January 25, 2017
Regardless of whether he is an NBA all-star or not, Joel Embiid is heading to New Orleans in February. On Friday night of all-star weekend, he’ll be part of the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge.
And as it turns out, he’ll be joined by a couple of Sixer teammates in the rookie-sophomore game: Jahlil Okafor and Dario Saric. Embiid and Saric will play for the world roster, while Okafor got the nod for the Americans:
NBA announces rosters for rookie-soph game (aka "rising stars challenge"). pic.twitter.com/ovx4uxIfQD
— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) January 25, 2017
If Ben Simmons were healthy, perhaps the Sixers could have placed four players in the rookie-sophomore game. The actual game, which features even less defense than the actual all-star game if you can wrap your head around that, will air on TNT on Friday, February 17th at 9 p.m. ET.
These teams were selected by the league’s assistant coaches. Now all that is left is to see if the head coaches voted Embiid into Sunday night’s all-star game. The good news for Sixers fans is that one won’t be on a back-to-back.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
