The 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend takes place at the Chase Center in San Francisco from February 14-16. Events over the weekend include the Rising Stars game on Friday, followed by the Skills Challenge, Three-Point Competition, and Dunk Contest on Saturday. The weekend will be capped off with the 74th annual All-Star Game, in a new tournament-style format, on Sunday night.
For years, the NBA had an annual Rising Stars Challenge to open the weekend. Two teams of both rookie and second-year players competing in an All-Star style game. This year the format of the competition has changed, with four teams playing in a mini-tournament for the chance to battle against the All-Stars on Sunday. For this year’s iteration, three of the teams will be comprised of the NBA’s best-rising stars, along with a team of some of the best young talent from the G-League.
In paying homage to All-Star Weekend being held in San Francisco, three of the four teams will be coached by former Golden State Warriors players; Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin. Jeremy Lin will coach the team of G-League players, some of whom do have NBA experience. Each team has seven players, and if they win both their first-round and second-round games, they’ll have the chance to compete against the league’s best on Sunday.
As has been tradition, All-Star Saturday night will include the Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest, and Dunk Contest. The Skills Challenge will include four teams of two that will have to run a course that requires them to dribble, pass, and shoot in the quickest time possible. The Cleveland Cavaliers will have a team in this competition comprised of Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley. The hometown Warriors will have Draymond Green and Moses Moody as their representatives. The two other teams include Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama from the Spurs, and Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr, the top two picks from the 2024 NBA Draft.
The three-point contest will be highlighted by Damian Lillard, who is attempting to win the competition for the third year in a row. Lillard is a native of the Bay Area and is shooting 38.2% from deep this season. Other participants in the contest include Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Tyler Herro, Buddy Hield, Cam Johnson, and Norman Powell. Garland (43.1%) and Powell (42.6%) have the best three-point shooting percentages out of the group. Both are top-20 in the league on at least seven attempts per game.
The Dunk Contest will also feature a back-to-back champion going for his third win in a row in Mac McClung. He quickly became known as one of the best dunkers in the league over the past two years, despite struggling to find major minutes on an NBA roster. Though just a little over six feet tall, McClung has jumped over Shaquille O’Neal and thrown down some of the best dunks in recent years. Stephon Castle of the Spurs, Matas Buzelis of the Bulls, and Andre Jackson Jr. of the Bucks will be the three other competitors trying to take the crown on Saturday night.
This year’s iteration of the NBA All-Star Game will look different from years past. A new tournament-style format is being introduced to increase fan engagement. Teams were drafted by Shaq, Kenny Anderson, and Charles Barkley on TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’ last week. Kenny’s team will compete against Chuck’s team, while Shaq’s team will play the winner of the Rising Star’s Challenge. The winner of each of those games will face off in the championship. Each game will be decided by the first team to 40 points, and the overall winners will share a prize pool of $1.8 million.
Kenny’s team features a large majority of young players, including Anthony Edwards, Brunson, Cunningham, and Jaren Jackson Jr. Chuck’s team is composed of mostly foreign-born players, highlighted by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Wembanyama. Shaq’s squad includes many veterans of the league in the All-Star game for the past decade or more. Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant are the most experienced of the bunch.
The NBA’s annual All-Star Weekend has seen a drop in popularity and viewership in recent years, deservedly so. Fans don’t want to watch players shoot half-court shots in the All-Star game or watch players they’ve never heard of try insanely difficult dunks. Though the new format might not immediately change that, it at least shows that the league is listening, and wants to make a better product for the fans. The NFL made changes to the Pro Bowl, introducing a flag football aspect to the game. What the NBA is doing this year in San Francisco is no different.
One of the best parts about All-Star weekend is the chance to see the best basketball players in the world all in the same place together. It might not result in anything that exciting. It is cool nonetheless, to see some of the biggest names in the sport come together in what NBA Commissioner Adam Silver calls, “A celebration of the game.”
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