Chuck and Shaq will square off for the second consecutive season. (Getty Images) |
Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal are the GMs for the Rising Stars teams, and they drafted their respective teams for the Friday night festivities at All-Star Weekend in Houston. Last season, Team Chuck won behind Kyrie Irving's 34 points and 8-of-8 3-point shooting in his MVP performance.
This gave Shaq the first pick in this Rising Stars Game draft. Here are the respective rosters:
Pick | Team Shaq | Team Chuck |
1st pick | Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers | Anthony Davis, New Orleans Hornets |
2nd pick | Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers | Kenneth Faried, Denver Nuggets |
3rd pick | Andre Drummond, Detroit Pistons | Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs |
4th pick | Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors | Bradley Beal, Washington Wizards |
5th pick | Harrison Barnes, Golden State Warriors | Ricky Rubio, Minnesota Timberwolves |
6th pick | Chandler Parsons, Houston Rockets | Tristan Thompson, Cleveland Cavaliers |
7th pick | Dion Waiters, Cleveland Cavaliers | Nikola Vucevic, Orlando Magic |
Blind draw | Tyler Zeller, Cleveland Cavaliers | Isaiah Thomas, Sacramento Kings |
Blind draw | Kemba Walker, Charlotte Bobcats | Alexey Shved, Minnesota Timberwolves |
With all due respect to Team Chuck and the players on this team, I don't see how Team Shaq loses this game. Shaq has all of the gunners on his team, and this is historically a guard-dominated game at All-Star Weekend. Maybe Chuck's team can win by dominating the paint and boards, but we'll probably see Lillard and Irving combine for half of the team's points.