Friday, the opening day of the NBA All-Star Festivities, will highlight New Orleans Pelicans’ rookie shooting guard Buddy Hield.
The NBA All-Star Festivities have finally arrived in New Orleans. Fans will get a taste of home cooking right off the bat, as Buddy Hield is a part of the opening day action.
Buddy is participating in the NBA Rising Stars Game, which features the best young players in the NBA playing on two competing rosters. Those rosters are Team USA and Team World. Hield, who is from the Bahamas, will be on team World.
The Rising Stars will get to be on NBA TV at 9:30 a.m. CST for their practice session. Hield will be along the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns, Nikola Jokic, Kristaps Porzingis and more.
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Buddy’s having a great rookie campaign, after a rough start. Hield is averaging 8. 6 points, 2.9 rebounds and over one and a half made three-pointers a contest. His 36.9 percent shooting from deep is quite the mark for a newcomer to the NBA.
While fans will have to wait until 8:00 p.m. CST on TNT to watch Buddy play, there are other events that will be worth watching throughout Friday. At 11:00 a.m. CST, there will be a media session for all the players participating in All-Star Weekend. Fans can tune to NBA TV to get a glimpse of their favorite stars, including Anthony Davis for the Pelicans faithful.
The other event on tap for Friday night is the Celebrity Game. For New Orleans fans, they can see an old star of the Charlotte franchise in Baron Davis take the floor. He’ll be joined with the likes of basketball legends Oscar Schmidt, Jason Williams and WNBA stars in Lindsay Whalen, Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike.
The other celebrities include Mark Cuban, Andy Grammer, Anthony Mackie, Romeo Miller, Nick Cannon, Rachael DeMita, Marc Lasry and Peter Rosenberg. The coaches of the game will pit ESPN personalities Michael Smith and Jemele Hill against each other. They do have help, in the likes of Draymond Green of the Warriors and Kyle Lowry of the Raptors.
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While Friday is just a warm-up to the real action, Pelicans fans will be very excited to see their young rookie in Hield take the stage in his home arena. This is a chance for him to steal the show in a comfortable environment. There will be a huge basketball fan base watching. With all the success he has shown under the lights in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, his showing in tonight’s game should be another fantastic performance from Buddy Buckets.