Video: Andrew Wiggins headlines best plays of Rising Stars Challenge
The NBA's Rising Stars Challenge -- formerly the Rookie-Sophomore game -- is less a game than a collection of dunks and attempted dunks, no-look passes and botched no-look passes, three-pointers and errant three-pointers. We've trimmed the fat to bring you the night's best moments of the World team's 121-112 win over USA without all the filler.
Rudy Gobert 1) takes Nerlens Noel's lunch money, 2) slides through the lane for a ho-hum slam, 3) blocks a Victor Oladipo layup attempt with one or both of his elbows. Not bad for 30 seconds or so.
Andrew Wiggins, who was named the game's MVP, has an exceptionally smooth game for a rookie. Yet he might be at his most impressive in his outright displays of power:
Mason Plumlee would like to file his official paperwork for a change in position. Some players were just born to run point:
Most of All-Star weekend exists in a surreal state of almost-NBA-basketball -- similar enough in form though so different in function. Never is that more apparent than when a dunk as impressive as this lands so casually:
Behold, the miracle of human flight:
Zach LaVine does his best John Wall impression, double-dribbles in the process and then stares down the rim at eye level. Play legality is for suckers.
This isn't exactly the forum for your attempts at pump-faking a defender into a three-shot foul, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope:
The Rising Stars Challenge sets itself apart from even the All-Star game by the sheer number of highlight attempts that go nowhere at all. I give you Trey Burke's utterly brilliant lob to no one in particular:
Here, for posterity's sake, we record a rare bit of All-Star weekend defense courtesy of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Bonus points for the World team converting it into instant offense:
Before the game had calibrated into an inevitable highlight free-for-all, Gobert gave Oladipo a bit more than he bargained for on this and-one finish at the rim:
