The Brooklyn Nets will be well-represented in the 2015 BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge during NBA All-Star 2015, as forward/center Mason Plumlee and guard/forward Bojan Bogdanovic were chosen to play in it.
The 2015 BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge will debut a format that pits 10 first- and second-year NBA players from the United States against 10 first- and second-year NBA players from around the world. The game, set for Friday, Feb. 13 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, will be televised live by TNT at 9 p.m. ET, part of Turner Sports’ 30th year of All-Star coverage.
Plumlee, 24, will be making his second consecutive appearance in the game after participating as a rookie last season. Plumlee has played so well this season that he has become the Nets starting center, and he has averaged 10.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 22.7 minutes per game in 44 games, with 27 starts, this season. As a starter this season, Plumlee has averaged 13.9 points on 66.5 percent shooting with 8.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 28.8 minutes per game.
Plumlee is third in the NBA in field goal percentage at 59.4 percent, and is second among all first- and second-year players in double-doubles with 10. He’s also fourth among all sophomores in rebounds per game and fifth in blocks per game despite playing just the 17th-most minutes per game among second-year players. In his rookie year, he averaged 7.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 18.2 minutes per game in 70 games, including 22 starts. He was originally selected with the 22nd pick in the 2013 NBA Draft out of Duke.
Plumlee will be just the third Nets’ player to participate in the Rising Stars Challenge as both a rookie and sophomore, joining teammate Brook Lopez, who competed in it in 2009 and 2010, and Kenyon Martin in 2001 and 2002.
Bogdanovic, 25, is averaging 7.4 points and 2.5 rebounds in 22.6 minutes per game in 43 games, 27 of which have been starts, in his rookie season. Bogdanovic is averaging the most minutes per game among all rookies whose teams made the playoffs last season. He was originally selected by the Miami Heart in the 2011 NBA Draft in the second round with the 31st pick. His rights were traded by Miami to Minnesota and then by the Timberwolves to the Nets. He spent three more seasons abroad (2011-14) before starting his NBA career this season.
Plumlee and Bogdanovic are the first Nets’ teammates to be selected to play in the Rising Stars Challenge in the same season since Martin and Stephen Jackson were both selected as rookies in 2001.
FORMER NETS PARTICIPANTS:
PLAYER YEAR
Brook Lopez* 2010 – Sophomore
Nenad Krstic 2006 – Sophomore
Richard Jefferson 2003 – Sophomore
Kenyon Martin* 2002 – Sophomore
Mason Plumlee 2014 – Rookie
MarShon Brooks 2012 – Rookie
Derrick Favors 2011 – Rookie
Brook Lopez 2009 – Rookie
Sean Williams 2008 – Rookie
Marcus Williams 2007 – Rookie
Kenyon Martin 2001 – Rookie
Stephen Jackson 2001 – Rookie
Keith Van Horn 1998 – Rookie
Kerry Kittles 1997 – Rookie
P.J. Brown 1994 – Rookie
* Only Nets to appear as both a rookie and a sophomore.