After changing the formula of the All-Star Game, the NBA is now tackling the Rising Stars Challenge, which brings together the best rookies and sophomores in the league every star weekend (except last year).
The match will take place in Cleveland on February 18, but it will not be, as since 2014, an opposition between American players and international players. This time, the NBA will thus use the “Elam Ending” in a tournament, with four teams of seven players who will face each other, first with two semi-finals, then a final.
Four members of the Top 76 in NBA history will form and coach the teams, assembled from a group of 28 players: 12 rookies, 12 sophomores and 4 youngsters from the G-League Ignite. NBA players will be designated by league assistant coaches, Ignite players by G-League head coaches.
In the semi-finals, the teams will have to reach the score of 50, the first to do so can advance to the final. The two victorious teams will then have to reach a score of 25 during the final meeting, which therefore makes 75 points in total to win the tournament, an obvious nod to the 75th season that the NBA is currently celebrating.
To see now if this format revives the interest of the event, the rookies and sophomores who had participated in recent years having transformed the thing into a contest of dunks and 3-point shots.
