On Saturday night, Mac McClung earned a perfect score on his final dunk, defeating Jaylen Brown to repeat as the AT&T Slam Dunk champion, while 10-time NBA All-Star Steph Curry beat WNBA’s Sabrina Ionescu in the first-ever NBA vs. WNBA 3-Point Challenge at 2024 State Farm All-Saturday Night.
Team Jalen defeated Team Detlef to claim the 2024 Panini Rising Stars on Friday night.
NBA Africa All-Star Luncheon
One of the highlights of this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend was the annual NBA Africa All-Star Luncheon that brought together leaders from business, entertainment, philanthropy, sports, social entrepreneurship, technology, and youth development to celebrate the NBA and Basketball Africa League’s (BAL) expansion in Africa. As part of this year’s event, hosted by sports broadcaster Ros Gold-Onwude, two-time NBA All-Star and BAL Global Ambassador Joakim Noah, Harvard Business School’s Professor Anita Elberse, and Rwanda Development Board CEO Francis Gatare discussed opportunities and challenges around building a sustainable basketball ecosystem on the continent.
Following the panel discussion, creative director Becky Muikia (Kenya) spoke about her new short film “Jumping for Change”, which was part of the “NBA Films for Fans” event held on Feb. 16. “NBA Films for Fans” is a global initiative that engage filmmakers from around the world to develop short documentary films celebrating the NBA and basketball from each of their respective cultural perspectives.
The BAL’s fourth season will tip off in Pretoria on March 9, with tickets available at https://apo-opa.co/49CJjBQ.
African Impact
Seven players with ties to Africa represented the continent in Indianapolis this weekend. The NBA All-Star Game returned to the East vs. West format and saw Giannis Antetokounmpo (23 points) captain the East in his eighth All-Star appearance, with LeBron James (8 points, 4 rebounds) leading the West in his record-breaking 20th NBA All-Star Game.
Former NBA Academy Africa alumni, Thierry Serge Darlan [Central African Republic] and Babacar Sane [Senegal] took part in the NBA G League Up Next on Feb. 18.
As part of the NBA All-Star Weekend, 40 of the top high-school-age prospects converged at the 2024 Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Global camp (https://apo-opa.co/42IctNG). The camp featured seven campers ages 18 and under from four African countries (Angola, Mali, Senegal and South Sudan), including three prospects from the NBA Academy Africa – Khaman Maluach [South Sudan], Aginaldo Neto [Angola] and Assane Mandian [Senegal].
