Denver Nuggets second-year forward Kenneth Faried had 40 points on Friday as Team Chuck routed Team Shaq 163-135 in the National Basketball Association’s Rising Stars Challenge game.
Faried also had 10 rebounds and shot 18-of-22 from the field to collect MVP honors and kick off the NBA’s all-star weekend festivities at the Toyota Center arena.
Faried finished off a couple of windmill dunks in the final minute that he said was a taste of what people can expect from him in yesterday’s Slam Dunk contest.
“I had fun. I enjoyed myself,” Faried said. “This was just a sneak preview. There is going to be a lot of competition tomorrow, but I think I can rise up and get the trophy.”
With the exception of Ricky Rubio every player reached double-figures in scoring for the winning team, put together by former NBA star Charles Barkley.
Tristan Thompson and Kawhi Leonard each scored 20 points and Isaiah Thomas finished with 18 points with 10 assists in the win.
For the second-straight year, the squad chosen by former Laker legend Shaquille O’Neal was not up to the task in the contest, which features the league’s top rookies and sophomore players.
The 62nd all-star game takes place today, the first time the showdown is being played in Houston since 2006. It will be televised live in more than 200 countries and in more than 40 languages.
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was the top vote getter this year, earning him a record 15th straight all-star selection.
Bryant beat out Miami Heat’s LeBron James, collecting 1.591 million votes to 1.583 million for James.
Bryant breaks a tie with Jerry West, Karl Malone and O’Neal for the most consecutive all-star selections.
Four time all-star MVP Bryant said he is going to enjoy himself today, but also wants to put on a good show.
“It is about having fun, but it is also a competition,” Bryant said. “You are competing and playing against the best in the world.”
Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City, Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers, Dwight Howard of the Lakers and Chris Paul of the Clippers join Bryant as starters for the West team.
James, Carmelo Anthony of New York, Kevin Garnett of Boston, Rajon Rondo of Boston and Dwyane Wade of Miami were voted starters for the Eastern Conference.
James is coming off a superb seven-game stretch where he averaged 32 points a game and shot 69 percent from the field.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but