalton Knecht lead Team C to Rising Stars championship, All-Star tourney berth on Sunday By Joe Vardon and Anthony Slater There will be no Stephen Curry-Sabrina Ionescu rematch after all. Curry and Ionescu starred on All-Star Saturday night in Indianapolis last year with a first-of-its-kind, 3-point shootout between them, narrowly won by Curry. But the two will not run it back during this weekend's festivities in San Francisco. In a statement, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said, 'We weren't able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year's special moment. We all agreed not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday's new format.' League sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations said Curry and Ionescu were not interested in a rematch. Read more on Curry, Ionescu, and the failed negotiations here. GO FURTHER Steph Curry, Sabrina Ionescu will not run back 3-point contest at NBA All-Star Weekend Mac McClung soared to a second consecutive Slam Dunk championship, becoming the first player since Zach LaVine in 2015-16 to win the event two years in a row. He pulled out an array on creative, electrifying dunks along the way capped off by a reverse jam as he soared over NBA Hall of Famer and 7-footer Shaquille O'Neal. McClung beat out Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown to win the title. In Indianapolis, Damian Lillard won his second straight 3-Point Contest crown, edging out Karl-Anthony Towns and Trae Young in the final round. Lillard needed to make just a single shot on the final rack of the competition to secure the victory but made it interesting, as he missed his first four shots before knocking down his final attempt to defend his crown. Team Pacers, featuring Tyrese Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin and Myles Turner, won the 2024 Skills Challenge on their home floor in Indianapolis, edging out Team All-Stars, led by Scottie Barnes, Tyrese Maxey and Trae Young as well as Team Top Picks featuring Paolo Banchero, Anthony Edwards and Victor Wembanyama. The event came down to the tiebreaker round, where it took Team All-Stars 58.8 seconds to knock down a half court heave. This left Team Pacers ample time to win the competition, and they did just that with 20 seconds remaining as Haliburton swished through the challenge-winning shot. Milwaukee Bucks star guard Damian Lillard and G-League sensation Mac McClung are both shooting for history during this year's annual NBA All-Star Saturday Night. They won the 3-Point Contest (Lillard) and the Slam Dunk Contest (McClung) in each of the last two years. Now both enter San Francisco's Chase Center this weekend with a chance to three-peat. Lillard must shoot past seven other elite perimeter gunners — including another previous champion in Golden State Warriors wing Buddy Hield. Battling a group of three rising NBA prospects, McClung attempts to protect the title in his signature event after bursting onto the national scene two years ago. Does anybody stand a chance to dethrone Lillard or McClung after their recent dominance? Find out here. GO FURTHER 2025 NBA Slam Dunk Contest and 3-Point Contest odds, predictions: Damian Lillard, Mac McClung go for 3-peats Ezra Shaw / Getty Images SAN FRANCISCO — Greetings from All-Star weekend in San Francisco, the first installment of the NBA's midseason classic here since 2000. The parties and meetings have been rolling since Thursday evening — usual for any All-Star weekend. But the locale — a tech and fashion hub — has meant bigger events from name brands like Gap and Google with their headquarters here (Gap threw a fashion show and party at its historic building on Folsom Ave., for instance). NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's annual tech summit, which is mostly off the record (so I can't get into most of what was said), included a a tech titan and CEO of a major AI company. Today in the Bay, LeBron James skipped All-Star practice and media availability for the third consecutive year, but he will hold a full media session before Sunday's All-Star tournament (look for retirement and Luka Dončićto come up). Silver has his annual All-Star news conference tonight, and then All-Star Saturday night gets underway. Damian Lillard is trying to become the third player ever (and first since Craig Hodges in 1992) to win three consecutive 3-point contests. Mac McClung would become the first player ever to win three straight slam dunk contests. Here at the participants in the 2025 Slam Dunk contest: Mac McClung, Orlando Magic Andre Jackson Jr., Milwaukee Bucks Matas Buzelis, Chicago Bulls Stephon Castle, San Antonio Spurs Here are the participants in the latest iterations of the 