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NBA All-Star Weekend: BBVA Rising Stars Challenge

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Daniel “The Sports Hound” Trawick
@TheSportsHound of SportsHoundBlog.com
Contributor of AGSH

Last season, Kyrie Irving led a furious attack as Team Chuck beat Team Shaq in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge.  Irving finished with 34 points while connecting on all 8 of his attempted 3 point field goals.  In his sophomore season, when the opportunity arose for Charles Barkley to “re-sign” his MVP, he went elsewhere.  Shaquille O’Neal picked rookie star Damian Lillard 1st overall, while Chuck chose Anthony Davis.

Shaq immediately picked Irving with his second pick and made his team almost unstoppable in the backcourt.  I feel like Chuck completely disrespected Irving by not picking him after he led his team to a win last season.  I also find it disrespectful that Shaq didn’t pick him first overall to begin with.  I understand Lillard is having a great season, but Irving is definitely the “future” of the NBA.  I can’t wait to see the game this Friday night, especially what Irving does.

Here are the rosters for both teams:

#TeamShaq

  • Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers)
  • Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers)
  • Andrew Nicholson (Orlando Magic)
  • Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors)
  • Harrison Barnes (Golden State Warriors)
  • Chandler Parsons (Houston Rockets)
  • Dion Waiters (Cleveland Cavaliers)
  • Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Charlotte Bobcats)
  • Tyler Zeller (Cleveland Cavaliers)
  • Kemba Walker (Charlotte Bobcats)
  • Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons) *Will not play due to injury

#TeamChuck

  • Anthony Davis (New Orleans Hornets)
  • Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets)
  • Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs)
  • Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards)
  • Ricky Rubio (Minnesota Timberwolves)
  • Tristan Thompson (Cleveland Cavaliers)
  • Nikola Vucevic (Orlando Magic)
  • Brandon Knight (Detroit Pistons)
  • Isaiah Thomas (Sacramento Kings)
  • Alexey Shved (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Looking at the rosters, it’s easy to see that Team Chuck has the definite size advantage, but Team Shaq has the dominant wing players.  I think it’s going to be a high scoring game (understatement and known fact), but I think it will be a runaway game for Team Shaq.

Irving, Lillard and Walker are all scoring machines and will have an advantage going against Rubio, Knight and Thomas.  Team Shaq will need to use their speed advantage to get easy buckets, because they probably have no chance of getting rebounds against Team Chuck.

Also, with Drummond being out of the game due to injury, I’m hoping they replace him with a guy like Arnett Moultrie from the Philadelphia 76ers.  He is finally starting to get some minutes due to the injury to Thaddeus Young and he’s making the best of it.  Playing in this game would give him some much-needed exposure to showcase his talents.

The play of Lillard this season could be a good thing for a guy like C.J. McCollum of Lehigh coming into the NBA next season.  Lillard is showing that just because you go to a small-time college, it doesn’t mean that your talent won’t transfer at the next level.

For the record, I’m calling an easy win by Team Shaq and I expect Irving to play with a chip on his shoulder and put up around 40 points in this game.  Who’s going to stop him?



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