The NBA All-Star Game is returning to the Southland in two weeks and a part of the annual weekend event that has grown in popularity in recent years is the Rising Stars Challenge, which affords fans the opportunity to watch the league’s top rookies and second-year players compete in a four-team tournament.
Rosters for the mini-tournament to take place on Friday, Feb. 13, at Intuit Dome were drafted this week by a trio of Hall of Famers in Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, who will join former NBA player and current NBC/Peacock analyst Austin Rivers as the four honorary coaches (Rivers will coach the G League squad).
Anthony had the No. 1 pick and drafted Dallas rookie forward Cooper Flagg. McGrady went next and chose Charlotte rookie guard/forward Kon Knueppel while Carter opted for Philadelphia rookie guard VJ Edgecombe at No. 3. (Rosters attached at bottom of story.)
Quentin Richardson, drafted by the Clippers with the 18th pick of the 2000 NBA draft, knows all three Hall of Famers well. He was Anthony’s teammate on the New York Knicks in 2012-13 and faced cousins McGrady and Carter many times throughout their respective careers. Richardson, now 45, enjoys All-Star Weekend and is delighted to see the festivities back in the city where his NBA journey started. A highlight of his 13-year career was making his last nine shots to win the three-point contest in 2005.
“I participated in the Saturday night rookie-sophomore game my first couple of years in the league and I just love the event,” said Richardson, who played for the Clippers from 2000 to 2004 when they were co-tenants with the Lakers at what was then called Staples Center, now Crypto.com Arena. “It’s a platform for the fans to look at the real future stars of the league, the up-and-comers, and with the international boom there’s so many different young international guys they may not know well from different teams that are out on display that weekend.
Lakers guard Dalton Knecht of Team C, center, elevates for a dunk during the 2025 Rising Stars Challenge at Chase Center in San Francisco.
(Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images)
“It’s one of those weekends you always want to go to, you always want to be a part of.”
The Rookie Challenge was established in 1994 and featured two randomly selected teams of first-year players. The name was changed to Rising Stars Challenge in 2012 and the current tournament-style format was adopted four years ago. Since 2023, the format has been 28 players — 21 rookies and sophomores and seven G League players.
“I’m intrigued by the format,” Richardson said. “When I played it was just the rookies and sophomores, two teams, but the kids have gotten behind this so the NBA has been very good about pivoting into different things to try to gain more excitement around the games for that weekend. I’m all for it.”
“It’ll be awesome [at Intuit Dome],” said Richardson, who lives in Orlando and co-hosts the “Knuckleheads” podcast with Darius Miles. “The young fellas will be put on display for the world to see and that venue is going to be put on display for everyone to see as well. I believe it’s the newest arena we have in the NBA. So much technology went into it, so it’ll be a great stage for everyone to come and witness and enjoy that.”
Richardson, Miles and Keyon Dooling starred in the 2004 documentary “The Youngest Guns” about their first three seasons with the Clippers. Richardson hosts NBA HooperVision in addition to the pregame, halftime and postgame shows for the Magic.
“The rules have changed in a way that you’re allowing the fans to watch more scoring,” he said. “The pace has been sped up, the three-point shot is a bigger deal now, they shoot it with a higher volume. From a fan’s standpoint you want to see more scoring and more defense, but the defenders now have that much more skill because they don’t have as many rules in their favor.”
In the Rising Stars mini-tournament, Team A will face Team B in the first semifinal and Team C will play Team D in the second semifinal. The two winners will meet for the championship. For each semifinal, the first team to reach or surpass 40 points is the winner. For the final, the first team to reach or surpass 25 points will be the champion.
“I like how they draft for it,” Richardson said. “It picks from the essence of how we all grew up when you played in the park or rec league, wherever you went, one guy had two dudes to choose and you get to pick your five, so it’s kind of taking you back to the essence of how we grew up playing ball. It’s something we’re all familiar with so that’s a little twist that takes us back to our roots.”
In November, the NBA announced that the All-Star Game will adopt a new USA vs. the World format: a round-robin tournament featuring two teams of American players and another of international players, each consisting of at least eight players. The top two teams based on record will advance to the finals. All four games will be played with a 12-minute time limit.
“Absolutely, it’ll continue to be a global sport,” Richardson said. “Especially with them talking about NBA Europe, that’ll make everything bigger and better. They’ve got the Africa League so from commissioner David Stern to now Adam Silver they’ve done an incredible job of growing the brand. Proof is in the amount of international guys we have in the league now. It’s known far and wide and it’ll continue to get bigger and bigger.”
Richardson thinks the success of the All-Star Game is dependent on the best players participating.
“It just takes a couple of guys … one or two of the right guys to come out and participate,” he said. “When a couple guys do it, I think you’ll see the turn. The three-point contest, the dunk contest, it’ll take one big-name guy to go out and do it and everyone else will say, ‘Oh wait, he’s doing it? I need to do it.’ It’ll get back there. It’s a great weekend for the NBA … it’s like a family reunion. I just go out there and enjoy it.”
RISING STARS ROSTERS
Team Melo
Cooper Flagg (Dallas), Reed Sheppard (Houston), Stephon Castle (San Antonio), Dylan Harper (San Antonio), Jeremiah Fears (New Orleans), Donovan Clingan (Portland), Collin Murray-Boyles (Toronto)
Team T-Mac
Kon Knueppel (Charlotte), Kel’el Ware (Miami), Tre Johnson (Washington), Alex Sarr (Washington), Ajay Mitchell (Oklahoma City), Jaylon Tyson (Cleveland), Cam Spencer (Memphis)
Team Vince
VJ Edgecombe (Philadelphia), Derik Queen (New Orleans), Kyshawn George (Washington), Matas Buzelis (Chicago), Egor Dёmin (Brooklyn), Cedric Coward (Memphis), Jaylen Wells (Memphis)
Team Austin
Sean East II (Salt Lake City), Ron Harper Jr. (Maine), David Jones Garcia (Austin), Yanic Konan Niederhäuser (San Diego), Alijah Martin (Raptors 905), Tristen Newton (Rio Grande Valley), Yang Hansen (Rip City)
NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND SCHEDULE
(at Intuit Dome unless noted)
Friday
4 p.m.: Celebrity Game at Kia Forum (ESPN)
6 p.m.: Rising Stars Challenge (Peacock)
8 p.m.: HBCU Classic, Hampton vs. North Carolina A&T, at Kia Forum (Peacock)
Saturday
10:30 a.m.: NBA All-Star media session (NBA TV)
2 p.m.: All-Star Saturday: skills challenge, three-point contest, slam-dunk contest (NBC and Peacock)
Sunday
11:30 a.m.: NBA G League Next Up Game at Convention Center (NBA TV)
2 p.m.: 75th NBA All-Star Game (NBC and Peacock)
This story originally appeared on LA Times
