Lin joins Griffin, Wall for Rising Stars game
Free from labor strife, this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend offers a chance to reflect on the past, speculate about the future and soak in the present.
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The last time the game was held in Orlando, Fla., in 1992, Magic Johnson made a heroic return from retirement, earning MVP honors with 25 points and nine assists after leaving basketball only months earlier following his announcement he was HIV positive.
“The way I played and performed let people know that I could still play,” Johnson, now an ESPN analyst, said on a conference call this week. “Then winning the MVP, hitting those three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter just showed people, ‘OK, Magic is back. He can play. He’s OK. Yeah, you can play against him. Nothing’s going to happen.’ Those type of things.”
The game’s return to Central Florida has a timely appeal: The future of Magic center Dwight Howard will be the underlying topic at Amway Center. That is, when Jeremy Lin isn’t in the spotlight.
The league’s newest sensation will be first on the stage as part of the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday between teams of rookie and sophomore players selected by Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal in a draft last week.
Lin was the third player chosen — he will play with the Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin, Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio and Detroit’s Greg Monroe on Team Shaq. Wizards point guard John Wall, who had a record 22 assists and was MVP of last year’s game when the teams were divided by class, was the 12th player and fifth point guard picked. He will play for Team Chuck behind this season’s top overall draft pick and rookie of the year front-runner, Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, along with the player chosen directly after Irving last June, Minnesota forward Derrick Williams.
Williams and Indiana’s Paul George, teammates on Team Chuck, will then be competitors — along with Houston’s Chase Budinger and Utah’s Jeremy Evans (who replaced New York’s Iman Shumpert) — in the Slam Dunk Contest, the last of four events Saturday. The low-profile foursome has been roundly criticized.
“Jeremy Evans will win the dunk contests. Mark my words,” Wizards center JaVale McGee said on Twitter. McGee was not invited back after finishing as runner-up last year.
With Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant replacing Atlanta’s injured Joe Johnson, the Three-Point Contest has more star appeal. Durant will compete against Minnesota’s Kevin Love, Orlando’s Ryan Anderson and Miami teammates Mario Chalmers and James Jones, the latter defending his title from last season.
Wall and Irving will take on San Antonio’s Tony Parker, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook and New Jersey’s Deron Williams in the Skills Challenge. Defending champion Stephen Curry will sit out with a right foot injury, according to a report.
