NBA Rising Stars: Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe takes MVP

Starry night for young V.J. Edgecombe. The 20-year-old Philadelphia 76ers rookie led the team coached by former player Vince Carter (Team Vince) to capture the NBA's promising young players tournament. "I hope this is the first trophy I win…this year," he said afterward.

Edgecombe captained his team in scoring with six points in the finals, including one from the free-throw line, at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. The first team to reach 25 points was crowned the winner. Carmelo Anthony's team (Team Melo) came close to glory, scoring 24 points.

Four teams of young NBA and G League (developmental league) talent squared off at the Los Angeles Clippers' Intuit Dome, which was half-empty and lacked atmosphere on Friday night, according to AFP. On the weekend, however, the atmosphere will be different: after an afternoon of competitions on Saturday (shootouts, dunks and precision shooting), the All-Star Game will be played on Sunday.

A new All-Star Game

The basketball league debuts a new format Sunday that it hopes will help it revive the magic of the All-Star Game, one of the events that most helped popularize the NBA across the planet.

On the Los Angeles Clippers' court, the 24 participating stars will be divided into three teams. Two of them will be made up of U.S. players and one of international players, who will compete in a mini-tournament of four 12-minute games.

The latest experiment by the North American league to motivate its stars to compete and halt the slump in audiences in recent years is to measure the strength of home-grown players against international players. The league considered the idea of directly organizing a game between the United States and the rest of the World, demanded by stars such as the French Victor Wembanyama (Spurs).

In the end, the NBA considered that the current balance does not allow it, as U.S. players still monopolize about 70% of the squads. This figure, however, does not reflect the influence of foreign superstars, mainly European, on American basketball, worried about who will take the flag when LeBron James, Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant are missing.

Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks), Serbian Nikola Jokic (Nuggets), Cameroonian Joel Embiid (Sixers) and Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder) have swept the league's last seven Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards. Behind them knocks on the door a Slovenian, Luka Doncic (Lakers), awaiting the era of French phenom Wembanyama.