The NBA announced Tuesday that Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin and center Oscar Tshiebwe earned spots to compete in the 2024 Panini Rising Stars, which will take place on Friday, Feb. 16 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis as part of NBA All-Star 2024.
The annual showcase of premier young talent, featuring a mini-tournament with four teams and three games, will air live at 9 p.m. (ET) on TNT.
The player pool consists of 11 NBA rookies, 10 second-year NBA players and seven NBA G League players – which includes Tshiebwe, the Pacers’ center under a two-way contract. The 21 NBA players, selected by NBA assistant coaches, will be drafted onto three seven-player teams. The seven NBA G League players, selected by the league office, will comprise the fourth team.
Mathurin, who also competed in the Rising Stars contest as a rookie at NBA All-Star 2023, is averaging 14.3 points and 3.9 rebounds per game during his sophomore season. Tshiebwe will represent both the Pacers and Indiana Mad Ants, where he has averaged 12.0 points and a league-best 12.1 rebounds per game during the G League regular season.
Six-time NBA All-Star and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Pau Gasol will return as one of the four honorary head coaches after leading his team to the Rising Stars championship last year. Joining Gasol as honorary head coaches are Indiana Fever legend and 10-time WNBA All-Star Tamika Catchings and former Indiana Pacers standouts Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf.
Catchings, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, led the Fever to the 2012 WNBA championship. Rose helped the Pacers reach the 2000 NBA Finals and was the Kia NBA Most Improved Player that season. Schrempf, a three-time NBA All-Star, won back-to-back Kia NBA Sixth Man Awards with the Pacers in the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons.
Gasol (Team Pau), Catchings (Team Tamika) and Rose (Team Jalen) will select their teams through the Rising Stars Draft, which will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 4 p.m. ET and stream live on the NBA App. Schrempf (Team Detlef) will coach the team of NBA G League players.
All three games in Panini Rising Stars will be played to a Final Target Score, meaning each game will end with a made basket or a made free throw instead of with the clock running out. The semifinal games will be played to a Final Target Score of 40. The championship game will be played to a Final Target Score of 25.
