The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
NBA announces All-Star Saturday participants
Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo is teaming up with his brothers once again on All-Star Saturday. Portland’s Damian Lillard is taking a third shot at the 3-point title, Indiana’s Buddy Hield will aim to win that one again and Philadelphia’s Mac McClung now can be a slam-dunk champion at the NBA and high school levels.
The NBA released the full list of participants for AllStar Saturday’s events in Salt Lake City — the Skills Competition, the 3-point contest and the dunk contest. It’ll be a particularly busy weekend for 11 players who are now slotted to be in multiple events during the three days of action in Utah.
3-point contest
Hield, the 2020 winner, is back to try to become the eighth player with multiple 3-point crowns. He’ll
face his Indiana teammate Tyrese Haliburton, the Portland duo of Lillard and Anfernee Simons, Miami’s Tyler Herro, Sacramento’s Kevin Huerter, Utah’s Lauri Markkanen and Boston’s Jayson Tatum.
Huerter is one of four Kings picked to be part of the weekend.
Skills challenge
Antetokounmpo is an All-Star captain, and will choose a team to oppose the squad that will be picked Sunday night by fellow captain LeBron James.
But first, he’ll be teaming up with his brothers — Thanasis and Alex — in the Skills Challenge, just as he did in last year’s event at Cleveland. They’ll face two other teams, one from the host Utah Jazz and the other composed of three top picks in last year’s draft.
The Jazz will be represented by Jordan Clarkson, Walker Kessler and Collin Sexton. And Team Rooks is composed of No. 1 pick Paolo Banchero of Orlando, No. 3 pick Jabari Smith Jr. of Houston and No. 5 pick Jaden Ivey of Detroit.
It’s a four-round competition, the first three involve shooting, passing and a relay. The top two teams after those events will then shoot half-court shots to decide a winner.
Dunk contest
McClung won an AllAmerican high school dunk contest in 2018, and will be joined in the NBA dunk field by Houston’s Kenyon Martin Jr., New Orleans’ Trey Murphy III and New York’s Jericho Sims.