Jamal Murray Selected for Rising Stars Challenge
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Add another Kentucky men’s basketball player to the growing list of representatives at the 2018 NBA All-Star weekend in Los Angeles.
A day after two more Wildcats made the NBA All-Star Game to bring the total of former UK players to four, Jamal Murray, who starred at Kentucky during the 2015-16 season, was selected for the Mtn Dew Kickstar Rising Stars Challenge. The Rising Stars Challenge features some of the league’s best first- and second-year players.
Murray, a Canada native, will suit up for the World Team and take on the U.S. Team on Feb. 16 at 9 p.m. ET on TNT in the Staples Center, two days before the NBA All-Star Game.
The Denver Nuggets point guard will try to defend his most valuable player award from the 2017 game in which he scored a game-high 36, the fourth-most points in the game’s history, to go along with 11 assists. Murray put on a show last season in New Orleans, going 13 of 19 from the field, including 9 for 14 from behind the arc. He did all that in just 20 minutes and scored 27 of his points after halftime.
Murray was one of 20 players selected for the game after a stellar start to his second season in the league.
The seventh overall pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, Murray is averaging 16.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists for the Nuggets. He’s scored 30 or more points in five games this season, including in each of the last two. He’s hit four or more 3-pointers in nine games this season. Murray is ranked third in the league in free-throw percentage with a .924 mark.
Murray led the Wildcats to the Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament crowns during the 2015-16 season with the best freshman scoring season in school history. Murray averaged 20.0 points per game, the most in John Calipari’s tenure at Kentucky, thanks in large part to his ability to hit shots. He made 113 3-pointers on the year, the second most in a single season in UK history, the most for any freshman in SEC history and the second most by a freshman in NCAA history, just nine shy of Stephen Curry’s record.
He was tabbed an All-American by several major publications, including a third-team selection by the Associated Press, and a freshman All-American by the Sporting News and U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
Murray’s selection comes a day after Karl-Anthony Towns and John Wall were named as All-Star reserves, joining starters DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis in the league’s annual showcase of talent. UK’s four NBA All-Star representatives are tied for the most ever. Only UCLA, in 1983, has done it before.
Participants for the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, the JBL Three-Point Contest and the Verizon Slam Dunk Contest have not been named yet. Those announcements are expected to be made soon.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
