By Darryl Harding Sr
The NBA All-Star Weekend’s Rising Stars games consist of a four team, three-game mini tournament. The teams consist of rookie players, sophomore players and All-Star G league players.
These players represent the next generation of All Stars on the rise. Led by former WNBA and NBA greats Pau Gasol, Detlef Schrempf, Jalen Rose and Tamika Catchings. Three of these team leaders drafted out of a pool of up-and-coming rookies and sophomores and the last team was composed completely of G League All-Stars.
Highly favored team Pau included rookie sensation and first round pick Victor Wenbanyama. Team Pau was slated in the second game to go up against team Detlef, the G league team. First was team Tamika versus team Jalen. The first two games in the round robin had a target score of 40 points.
First team to reach 40 advances. Lethargically starting team Rose unfortunately went down 9-0 as team Tamika jumped out to an early lead, featuring last year’s Rookie of the Year, Paulo Ranchero.
But it was Benedict Mathurin who dominated the comeback for team Jalen, bringing them to win 40-35. The second game proved to be an upset as team Detlef, led by G League Superstar and last year’s dunk contest winner Mac McClung led team Detlef with 12 points in the 41-36 win.
The finals in The Rising Stars game would find a winner in whoever could get to 25 points first. Hoping for the ultimate upset, G league players on team Detlef were unfortunately overcome by team Jalen in a 26-13 loss.
Team Jalen’s leading scorer and eventual MVP Mathurin took the championship and became the leader of the Rising Stars.