Rising Stars Challenge
The Rising Stars Challenge is a basketball exhibition game held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) on the Friday before the annual All-Star Game as part of the All-Star Weekend and is intended to showcase young and rising players in the league (mainly rookies from the games inception in 1994, second-year players since 2000 and NBA G League players since 2022).
[2] The Rookie Challenge, established in 1994, was originally competed by two randomly selected teams composed entirely of first-year players.
This format was continued until 1996, when it was changed to pit rookie teams of both the Eastern and the Western Conference against each other.
Starting in 2009, two active NBA players were added to the game coaching staffs.
The coaches include: Rick Barry, Gary Payton, Isiah Thomas and James Worthy.
In 2023, the 21 NBA players were drafted into three teams led by Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah, and Deron Williams, while the 7 NBA G League players form a single team led by Jason Terry.
[5] In 2025, with the event being held in San Francisco, the NBA rookies and sophomores will be coached by the Run TMC trio of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin, with the teams named after their respective initials.
The G League team will be coached by Jeremy Lin, who began his career with the Golden State Warriors.
The 1995 Rookie Challenge took place on February 11 at the America West Arena in Phoenix.
* Did not play due to injury The 1998 Rookie Challenge took place on February 8 at the Madison Square Garden in New York City.
* Did not play due to injury The 2001 Rookie Challenge took place on February 10 at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
The 2004 Rookie Challenge took place on February 13 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Much of the hype centered on rookie phenoms LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, who had 33 and 17 points respectively.
* Did not play due to injury The 2006 Rookie Challenge took place on February 17 at the Toyota Center in Houston.
* Did not play due to injury The 2007 Rookie Challenge took place on February 16 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Paradise, Nevada.
[9] Shortly before the draft for the rosters, Norris Cole and Jeremy Lin were added to the original player pool.
[10] A few days before the game, Tiago Splitter was injured and was replaced by Derrick Favors.
[10][11] Lin played only nine minutes in the game, at his request, due to exhaustion from his rise to stardom that month.
The World team won against the U.S. 121–112 at the Rising Stars Challenge at All-Star weekend.
Brooklyn's Bojan Bogdanovic of Croatia, and Chicago's Nikola Mirotić of Montenegro added 16 points each for the World team.
Victor Oladipo of the Orlando Magic and Zach LaVine of the Minnesota Timberwolves led the U.S. team with 22 points each.
Andrew Wiggins, the 2014 NBA draft 1st overall pick, won the game's MVP award.
[20] Team USA won 157–154 in the highest scoring game in Rising Stars Challenge history.
[21] Zach LaVine was named MVP, leading all of the USA team with 30 points while also recording 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
The NBA still named the Rising Stars rosters of first- and second-year players.
[40] Source:[41] Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah, Deron Williams and Jason Terry
[42] Source:[43] Pau Gasol, Tamika Catchings, Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf
[46] Source:[47] Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond, and Jeremy Lin ^INJ1 Jared McCain was unable to participate due to injury.
