TNT’s “Inside the NBA” has picked its players on Thursday in anticipation of the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco. This season’s celebrations will be different, as four teams, including the Rising Stars Challenge winner squad, will participate in a mini-tournament.
NBA legends Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley, together with their co-host Kenny Smith, took time to choose which players would play for their teams. Here is the list of players drafted by the cast of the Emmy-award-winning show.
Team Shaq:
- Jaylen Brown (Boston Celtics)
- Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors)
- Anthony Davis (Dallas Mavericks)
- LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers)
- Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics)
- Kevin Durant (Phoenix Suns)
- James Harden (Los Angeles Clippers)
- Damian Lillard (Milwaukee Bucks)
Team Chuck:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks)
- Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs)
- Pascal Siakam (Indiana Pacers)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder)
- Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets)
- Karl-Anthony Towns (New York Knicks)
- Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers)
- Alperen Sengun (Houston Rockets)
Team Kenny:
- Jalen Brunson (New York Knicks)
- Jalen Williams (Oklahoma City Thunder)
- Tyler Herro (Miami Heat)
- Cade Cunningham (Detroit Pistons)
- Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves)
- Darius Garland (Cleveland Cavaliers)
- Evan Mobley (Cleveland Cavaliers)
- Jaren Jackson Jr. (Memphis Grizzlies)
The final 2025 NBA ALL-STAR ROSTERS for Team Chuck, Team Kenny and Team Shaq!
🌟 TEAM CHUCK 🌟
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Nikola Jokić
Donovan Mitchell
Alperen Sengun
Pascal Siakam
Karl-Anthony Towns
Victor Wembanyama🌟 TEAM KENNY 🌟
Jalen Brunson
Cade… https://t.co/w605Y1tUN8— NBA (@NBA) February 7, 2025
Each team will have eight players, and the winners of the Rising Stars Challenge will be the fourth team. There will be three games in the NBA All-Star Game tournament. In all the games, the first team to score 40 points will be the winner.
O’Neal believes his team will win the 2025 NBA All-Star Game
O’Neal took advantage of having the first pick of the draft and secured LeBron James. From there, he drafted players with the most experience in playing in the NBA All-Star Game. More importantly, he stuck to not having any foreign players in his team. The stars that the four-time champion secured are all Americans and have experience playing together in Team USA.
After forming his team, the former Los Angeles Lakers big man confidently declared that the LeBron-led team wouldn’t lose to Team Kenny and Team Chuck.
“My team, we’re definitely not losing to no youngsters or Europeans, bet that,” O’Neal confidently said.
Shaq GUARANTEEEES an All-Star win 🗣️
The Fellas discuss their final #NBAAllStar Game rosters 🌟 pic.twitter.com/T57Yl2owID
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 7, 2025
Interestingly, all of O’Neal’s picks have significant experience playing in the league and the All-Star game. On the other hand, Smith’s team is full of youngsters, mostly first-time players to participate in the festivities. Despite having the older team, the Hall of Fame center believes in his team.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
