NBA Rookie Ladder: All-Star weekend

The NBA is gearing up for All-Star Weekend and several rookies will be taking part in the festivities. Here are a few to watch.

Grab your sunblock, sunglasses, and health-conscious pressed juices because the Rookie Ladder is headed to Los Angeles! The 2018 NBA All-Star Weekend is upon us and for most players this extended break is a time for them to rest and recover and see their families. However, for the rookies that are partaking in the extravagance, this is a chance for them to make a name for themselves. Hollywood is where stars are found and there’s definitely some potential stars within the selected crop of players attending All-Star Weekend.

All in all there will be 10 rookies that are part of one of the weekend’s five events (2018 Mountain Dew Dew Rising Stars Challenge, 2018 Taco Bell Skills Challenge, 2018 JBL Three-Point Contest, 2018 Verizon Slam Dunk Contest, and the 2018 NBA All-Star Game). An injury to Lonzo Ball will keep this from becoming a Big Baller Brand production and pave the way for another player on the rise to soak up the sun and the spotlight of Los Angeles.

In the past, the NBA has struggled to match the hype that comes with All-Star Weekend with the product that they placed on the court, but in recent years that has not been the case. The last rookie to use the festivities of All-Star Weekend to vaunt his name up the ladder of public opinion was Zach LaVine. During the 2015 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest in another bright lights, big city, setting of New York, LaVine gave the world the best dunk contest performance since Vince Carter wowed us all in 2000.

With that in mind, the following pages will present a list of rookies who have the best shot of becoming household names by the end of the weekend a la LaVine in 2015. There are definitely some names that have a shot based off the sheer number of events that they will participate in, but LaVine showed us that one special performance is all it takes to have a moment in the spotlight.