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The Warriors will be represented at All-Star Weekend like never before this year, with Stephen Curry and Harrison Barnes partaking in a total of five events in New Orleans. Let’s take a closer look at the duo’s weekend ahead, which includes a Warrior rep on each of the three days.
RISING STARS CHALLENGE (Friday)
Harrison Barnes becomes the third Warrior to play in the Rising Stars Challenge as both a rookie and sophomore, joining Jason Richardson (2002 & 2003)—who was the game’s MVP as a rookie—and Stephen Curry (2010 & 2011) in that exclusive fraternity. Barnes’ participation gives the Warriors a Rising Stars rep in four of the last five seasons. Last year, the North Carolina product was voted in as a starter on Team Shaq, scoring 12 points in 19 minutes alongside sophomore teammate Klay Thompson. The seventh overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, Barnes was the seventh overall pick in this year’s Rising Stars Challenge Draft, selected to play for a squad assembled by NBA great and TNT analyst Grant Hill.
SHOOTING STARS (Saturday)
Saturday night, Stephen Curry will team up with his father and 16-year NBA veteran Dell Curry in the Shooting Stars event. Joining the Curry’s on one of the four teams (two per conference) will be WNBA star Becky Hammond. Combined, the trio of Dell (1,245 career threes), Stephen (815) and Hammond (782) have hit a 2,842 three-pointers at the professional level. Curry is the first Warrior ever to be included in the Shooting Stars event.
THREE-POINT CONTEST (Saturday)
Curry will also make his third appearance in the Three-Point contest on Saturday, which equals the combined number of times any other Warrior has participated in the event. As a rookie in 2010, Curry’s 18 threes led the way in the first round, but his 17 triples in the Final fell short of Paul Pierce’s 20. Curry returned to the contest in 2013, once again hitting 17 threes, but this time wasn’t able to advance to the second and final shooting showdown. Still, Curry’s career rounds (18, 17, 17) are the top three by a Warrior in the event, trumping Sleepy Floyd’s 13 in 1986, Tim Hardaway’s 15 in 1991 and Dorell Wright’s 11 in 2011.
Here’s a rack-by-rack breakdown of his previous three rounds:
All told, Curry has three rounds of experience to his name entering the 2014 and has hit 60 percent of his threes in the competition (45-of-75). To have a chance at winning, Curry will likely need to up his percentage on the moneyball—the last ball of each rack that is worth an extra point—where he’s hit 7-of-15 (.467) of his prior attempts. This year, as a new addition to the contest, one of the five racks will consist entirely of moneyballs, making this adjustment even more critical. A slow start doomed Curry last year, and typically he heats up as the competition moves on, combining to make 24-of-30 shots on the final two racks, an impressive 80 percent conversion rate. In fact, Curry enters this year on a hot streak, hitting 11 of his last 12 shots in 2013.
SLAM DUNK (Saturday)
Harrison Barnes will conclude his weekend at the Slam Dunk on Saturday, the first Warrior in the dunking display since Jason Richardson—a two-time champ in 2002 & 2003—last participated in 2004. Barnes joins J-Rich and Otis Smith (1988) as the only two Warriors ever to compete in the event, giving the Warriors a three-point contestant (Curry) and dunker in the same All-Star Weekend for the first time ever.
ALL-STAR GAME (Sunday)
The Warriors will have a player start the All-Star Game for the first time since Latrell Sprewell in 1995 when Stephen Curry takes the floor. Curry will be just the second player since LeBron James in 2005 to start in his first career All-Star game (last was Andrew Bynum in 2012) after garnering over 1 million votes, the fourth most in the NBA. In addition to being the first Warrior ever to reach the million-vote plateau, Curry is the first Warrior to lead his position group in votes since Rick Barry led all Western Conference forwards in 1976.