Jalen Johnson has ascended in meteoric fashion during his five-year basketball career.
Johnson has gone from G Leaguer, to rotation player, to franchise cornerstone in that short span. And now, he’s been named to his first All-Star Game in his career. The weekend festivities will take place in southern California, primarily in the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, the home of the Clippers.
But that won’t be his only involvement next weekend. It was recently announced that he will join fellow Duke Blue Devils Kon Knueppel, a rookie phenom, and Corey Maggette, a retired 14-year NBA veteran, in the NBA All-Star Weekend Shooting Stars Challenge.
In that competition, he’ll take on these three other trios:
- Team All-Star: Scottie Barnes, Chet Holmgren, Richard “Rip” Hamilton
- Team Harper: Derek Harper, Ron Harper Jr., Ron Harper Sr.
- Team Knicks: Jalen Brunson, Karl Anthony-Towns, Allan Houston
The contest makes its first appearance since the 2015 All-Star weekend. In it, there are seven spots on the floor with which the players can shoot from and earn various amounts of points with 70 seconds. Please see the attached PDF for a full set of rules and regulations.
Many will remember franchise icon Dominique Wilkins not only taking part in three straight competitions but winning the three most recent editions of the competition — a veritable dynasty as part of Team Bosh with NBA star Chris Bosh and WNBA star Swin Cash.
The event will take place on Saturday, February 14 after 5 PM EST on NBC and streaming on Peacock.