Brooklyn Nets: History of Nets in Rising Stars Challenge
By Phil Watson
The Brooklyn Nets will have 2 representatives in Friday’s Rising Stars Challenge during the kickoff to All-Star Weekend, the 15th and 16th Nets to appear.
Friday night will mark the 25th edition of the NBA Rising Stars Challenge, a game as part of the kickoff to All-Star Weekend festivities that features first- and second-year players from around the NBA. The Brooklyn Nets will have two players in the game this year for just the third time.
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Second-year center Jarrett Allen will play for Team USA, with rookie forward Rodions Kurucs suiting up for Team World in the game, which is set for tip off at 9 p.m. Eastern from Spectrum Center in Charlotte, at the conclusion of the All-Star Celebrity Game.
This will be the fifth straight year the USA-World format has been used, a format that begin at the 2015 All-Star Weekend edition held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Team World has won three of the first four matchups with their U.S. counterparts under this format.
Allen and Kurucs are the 15th and 16th Nets to be selected for the game, which began in 1994 as a replacement for the Legends Game, a matchup of retired NBA stars that was held for 10 years from 1984-93.
The uniforms for Friday’s game are derived from the design used by Charlotte’s first professional team, the Carolina Cougars. The Cougars played for five seasons in the American Basketball Association, with the former Houston Mavericks moving to Carolina in 1969.
The franchise departed for St. Louis in 1974 and folded as part of the merger agreement between the ABA and NBA in 1976.
Inspired by Charlotte’s basketball origins, the Nike-designed #MTNDEWICERisingStars uniforms put a modern twist on the jerseys worn by the ABA’s Carolina Cougars in the 1960s & 1970s. #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/uvVoPUikkw
— #NBAAllStar (@NBAAllStar) January 30, 2019
Here are how the Nets’ representatives in the Rising Stars Challenge have fared, from most recent to oldest: