The festivities of NBA All-Star weekend technically will begin Friday with the Celebrity Game, which features athletes, musicians and entertainers taking the court against each other. It’s hard to say this is a particularly watchable event given the lack of basketball players but it’s a fun opportunity to see how stars in other arenas fare when asked to put a ball in the basket.
Here’s a look at the coaches and participants for the 2024 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game.
NBA All-Star Celebrity Game participants
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe will serve as the two coaches. They’ll have some help, with rapper 50 Cent joining Sharpe while WNBA star A’ja Wilson and rapper Lil Wayne complement Smith. Perhaps Wilson will serve as a player-coach and log some minutes if her team falls behind.
NFL stars Micah Parsons and C.J. Stroud will be in the event. The Cowboys pass rusher will be on Sharpe’s team while the Texans quarterback will be on Smith’s team. WNBA stars Jewell Lloyd and Natasha Cloud are in the event as well and should dominate. Lloyd is on Sharpe’s team and Cloud is on Smith’s team. Superstar singer and actress Jennifer Hudson has been lined up for this game as well, joining Stroud and Cloud on Smith’s team. Fellow musician Adam Blackstone is also on Smiths’ team, along with former NBA champion Metta World Peace aka Ron Artest
Actor Quincy Isaiah, who played Magic Johnson’s on HBO’s “Winning Time”, is on Sharpe’s squad. Fellow actor Dylan Wang joins him there, along with IndyCar racer Conor Daly. Anuel AA, Walker Hayes and SiR represent the musical industry on Sharpe’s team. Lilly Singh and Kai Cenat are part of the catch-all “content creator” segment and are also on Sharpe’s team.
Content creators Jack Ryan and Tristan Jass are on Smith’s squad to balance out the streaming representation a bit. Kwame Onwuachi is on Smith’s team as well representing the culinary industry.
Perhaps the best inclusion in the Celebrity Game is Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi, who had a nice putback dunk at the 2022 event. He’s famous for agreeing to share the gold medal with Qatari high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim in a historic decision, and should provide some aerial highlights.
Here’s how you can catch the Celebrity Game Friday.
How to watch All-Star Celebrity Game
Date: Friday, February 16
Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Livestream: ESPN App