Former Tennessee wing and current Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht has been named to the player pool for the 2025 NBA Rising Stars Challenge
The Rising Stars Challenge will take place on the Friday before the NBA All-Star game as four teams comprised of the league’s best young talent will compete in a mini-tournament. Three of the teams will be made up of rookies and sophomores from the league while the fourth team is made up of G-League Players.
The winner of the mini-tournament will then move on to All-Star Sunday.
Rather than the traditional East vs West format, the NBA is turning to another mini-tournament with its biggest stars. The NBA will have 24 traditional All-Star selections who will be split up into three teams. The fourth team in the mini-tournament on Sunday will be the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge mini-tournament.
WNBA legend and former Lady Vols great Candace Parker will serve as the honorary GM for the Rising Stars Challenge winner.
It may be a little confusing for some, so let’s look at it from strictly a Dalton Knecht perspective.
Knecht is one of 25 players available to be drafted in the Rising Stars Challenge and will be selected to a team for the RSC mini-tournament. Two of Knecht’s opponents will be teams consisting of first- and second-year NBA players while the third is made up of G-League players.
Let’s say Knecht’s team wins the Rising Stars Challenge event on Friday night. His group, “Team Candace” as it will be called, will then move on to Sunday to be one of the four teams in the All-Star Game tournament.
Each of the four teams will play one knockout game on Sunday to determine which two teams will advance to the final game on Sunday night. The games will be a “first to 40” scoring format.
Here’s Ernie Johnson to explain how things will work:
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Back to the former Tennessee star, though.
Knecht is one of 10 NBA rookies to be selected for the 25-person player pool. There are several former SEC names that Tennessee fans might be familiar with including Trayce Jackson-Davis (brother of former Vol QB Tayven Jackson), Brandon Miller (Alabama), Cason Wallace (Kentucky), and Reed Sheppard (Kentucky).
“It means a lot, it’s a good accomplishment,” Knecht said about the selection via Lakers Nation. “At the same time, it’s just the Rising Stars game. I’m more focused on the season than anything.”
Through 45 games this season, Knecht is averaging 9.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists, and 20.9 minutes per game for the 26-19 Lakers. The former Vol has been fairly up and down this season but still provides a spark. In the last week alone, Knecht has games of just two and three points in addition to games of 13 points, 13 points, and 24 points.
The 2025 Rising Stars Challenge will take place at 9:00 p.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 14, from the Chase Center.
With Tennessee basketball suffering back-to-back losses against Auburn and Kentucky this week, treat yourself with a few highlights from Knecht’s incredible season at Tennessee last year:
