Watch all three nights of NBA All-Star Weekend live on Sky Sports – beginning Friday night at 2am, Saturday night at 11.30pm, Sunday night at 11pm across Sky Sports Arena and joined on Main Event; find your full guide to the weekend's festivities below
Saturday 19 February 2022 17:09, UK
It's that time of year again – the time that the best players in basketball showcase their skills on the biggest stage of all.
The NBA All-Star Weekend is imminent and the build-up to the three-day extravaganza is already underway as we enter the beginning of All-Star week.
This year, it's the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland which will host the thrilling spectacular, which includes the Rising Stars game, Skills Challenge, Slam Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest and of course the NBA All-Star Game itself.
There's nothing else quite like it in sports in terms of giving the stars of the greatest league the perfect platform to showcase every type of skill the sport has to offer.
The 2022 Clorox Rising Stars game is the first major event of All-Star Weekend and will highlight some of the league's best young talent, including leading Rookie of the Year candidates Evan Mobley and Cade Cunningham, and sophomore stars LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards.
In a new format, 28 players - comprising 12 rookies, 12 sophomores and four members of the NBA G League Ignite developmental squad - were drafted onto four teams to compete in three games on Friday night, live on Sky Sports from 2am in the morning.
Each game will be played to a Final Target Score, ending with a made basket or free throw instead of with the clock running out. It will be a "Race to 75" to celebrate the league's 75th anniversary season - Games 1 and 2 will be played until a team reaches 50 points; Game 3 will be played until a team reaches 25 points.
Rosters have been announced following a player pool draft conducted by 75th Anniversary Team members and Rising Stars coaches Rick Barry, Gary Payton, Isiah Thomas and James Worthy.
Listed below are the four rosters, with two changes announced earlier in the week to Team Payton: an injury to the Indiana Pacers' Chris Duarte, has led to Jonathan Kuminga – who is in supreme recent form for the Golden State Warriors – being called up as an injury replacement. Bones Hyland of the Denver Nuggets has also been called up to play in place of Sacramento Kings guard Davion Mitchell.
Saturday night's three-event extravaganza sees build-up start from 11.30pm on Sky Sports Arena, then joined on Main Event at 1am as the events kick off.
The broadcast will feature a special AT&T 5G Legends Cam to spotlight some of the biggest NBA stars throughout history during what should be an epic celebration of the league's best talent.
This year the NBA announced a new format for the 2022 Taco Bell Skills Challenge, a team competition which this year will feature two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks (playing alongside his two brothers), as well as fellow 2022 NBA All-Star Darius Garland of the Cleveland Cavaliers and four participants in the 2022 Clorox Rising Stars.
It's the first event of All-Star Saturday Night, which also includes AT&T Slam Dunk Contest and the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest. All-Star Saturday Night begins with the build-up live on Sky Sports from 11.30pm.
Under the new format for the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, three teams of three players will participate in a four-round competition that tests shooting, passing and dribbling ability. The teams are as follows:
Each of the three teams will compete in the first three rounds of the Taco Bell Skills Challenge. The two teams with the most "Challenge Points" after the first three rounds will advance to the Final Round. Challenge Points are earned by winning each of the first three rounds.
The two teams that advance to the Final Round will compete one at a time and all players on each team will participate in trying to make a half-court shot. Team 1 will set the time to beat with a made shot or expiration of the clock (maximum of 1 minute and 30 seconds). The team that makes a half-court shot in the fastest time will win the Taco Bell Skills Challenge. In the case of a tie, the two teams will repeat the Final Round.
Clorox Clutch Challenge
In addition, a timed shooting competition called the Clorox Clutch Challenge will take place between Games 2 and 3 of Clorox Rising Stars. A total of eight NBA and NBA G League Ignite players will be divided into four teams of two and compete to make shots from five locations on the court tied to iconic shots made in the NBA Playoffs.
NBA All-Stars Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls, Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Fred VanVleet of the Toronto Raptors and Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks headline the 2022 MTN DEW 3-Point Contest, which is the second event.
The eight-player field for the two-round, timed shooting competition also features guard Desmond Bane of the Memphis Grizzlies, guard Luke Kennard of the LA Clippers, guard CJ McCollum of the New Orleans Pelicans and guard Patty Mills of the Brooklyn Nets.
A first-time MTN DEW 3-Point Contest champion will be crowned this year. LaVine, a two-time AT&T Slam Dunk champion, will make his third consecutive appearance in the MTN DEW® 3-Point Contest. Young will compete for the second time. Bane, Mills, Towns and VanVleet are first-time participants, as are Ohio natives Kennard and McCollum.
Orlando Magic guard Cole Anthony, Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green, New York Knicks forward Obi Toppin and Golden State Warriors forward Juan Toscano-Anderson will take flight in the 2022 AT&T Slam Dunk on Saturday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
A first-time champion will be crowned as Anthony, Green and Toscano-Anderson are set to make their event debuts, and Toppin returns for his second appearance after finishing as the runner-up last year.
All four competitors will get two dunks in the first round. The two players with the highest combined score for their two dunks will advance to the final round. The two finalists will then get two dunks in the final round. The dunker with the highest combined score for his two dunks in the final round will be crowned the 2022 AT&T Slam Dunk champion.
For each scored dunk in both rounds, each player will be limited to three attempts to complete his dunk. An attempt is defined as the player controlling the basketball and moving it toward the rim.
Captains LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets selected the team rosters for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in last week's dramatic and rather hilarious NBA All-Star Draft.
James and Durant drafted the team rosters from the pool of players selected as starters and reserves in each conference. The two captains selected the starters in the first round and the reserves in the second round, making each pick without regard to a player's conference affiliation or position.
As the top overall finisher in fan voting, James was awarded the first pick in the first round. Durant made the first pick in the second round.
The matchup between Team LeBron and Team Durant in the 71st NBA All-Star Game will take place on Sunday, February 20 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, reaching fans in 215 countries and territories in 59 languages.
