February 2, 2017 – The NBA today announced that Charlotte Hornets guard Kemba Walker has been selected to participate in the 2017 JBL Three-Point Contest. The event is part of State Farm All-Star Saturday Night at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Feb. 18 and will air live on TNT.
Competing against Walker will be defending champion Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors, Eric Gordon of the Houston Rockets, Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors, Wesley Matthews of the Dallas Mavericks, CJ McCollum of the Portland Trail Blazers and Nick Young of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Walker has connected on 135 three-point field goals this season, which is the third-best total in the Eastern Conference and eighth-most in the NBA. In his sixth season, Walker is averaging career highs in three-point field goals made per game (2.8) and three-point field goal percentage (.402). The 6-1 guard is one of only five NBA players to have hit over 130 threes on better than 40 percent from beyond the arc, alongside Lowry, Thompson, Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Houston’s Ryan Anderson.
Walker joins Dell Curry (1992 and 1994), Scott Burrell (1995) and Glen Rice (1996, 1997 and 1998) as the fourth player to ever represent Charlotte in the Three-Point Contest.
The JBL Three-Point Contest is a two-round, timed competition in which five shooting locations are positioned around the three-point arc. Four racks contain four orange balls (each worth one point) and one multicolored “money” ball (worth two points). The fifth rack is a special “all money ball” rack, which each participant can place at any of the five shooting locations. Every ball on this rack is worth two points. The players have one minute to shoot as many of the 25 balls as they can. The three competitors with the highest scores in the first round advance to the championship round.