3-point Content: Damian Lillard, Milwaukee Bucks Norman Powell, Los Angeles Clippers Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks Darius Garland, Cleveland Cavaliers Buddy Hield, Golden State Warriors Tyler Herro, Miami Heat Cam Johnson, Brooklyn Nets Lillard is going for his third straight victory, something only Larry Bird and Craig Hodges have done. Here are the participants in this year's Skills Challenge: Team Cavs: Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley Team Rooks: Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr Team Spurs: Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama Team Warriors: Draymond Green and Moses Moody Each team races to complete a basketball skills-themed obstacle course, including a display of dribbling, passing and shooting. I'd argue this is one of the most important NBA All-Star Weekends in a long time. In recent years, the league has been embarrassed by the product on the floor at All-Star Weekend. They can't get significant NBA players to inject life into the dunk contest and continue to rely on a G League player to give it whatever excitement can be extracted. The Rising Stars Game has been an afterthought for some time. The 3-point Contest is fine, but it won't even get the extra juice of Steph Curry shooting against Sabrina Ionescu as a beloved sideshow this year. The actual All-Star Game has been in such peril as an entertainment product that the league has drastically changed the format to make it a tournament of mini-games, rather than the two-team spectacle it has been since 1951. The NBA needs to have a positive, entertaining and competitive weekend that doesn't result in a referendum on players not caring and the league not doing a good job of promoting its product in a celebration of itself. Read more on the entertainment value of 2025's NBA All-Star Weekend here. GO FURTHER The NBA needs All-Star 2025 to work. Plus, why the 76ers should give up Getty Images Here is the full schedule of everything happening today in the Bay Area: NBA All-Star Practice & Media Day: 2 p.m. ET on NBA TV 2 p.m. ET on NBA TV NBA All-Stars will have a media availability following practice. NBA HBCU Classic: 5 p.m. ET on NBA TV 5 p.m. ET on NBA TV Morehouse College and Tuskegee University men's basketball teams face off in the fourth-ever HBCU Classic. Adam Silver's press conference: 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV The NBA commissioner will hold a press conference to address the state of the league and answer questions from the media. All-Star Saturday Night: 8 p.m. ET on TNT and truTV 8 p.m. ET on TNT and truTV The main event of the evening begins with the Skills Challenge, followed by the 3-Point and Slam Dunk Contests.
New York Times
16-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
All-Star game rosters: Kenny's Young Stars
Check out the highlights from Saturday night, including Mac McClung jumping over a Kia and scoring a 50 on all of his dunks to win his third straight Dunk Contest. Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images The NBA All-Star Game debuts a new four-team format at San Francisco's Chase Center on Sunday. All-Star teams drafted by NBA on TNT analysts Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith take the court alongside Friday night's Rising Stars winner, Team C (named after and coached by Warriors legend Chris Mullin) as the NBA once again attempts to inject life into the All-Star Game with a radical overhaul of its format. Start time: 5 p.m. ET 5 p.m. ET TV: TNT, TruTV, Max Register with The Athleti c and follow our NBA writers for the latest in-depth coverage. Here is the squad coached by Kenny Smith: Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks Jaren Jackson Jr., Memphis Grizzlies Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder Darius Garland, Cleveland Cavaliers Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons Tyler Herro, Miami Heat Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks* Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs Pascal Siakam, Indiana Pacers Alperen Şengün, Houston Rockets Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks* *Young is an injury replacement for Antetokounmpo on the roster. LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors Anthony Davis, Dallas Mavericks* Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns Damian Lillard, Milwaukee Bucks James Harden, Los Angeles Clippers Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics Kyrie Irving, Dallas Mavericks* *Irving is an injury replacement for Davis on the roster. The All-Star Game, the grand finale of the NBA's 2025 All-Star Weekend, will bring a new format and hopefully a competitive game Sunday to San Francisco's Chase Center. The league's new format, a mini-tournament with four teams and three games composed of 24 of the league's top players, is a chance to make the All-Star Game more appealing for all involved — and for the fans' sake, more enjoyable to watch on television. For all three games of the mini-tournament, the first team to 40 points wins. There is a prize money pool of $1.8 million with each player on the championship team earning $125,000. Each player on the second-place team will receive $50,000 and each player on the third- and fourth-place teams will receive $25,000. Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal are honorary general managers of their respective teams, which they selected during a draft. The fourth team in Sunday's All-Star tournament is Team C, the winner of Friday night's Rising Stars Challenge. The younger stars competed in a three-game tourney, including NBA rookies, sophomores and top G League players. WNBA legend Candace Parker is the honorary GM for Team C. Here is the schedule: Game 1: Kenny's Young Stars vs. Chuck's Global Stars, 8:20 p.m. (EST) Kenny's Young Stars vs. Chuck's Global Stars, 8:20 p.m. (EST) Game 2: Shaq's OGs vs. Candace's Rising Stars at 9:10 p.m. (EST) Shaq's OGs vs. Candace's Rising Stars at 9:10 p.m. (EST) Game 3: Championship: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner at 10 p.m. (EST) Read on for the rosters and why the NBA made this change. Twenty-five years later, we are still talking about the show the Vince Carter put on in the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest in Oakland. In what is arguably the greatest dunk contest of all time, Carter ran away from a loaded field including Ricky Davis, Tracy McGrady, Steve Francis, Larry Hughes and Jerry Stackhouse. Vinsanity broke out a couple of 360 windmills, a between-the-leg dunk off a bounced lob and of course his iconic honey dip. Zach Harper has a deep dive into Carter's iconic Dunk Contest performance in his All-Star weekend preview here. GO FURTHER NBA Lookahead: Kevin Durant joins an (overly) exclusive club as All-Star weekend arrives The NBA trade deadline can be a blur, especially when it extends over five full days of dealing and leads off with a Luka Dončić blockbuster as an aperitif. This year's deadline, in particular, was a lot of information in a short time. With 26 of the league's 30 teams making some kind of move ahead of the deadline, and heads spinning from Seattle to South Beach at the dizzying speed of transactions, it's time to reset things, evaluate everyone's work and rank every team's trade deadline. I've already written on the biggest moves, and I won't repeat myself too much here, but this is also a way to dive into some of the neater and nerdier elements of deadline week. Let's get to work here. GO FURTHER Ranking every NBA team's trade deadline, from Lakers to Mavericks It's the NBA All-Star break, and when teams resume play, we'll see a two-month sprint toward the regular season's finish line. By now, we have an idea of what each team is and isn't and whether the remaining 25-30 games should be focused on title contention, short-term progress or the long-term future. What better time for The Athletic NBA staff to break out our red pens and hand out some grades? Check out each team's report card here. GO FURTHER NBA report cards: Grading every team's season at the 2025 All-Star break I am pro-NBA dunk contest. Even in 2025. I understand the criticism of it. I understand that we want stars to be in it. I understand that, at times, it feels like the best dunks have been done and we're now just in terrible reboots, like when they tried to remake 'Point Break.' I'm with you when you are upset that the dunk contest doesn't have the same gravitas and energy it once did. You're not necessarily wrong in those assessments, even if I'd push back on some of it. I still very much believe in the dunk contest. I believe in the dunk contest so much that I think it's ludicrous to claim the 3-point contest is a far better event. We can't pretend the dunk contest has regressed to Skills Challenge status. That's hyperbole that is so ridiculous it makes me want to set myself on fire. With all that said, I joined the masses when we learned the four participants who accepted invitations to be in this year's dunk contest. Read more on the decline of the dunk contest here. GO FURTHER Why is the NBA dunk contest such a disappointing air ball now? Ezra Shaw / Getty Images SAN FRANCISCO — Rising stars usually have to wait their turn to step on the big stage. They play on All-Star Weekend before it's technically the weekend, a Friday night preview of future greatness from the NBA's finest collection of