The NBA is always trying to switch up the formats for different things and this time they may have done it right.
While in years past the ‘Rising Stars Challenge‘ has always featured young NBA players in their first and second years in the league but the format wasn’t always been the same. There has been Phenoms versus Sensations game, Rookies versus Sophomores game, a draft for the players in their first or second years with 2 captains and even East versus West for Rookies and Sophomores.
Now the NBA has taken a page out of the MLB’s book and decided to feature the Rising Stars challenge to be a USA versus World format.
More from Marc J. Spears Yahoo! Sports:
NBA says that Rising Stars Challenge on 2/13 will now have 1st & 2nd year players from USA play 1st & 2nd year players from the World.
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) January 21, 2015
This is great to showcase some of the talent that the NBA has to offer that comes from around the globe. Now when we dive deep into it, we see who might be featured on each team for the first and second year players.
- Team USA
Nerlens Noel
K.J. McDaniels
Michael Carter-Williams
Tim Hardaway Jr
Mason Plumlee
Marcus Smart
Victor Oladipo
Ben McLemore
Zach LaVine
Shabazz Napier
P.J. Hairston
Aaron Gordon
- Team World
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Andrew Wiggins
Anthony Bennett
Dante Exum
Jusuf Nurkic
Bojan Bogdanovic
Steven Adams
Kelly Olynyk
Dennis Schroder
Gorgui Dieng
Jusuf Nurkic
Nikola Mirotic
So what do you think of this interesting new idea for the game? I think if these 2 teams matchup, it will actually be a contest with some teams having clashing styles as you see Team USA is far more athletic, but Team World might actually be the overall better team. Lets us know what you think, who should be in it or any suggestions below or on twitter @NBAonDefPen.
