Klay, Kyrie lead 2017 Three-Point Contest field, and Joel Embiid's got Skills
The NBA announced on Thursday the full list of competitors for the All-Star Saturday Night events leading into this month’s 2017 NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans. Before a Verizon Slam Dunk Contest featuring 2016 star Aaron Gordon and Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, we’ll see a Three-Point Contest headlined by two former champions, including last year’s winner, and a Skills Challenge that, for the second straight year, will include four big men — including the big man many fans desperately wanted to see suit up in Sunday’s main event.
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First up, the field for the 2017 JBL Three-Point Contest:
Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors, who beat teammate and Splash Brother Stephen Curry to win the 2016 competition, returns to defend his crown and to try to become the sixth player ever (Larry Bird, Craig Hodges, Mark Price, Jeff Hornacek, Peja Stojakovic, Jason Kapono) to win multiple Three-Point titles.
He’ll battle a field featuring three other All-Stars: Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who won the shooting crown in 2013 and finished second, ahead of Thompson but behind Curry, in 2015; Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors, who’s third in the league in 3-pointers and is shooting a career-best 42.7 percent from deep; and Kemba Walker of the Charlotte Hornets, who has transformed himself from a player with an iffy jumper into a legit marksman, ranking eighth in the NBA in made 3s and shooting a career-high 40.2 percent from distance.
Joining them will be Eric Gordon, who ranks second in the NBA in 3-pointers made and third in attempts during a career-resurrecting campaign for the go-go Houston Rockets, and Wesley Matthews of the Dallas Mavericks, Nick Young of the Los Angeles Lakers, and C.J. McCollum of the Portland Trail Blazers, who rank 10th, 11th and 12th in the NBA in made triples thus far this season. Lowry and McCollum also participated in last year’s competition, but couldn’t make it out of the opening round; Matthews took part in 2015, as a member of the Blazers, but also failed to get out of Round 1. “Swaggy P,” somehow, has never taken part in this event. One suspects he will enjoy the spotlight of All-Star Saturday Night in the Big Easy.
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For those unfamiliar with how this’ll work, the Three-Point Contest is a two-round, timed competition in which five shooting locations are positioned around the 3-point arc. Four racks contain four orange balls (each worth one point) and one multicolored “money” ball (worth two points). The fifth rack is a special “all money ball” rack, which each participant can place at any of the five shooting locations, and every ball on that rack is worth two points. Players have one minute to shoot as many as the 25 balls as they can; the three competitors with the highest scores in the first round advance to the championship round to shoot for the title and bragging rights.
The evening will also include the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, with five All-Stars among the eight participants, and for the second year in a row, four big men will be part of the traditionally guard-heavy proceedings:
Team Big will feature hometown hero Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans, DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings, Kristaps Porzingis of the New York Knicks (as first reported by Shams Charania of The Vertical) and, most exciting of all, Joel “The Process” Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, who has been itching for the opportunity to prove that he’s Philly’s point guard of the future.
They’ll be joined by four smaller competitors, including first-time All-Star Gordon Hayward of the Utah Jazz, reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Month Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics (who will, no doubt, be looking for sweet vengeance after losing to Karl-Anthony Towns in last year’s Skills Challenge final), four-time All-Star John Wall of the Washington Wizards, and sophomore stud Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns.
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In the Skills Challenge, two players compete simultaneously on an identical obstacle course, which features tests of players’ dribbling, passing, agility and 3-point shooting. The fastest finisher reaches the next round. In the first round, the eight players will participate in four head-to-head competitions, with the four big men on one side of the bracket and the four “smalls” on the other. (The first-round matchups haven’t yet been announced.) The four winners advance to the second round, where two more head-to-head showdowns determine the two finalists.
Here is a truly terrifying addendum to the contest’s rules:
• DISQUALIFICATION – players are subject to disqualification at the final discretion/judgment of the referee for (1) failure to complete all the challenges or (2) deliberately interfering with his opponent or his opponent’s ball.
• INSTANT REPLAY — at the referee’s discretion, instant replay may be utilized for clarification of rules compliance.
Let us sincerely pray that the dribbling and passing exhibition does not come down to the need to go to Secaucus for a replay review.
State Farm All-Star Saturday Night will air on TNT at 8 p.m. ET on Feb. 18, and will also be available on the Watch TNT App and on TNT Overtime. Those who prefer theater of the mind will be able to listen to the broadcast on ESPN Radio, and via the ESPN app.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