precocious novices. But things changed on Valentine's Day in the Bay. The NBA's response to the recent embarrassment of Sunday's All-Star Game is a new mini-tournament format being introduced this season. The All-Star rosters were divided into three teams of eight, managed by Inside the NBA's crew of Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith. The fourth entrant in Sunday's All-Star tournament is the winner of the Rising Stars championship, which will be coached by TNT analyst Candace Parker. In a preview of Sunday's All-Star mini-tournament, the Rising Stars group also was divided into three squads with a fourth entrant comprised of G League players completing the bracket. Stephon Castle and Dalton Knecht led Team C to victory, becoming the first Rising Stars team to compete against the league's biggest names on Sunday. 'About to play my first All-Star Game. That's crazy as a rookie,' Knecht said. 'It's going to be a lot of fun. We are going to try to go out there and put on a show and try to make it competitive for sure. We're going to try to get that win.' GO FURTHER Stephon Castle, Dalton Knecht lead Team C to Rising Stars championship, All-Star tourney berth on Sunday By Joe Vardon and Anthony Slater There will be no Stephen Curry-Sabrina Ionescu rematch after all. Curry and Ionescu starred on All-Star Saturday night in Indianapolis last year with a first-of-its-kind, 3-point shootout between them, narrowly won by Curry. But the two will not run it back during this weekend's festivities in San Francisco. In a statement, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said, 'We weren't able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year's special moment. We all agreed not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday's new format.' League sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations said Curry and Ionescu were not interested in a rematch. Read more on Curry, Ionescu, and the failed negotiations here. GO FURTHER Steph Curry, Sabrina Ionescu will not run back 3-point contest at NBA All-Star Weekend Mac McClung soared to a second consecutive Slam Dunk championship, becoming the first player since Zach LaVine in 2015-16 to win the event two years in a row. He pulled out an array on creative, electrifying dunks along the way capped off by a reverse jam as he soared over NBA Hall of Famer and 7-footer Shaquille O'Neal. McClung beat out Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown to win the title. In Indianapolis, Damian Lillard won his second straight 3-Point Contest crown, edging out Karl-Anthony Towns and Trae Young in the final round. Lillard needed to make just a single shot on the final rack of the competition to secure the victory but made it interesting, as he missed his first four shots before knocking down his final attempt to defend his crown. Team Pacers, featuring Tyrese Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin and Myles Turner, won the 2024 Skills Challenge on their home floor in Indianapolis, edging out Team All-Stars, led by Scottie Barnes, Tyrese Maxey and Trae Young as well as Team Top Picks featuring Paolo Banchero, Anthony Edwards and Victor Wembanyama. The event came down to the tiebreaker round, where it took Team All-Stars 58.8 seconds to knock down a half court heave. This left Team Pacers ample time to win the competition, and they did just that with 20 seconds remaining as Haliburton swished through the challenge-winning shot. Milwaukee Bucks star guard Damian Lillard and G-League sensation Mac McClung are both shooting for history during this year's annual NBA All-Star Saturday Night. They won the 3-Point Contest (Lillard) and the Slam Dunk Contest (McClung) in each of the last two years. Now both enter San Francisco's Chase Center this weekend with a chance to three-peat. Lillard must shoot past seven other elite perimeter gunners — including another previous champion in Golden State Warriors wing Buddy Hield. Battling a group of three rising NBA prospects, McClung attempts to protect the title in his signature event after bursting onto the national scene two years ago. Does anybody stand a chance to dethrone Lillard or McClung after their recent dominance? Find out here. GO FURTHER 2025 NBA Slam Dunk Contest and 3-Point Contest odds, predictions: Damian Lillard, Mac McClung go for 3-peats Ezra Shaw / Getty Images SAN FRANCISCO — Greetings from All-Star weekend in San Francisco, the first installment of the NBA's midseason classic here since 2000. The parties and meetings have been rolling since Thursday evening — usual for any All-Star weekend. But the locale — a tech and fashion hub — has meant bigger events from name brands like Gap and Google with their headquarters