When Atlanta Hawks sophomore Onyeka Okongwu was not included in the Rising Stars challenge, this felt a lot like a snub. The second-year man has played some incredible basketball over the past season and a half and simply deserved to be there.
This is an opinion which is shared by many Hawks fans and after the mini-tournament, it was obvious to the rest of the NBA that Okongwu should have been there. There were no bigs who played who bought the same level of intensity to the court as Okongwu would.
This opinion was then echoed by the third Atlanta Hawks cornerstone, De’Andre Hunter. The Hawks are a team who look out for each other but this tweet is just facts.
https://twitter.com/DreHunter/status/1494860443709591555?s=20&t=iGN1nvFKMO186waCPZGwPA
To put it simply, the selection of the teams left most of us scratching our heads. .
Atlanta Hawks sophomore Onyeka Okongwu deserved the recognition
The All-Star game and the events around it are meant to highlight all of the best players in the world at their best. The 3-point contest had some of the best shooters in the league, while the slam dunk contest was below it’s normal quality.
However, the Rising Stars challenge has always been about getting the best young players together and letting them ball out on the biggest stage. Isaiah Stewart and Precious Achiuwa are not even in the same conversation as Okongwu who is contributing on a playoff level team.
Then there are the players who were involved in the Rising Stars game who were literally not in the same league as Okongwu. I do mean that literally, the NBA selected players from the G League Ignite team to play in the rising stars challenge.
This is not a concept that the NBA should repeat. They have taken the place of players who have done their time in college, mostly, and then as rookies in the toughest league in the world. Rookie and sophomore players in the NBA deserve these spots, not potential NBA players.