NBA All-Star Saturday night: John Wall is your Dunk Contest champion

This year, four teens will paired with the participants, and a total of $120,000 will be donated in support of educational scholarships and to Boys & Girls Clubs of America through the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens. The teen paired with the winning team will receive a $30,000 scholarship.

All-Star Saturday Night events kick off at 8:30 p.m. ET on TNT.

In the first round, the two Eastern teams will square off, as will to the two Western teams. The second round will feature the two first round winners vying for the title. Team Bosh are the defending champs.

The Shooting Stars competition will air on Feb. 15 on TNT as a part of All-Star Saturday Night, which begins at 8:30 p.m. ET. It is the first of the four events. The family feel is a nice touch, and it’d be hard to bet against the Team Curry in any sort of shooting contest.

The Slam Dunk contest is everybody’s favorite event, but in recent years, it has lacked star power. That isn’t the case this time, with three All-Stars taking part. Here’s the list of participants:

This year’s format is sort of complicated and definitely different from what we’re used to. While last year’s competition also featured six competitors divided into Eastern and Western Conference categories, this time the conferences will actually be treated as teams.

The competition will be a bit different this year, as players will have the option to make one shooting rack a full rack of “money balls,” worth two points each. This idea was first implemented in the NBA D-League’s version of the event in 2009.

Five of the eight players selected to compete will also be playing in Sunday’s All-Star Game, and there’s an argument that Afflalo should have been in the main event, too. There isn’t a weak link in the bunch.