here (Gap threw a fashion show and party at its historic building on Folsom Ave., for instance). NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's annual tech summit, which is mostly off the record (so I can't get into most of what was said), included a a tech titan and CEO of a major AI company. Today in the Bay, LeBron James skipped All-Star practice and media availability for the third consecutive year, but he will hold a full media session before Sunday's All-Star tournament (look for retirement and Luka Dončićto come up). Silver has his annual All-Star news conference tonight, and then All-Star Saturday night gets underway. Damian Lillard is trying to become the third player ever (and first since Craig Hodges in 1992) to win three consecutive 3-point contests. Mac McClung would become the first player ever to win three straight slam dunk contests. Here at the participants in the 2025 Slam Dunk contest: Mac McClung, Orlando Magic Andre Jackson Jr., Milwaukee Bucks Matas Buzelis, Chicago Bulls Stephon Castle, San Antonio Spurs Here are the participants in the latest iterations of the 3-point Content: Damian Lillard, Milwaukee Bucks Norman Powell, Los Angeles Clippers Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks Darius Garland, Cleveland Cavaliers Buddy Hield, Golden State Warriors Tyler Herro, Miami Heat Cam Johnson, Brooklyn Nets Lillard is going for his third straight victory, something only Larry Bird and Craig Hodges have done. Here are the participants in this year's Skills Challenge: Team Cavs: Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley Team Rooks: Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr Team Spurs: Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama Team Warriors: Draymond Green and Moses Moody Each team races to complete a basketball skills-themed obstacle course, including a display of dribbling, passing and shooting. I'd argue this is one of the most important NBA All-Star Weekends in a long time. In recent years, the league has been embarrassed by the product on the floor at All-Star Weekend. They can't get significant NBA players to inject life into the dunk contest and continue to rely on a G League player to give it whatever excitement can be extracted. The Rising Stars Game has been an afterthought for some time. The 3-point Contest is fine, but it won't even get the extra juice of Steph Curry shooting against Sabrina Ionescu as a beloved sideshow this year. The actual All-Star Game has been in such peril as an entertainment product that the league has drastically changed the format to make it a tournament of mini-games, rather than the two-team spectacle it has been since 1951. The NBA needs to have a positive, entertaining and competitive weekend that doesn't result in a referendum on players not caring and the league not doing a good job of promoting its product in a celebration of itself. Read more on the entertainment value of 2025's NBA All-Star Weekend here. GO FURTHER The NBA needs All-Star 2025 to work. Plus, why the 76ers should give up
Chicago Tribune
15-02-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Team C wins Rising Stars competition — and a berth against LeBron James in the All-Star Game
SAN FRANCISCO — Congratulations, Team C. You've won the Rising Stars competition. Your reward? A trip to the All-Star Game on Sunday night — where LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are among those who'll be waiting in the second semifinal. San Antonio's Stephon Castle scored 12 points and won MVP honors, Keyonte George had a 3-pointer for the game-winning score and Team C beat Team G League — composed of players from the NBA's developmental league — 25-14 in the championship game of the Rising Stars competition to open All-Star weekend on Friday night. 'We all wanted to play on Sunday,' Castle said. 'We all wanted to win.' Combined, the seven first- and second-year players on Team C — Castle, George, Phoenix's Ryan Dunn, Memphis teammates Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells, Golden State's Trayce Jackson-Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers' Dalton Knecht — have a combined 5,028 points, 25 double-doubles and no triple-doubles in their NBA careers. (An eighth player, Houston's Amen Thompson, was added to the roster after Friday's final.) 'All of us are about to play in our first All-Star Game,' Knecht said. 