Second-year forward Jae’Sean Tate and rookies Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun will represent the Houston Rockets in the Rising Stars competition at the NBA’s 2022 All-Star weekend in Cleveland, while Green will also reportedly take part in Saturday’s slam dunk contest.
Two players who could make a case for those types of honors, but aren’t currently on either lineup, are second-year forward KJ Martin and rookie guard Josh Christopher. Each took to Twitter shortly after Tuesday night’s announcements and seemed to express relative displeasure.
In both cases, it was likely a numbers game, with the NBA looking to spread the wealth among as many of its 30 teams as possible. No team has more than Houston’s three Rising Stars representatives, so even if Martin or Christopher was more deserving than another selection, they may have missed out due to the NBA trying to broaden its team pool.
Similarly, in the dunk contest, only four players were selected — and the NBA probably didn’t want two being from the same team. Even so, the high-flying Martin had a case, since he ranks in the NBA’s top 20 in dunks this season despite averaging under 20 minutes per game.
It’s worth noting, of course, that other players could withdraw from either the Rising Stars tournament or the dunk contest at a later date due to injuries or other logistics considerations. Thus, it’s plausible that Martin and/or Christopher might still be added to one of those events.
For now, though, it doesn’t appear that either will take part in the Feb. 18 and 19 activities. Here’s a sampling of how each player responded to the news, which they might use as motivation in upcoming games.
