Wildcats to Participate in Every NBA All-Star Weekend Event
INDIANAPOLIS – The Kentucky men’s basketball team will make its annual presence felt at NBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis with a Wildcat participating in every event during the league’s showcase of talent.
Headlined by a record-breaking seven Wildcats selected for Sunday’s All-Star Game, Kenutcky is set to dominate the weekend once again. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will start for the Western Conference and be joined by Anthony Davis, Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns. They will take on the Eastern Conference, which features UK stars Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Maxey and Julius Randle.
Sunday’s game will tip off at 8 p.m. ET and air on TNT.
But that is far from the only action of the weekend featuring the Wildcats.
Things officially start Friday with the Rising Stars Challenge at 9 p.m. ET on TNT. Cason Wallace, Shaedon Sharpe and Oscar Tshiebwe were selected for the event. Sharpe will not participate due to injury. Wallace will suit up for Team Pau and Tshiebwe was picked for Team Detlef. The event will feature a three-game mini-tournament among four teams comprised of NBA rookies, sophomores and NBA G League Players.
All-Star Saturday will feature Towns among the competitors in the 3-point shooting contest and Maxey in the Skills Challenge. Jacob Toppin will compete in the dunk contest.
Maxey will join forces with fellow All-Stars Scottie Barnes and Trae Young. In addition to being a first-time All-Star, this will be Maxey’s first time competing in Saturday night festivities.
Towns will look to be a two-time champion in the 3-point contest. He won the event in 2022 as the tallest player to ever win the long-range shooting competition. Towns is a career 40% shooter from 3-point range and has averaged more than two made 3s per game in each of his last five seasons.
Toppin will seek to become the fourth Wildcat to win the Dunk Contest. Previous winners include Hamidou Diallo in 2019, John Wall in 2014 and Kenny Walker in 1989. Toppin’s brother, Obi Toppin, won the event in 2022. The Toppin brothers will look to become the first set of brothers to claim the trophy in the event’s history.
All-Star Saturday night begins at 8 p.m. ET, also airing on TNT.
Maxey will make his debut in the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, while Adebayo and Randle are making their third appearance, Booker and Towns were both selected for the fourth time, Davis was tabbed an All-Star for the ninth time in his career and Gilgeous-Alexander is a two-time pick.
Wildcat players will represent nearly 30% of the 24-player rosters in this year’s annual game. With seven total selections, it is the most All-Stars in one season from one college in the game’s history. Duke, with two selections, was the only other program to have multiple honorees in 2024.
UK’s seven selections best the previous All-Star Game record of four players from one collegiate program. UCLA had four players in the 1983 game, while Kentucky had four players in 2023 and 2018.
Kentucky has enjoyed unprecedented success at putting players in the NBA under Calipari. In the 14-plus seasons of the Calipari era, 47 players have been selected in the NBA Draft, more than any other school. Included in the recent run are 35 first-round picks, three No. 1 overall selections (Davis, Towns and Wall) and 23 lottery selections. A staggering 26 players from Kentucky were on 2023-24 NBA opening-day rosters (including two-way and inactive lists), the most of any school.
Calipari’s players are not only reaching the next level, but they are also succeeding when they do. Since 2010, nine Calipari-coached players have garnered 39 All-Star selections with the latest picks. Derrick Rose (from Memphis) was named league MVP in 2011. Nine of his players have been tabbed All-NBA (Booker, DeMarcus Cousins, De’Aaron Fox, Gilgeous-Alexander, Randle, Rose, Wall, Davis, and Towns), three have been named NBA Rookie of the Year (Rose, Tyreke Evans and Towns), Randle was tabbed the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2021, Tyler Herro won NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2022 and 15 players from Calipari’s first 12 teams at Kentucky have made the NBA All-Rookie teams.
Among all active collegiate coaches, Calipari has more total players (10) and more total All-Star selections (39) than any other coach.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