'That's crazy. … I might play against 'Bron, right? That true? I get to go against one of my teammates. It's going to be a lot of fun to get a chance to go out there and make a statement.' Team C — which will go by Candace's Rising Stars on Sunday, named for Candace Parker — will face the team drafted by Shaquille O'Neal in the All-Star semifinal. That means it'll be taking on James, Curry, Durant, Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Damian Lillard and James Harden. That team, combined: 7,577 NBA games, 188,331 points, 1,812 double-doubles, 243 triple-doubles — and about $2.7 billion in on-court earnings. But past stats won't mean anything in a first-to-40 game on Sunday night. The NBA stars will surely feel some pressure against a young team that has nothing to lose. 'Nobody will want to lose to that team,' Curry said. Dink Pate of the Mexico City Capitanes and Leonard Miller of the Iowa Wolves each had five points for the G League team in the Rising Stars final. Three of the teams in the Rising Stars tournament were named in honor of Golden State's famed Run TMC days. Team T was named for Tim Hardaway Sr., Team C for Chris Mullin and Team M for Mitch Richmond. Semifinal 1: Team C 40, Team T 34 George scored 10 points, Castle made the game-winning jumper and Team C defeated Team T in the first semifinal. Toronto's Gradey Dick led Team T with 12 points in the first-to-40-points, untimed format. Semifinal 2: Team G League 40, Team M 39 Bryce McGowens hit a 3-pointer for the winning score and Team G League beat Team M 40-39 in the second semifinal. Miller had 14 points for Team G League. Houston's Amen Thompson had 10 points for Team M.
New York Times
15-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
NBA All-Star Game 2025, explained: New format, rosters and how we got here
The All-Star Game, the grand finale of the NBA's 2025 All-Star Weekend, will bring a new format and hopefully a competitive game Sunday to San Francisco's Chase Center. The league's new format, a mini tournament with four teams and three games composed of 24 of the league's top players, is a chance to make the All-Star Game more appealing for all involved — and for the fans' sake, more enjoyable to watch on television. Advertisement The first team to score 40 or more points is the winner of the reimagined event. There is a prize money pool of $1.8 million, with each player on the championship team earning $125,000. Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal serve as honorary general managers of their respective teams, which they selected via a draft. The fourth team in Sunday's All-Star tournament is Team C, the winner of Friday night's Rising Stars Challenge. The younger stars competed in a three-game tourney including NBA rookies, sophomores and top G League players. WNBA legend Candace Parker is the honorary GM for Team C. Here is the bracket with the tournament set to kick off at 8:20 p.m ET. During a live 'Inside the NBA' broadcast on TNT on Feb. 6, O'Neal, Smith and Barkley led a first-ever All-Star draft where the trio selected eight players from a pool of two dozen of the Eastern and Western Conference's top players based on fan and media voting. That included five 'starters' who were selected by players. O'Neal selected LeBron James, who is making his 21st appearance at the All-Star Game, with the No. 1 pick to headline a team filled with experienced stars of Boston Celtics' duo Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry and Phoenix Suns' Kevin Durant. Smith heads a team of younger stars such as Detroit Pistons' Cade Cunningham, New York Knicks' Jalen Brunson and Minnesota Timberwolves' Anthony Edwards. Barkley picked six foreign All-Stars to complete a majority international roster of players like three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama. A crop of stars from around the world. A new generation taking the league by storm. All-time greats & OGs doing work. 🌟🍿 Presenting the new team names for our #NBAAllStar squads! Watch them battle it out in The Bay on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 8:00pm/et on TNT. — NBA (@NBA) February 12, 2025 Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving will replace Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who will miss the event due to a left calf strain. Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young will replace Mavs center Anthony Davis, who is expected to miss several weeks after suffering a left adductor strain. As the top teams in the Eastern and Western conferences, Oklahoma City's Mark Daigneault and Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson will each coach a team, and one of their assistants will coach the two remaining teams. Advertisement The All-Star Game — and arguably at times the entire weekend of festivities — has been a tough watch for fans, specifically in the past four years. The Game has been a difficult entertainment product, and the league took notice of that and chose a different route. This year's mini tournament will be the first