There is genuine motivation for the rookies and sophomores playing in the All-Star Friday night Rising Stars next month. The winning team will play Sunday night in the All-Star Game against Stephen Curry, LeBron James, and the biggest names in the sport.
There also will be genuine rising stars at the event — the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and the Rockets’ Amen Thompson are headed to San Francisco and will headline the game. On Tuesday, the NBA released the pool of players invited to participate in the Rising Stars game.
The 2025 #CastrolRisingStars Player Pool! @CastrolUSA
— NBA (@NBA) January 28, 2025
NBA Rookies and Sophomores will be drafted onto three teams on Tuesday, Feb. 4 (4:00pm/et on the NBA App & @NBA), with NBA G League Players to comprise the fourth team. The four seven-player teams will compete in the mini… pic.twitter.com/8BcIRAZc4J
Those players were selected by a vote of assistant coaches around the league.
The 76ers’ Jared McCain deserved to make the team, he was the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year until he suffered a lateral tear in his left meniscus. He is out recovering from surgery and will be replaced in the lineup.
The NBA has changed the Rising Stars format to match Sunday’s All-Star Game format: The 21 rookies and sophomores will be drafted into three teams of seven players each, with the G-League players forming the fourth team. Those four teams will play in a mini-tournament with two semi-finals to 40 and one championship game to 25. The team that wins two games will advance to be the fourth team playing on Sunday in the All-Star Game against the biggest names in the NBA (in that same tournament format).
The Rising Stars Draft will happen next week (Feb. 4 at 4 p.m. ET on the NBA App and on social platforms), with three honorary head coaches making the selections (those honorary head coaches have yet to be announced). The teams will be coached by an assistant from the Thunder or Cavaliers — the teams whose head coaches, Mark Daigneault and Kenny Atkinson, earned the right to coach teams on Sunday — as well as the yet-to-be-named honorary coaches.
There also is a Victor Wembanyama provision — that’s not what they call it, but in practical terms, that is exactly what it is. If Wembanyama is named to the West All-Star Team as a reserve Thursday — which is almost a certainty — and then his rookie/sophomore team wins the Rising Stars game, he will play on Sunday for the All-Star team he is drafted onto, and be replaced on the Rising Stars squad.
The Rising Stars game will be broadcast at 9 p.m. ET on TNT from the Chase Center in San Francisco.
