Basketball fans are eagerly awaiting Sunday’s All Stars match, when the Cleveland Cavaliers, captained by LeBron James, will face off against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

Prior to the big name match, another event took place: The Rising Stars Challenge. The event, which was held on Friday (Saturday morning Jakarta time) is an NBA exhibition game involving first- and second-year players selected by the NBA’s assistant coaches.

This year, it was Team World — with core players including Ben Simmons, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Buddy Hield — versus Team USA, which included Jaylen Brown, Kyle Kuzma and Jayson Tatum.

Although it is an exhibition game, basketball fans still flocked to the Staples Center, including famous comedian Kevin Hart.

Team World won the game 155-124.

One name to watch out for was definitely Bogdan Bogdanović of Sacramento Kings. The Serbian rookie, who was drafted in 2014 by Phoenix Suns, was also named Most Valuable Player at the Rising Stars, scoring 26 points.

“I approach every single game the same way. Try to compete to be the best version of myself that day. It just happened tonight. You never know when it’s going to happen,” he said about the match.

When asked about playing against teammate De’Aaron Fox, Bogdanovic responded: “It was fun to play against him. We’re looking forward to — as you can see, we have great chemistry on the court and off the court, so we are looking forward to transferring that on the court with the Sacramento Kings.”

Top scorer of the match, however, went to Buddy Hield of Sacramento Kings, who shot 29 points.

“My experience tonight, it was fun. Shout out to Team World. We came out there, and we executed to get the win. Had fun, and the crowd stopped booing us, but the whole thing is to come here and have fun and get the win,” said the Bahamian.

“It was the All-Star Game, so it wasn’t like a really competitive game. But the world has been getting better. I’m proud to see a lot of guys around the world from France, Australia, you have [Joel] Embiid from Cameroon [Philadelphia 76ers], everybody is showing progress and the world is showing progress catching up to American basketball. You know, this shows how hard we’ve been working and how dedicated we are to this game.”

Favorite Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers, who scored 11 points during the match, said he was excited about his first Rising Stars game and saw his peers as the future of the NBA.

“I think the future is in good hands with the players that are coming through now. Great, young talent on both teams tonight. I think our objective was to really win and come out and dominate them, which was fun at the same time,” he said. “But it’s exciting to see all the guys come through and all the talent, especially in this rookie class.”

The challenge also gave fans a chance to see Kyle Kuzma of the Lakers and Jaylen Brown of the Celtics, who both played for Team US.

“It’s really a dream come true. Growing up you always watch All-Star Weekend, and now we all get to be a part of it. We get to play and hopefully continue to be a part of All-Star Weekend,” Kuzma said.

“It was a great experience. I appreciate the NBA for having me. I appreciate the coaching staff. I think they did a good job of trying to relay a message for us to compete. We just fell a little bit short today. It happens,” Brown said.

— The Jakarta Post is invited by NBA to the All-Star Weekend

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