year since the league inaugurated the game in Boston in 1951. After the record-setting points put on the scoreboard in last year's All-Star Game, which devolved into a contest to see who could chuck up the most 3-pointers in a defenseless 211-186 game won by the East, concerns were raised about the level of effort and competitiveness the league's best players were putting into the NBA's midseason showcase. NBA commissioner Adam Silver heard the chatter following the 2024 All-Star Game, and the league went to work. Silver began with admitting he was 'wrong' about players coming out motivated to play a fierce, traditional game in Indianapolis. The NBA 'went back to the drawing board with the players association,' as Silver noted in December, and made the proper changes not just for the game of basketball to be played in a manner respectable for the players, but for fans who often look forward to the All-Star Game. 'I think we've come to terms that modern All-Stars are in part about competition, but ultimately, they're about entertaining the fans and creating a strong experience for them,' NBA Silver said in an interview in December. The NBA and Players Association collaboratively announced the agreement of a new formatted mini-tournament in mid-December but talks of changing the format began as early as mid-November, as The Athletic previously reported. Silver connected with Curry and Players association executive director Andre Iguodala, who represented the players' side. Advertisement Last year was the first time the NBA went back to East versus West after a few years of fiddling with the event, including having captains select their rosters, regardless of conference. But it clearly didn't work. This is another chance for the league to prove it still values competition, or players and executives will be at the drawing board again.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Spurs' Stephon Castle named Rising Stars MVP, leads his team into All-Star Game on Sunday with win
SAN FRANCISCO — It all felt a little surreal to Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht — at the end of a couple of wild weeks, he is headed to the All-Star Game, where he will face off against teammate LeBron James on one of the NBA's biggest stages. "All of us are about to play our first All Star game, that's crazy. As a rookie," Knecht said. "It's gonna be a lot of fun. We're gonna try to go out there and put on the show." Sparked by Knecht in the first game and Spurs rookie and Rising Stars MVP Stephon Castle all night long, the poorly-named Team C won the NBA Rising Stars four-team mini-tournament on Friday night. The group now advances to the All-Star Game on Sunday (for another mini-tournament). "Whether I win [MVP] or not, I felt like it was a big goal of mine to be an All-Star," Castle said, adding he thinks making it this way this year might slightly increase his chances of being named an All-Star in the future. Stephon Castle earned #CastrolRisingStars MVP honors with two strong performances! 18 PTS (12 of 25 in Championship) 7 REB 6 ASTHe led Team C to the #NBAAllStar mini-tournament on Sunday! — NBA (@NBA) February 15, 2025 Could these Rising Stars pull off the upset on Sunday? Possibly, if for no other reason than they are likely to play hard while the regular All-Stars go through the motions before a few days off. This Rising Stars team sees themselves as disruptors and now faces off against three All-Stars teams in the funky new mini-tournament format for the 2025 All-Star Game. They talked about playing hard in an event not exactly known for that in recent years. "We're gonna try to go win it," Knecht said. Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht made his presence felt for Team C at the #CastrolRisingStars Game! 12 PTS 6 REB 4 ASTTeam C earns their place in Sunday's #NBAAllStar mini-tournament. — NBA (@NBA) February 15, 2025 At least on Friday night, the mini-tournament format did spark better competition and some defense, although this was from rookies motivated by the chance to play on Sunday (and win $25,000 per player). Players were trying and there was some defense — not exactly playoff defense, but more than past Rising Stars games (which, admittedly, is a low bar). We'll see if that carries over to Sunday and the NBA All-Stars. Team C was good all Friday night. Utah's Keynote George had a quick eight and finished with a team-high 10 for Team C in their opening win. In the championship, they went up against the Rockets' Reed Sheppard and a team made up of G-League stars. It was a back-and-forth game, but Castle stepped up, and his team advanced. Sunday, we'll see if Castle and his teammates can be the disruptors they see themselves as.
