2015 NBA All-Star Weekend: Complete schedule for Celebrity Game, Rising Stars Challenge

The biggest draw this time will be Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera. Pera once challenged Michael Jordan to a one-on-one game for charity. Jordan declined. Pera has also challenged Grizzlies' Tony Allen, which shows he desperately wants to demonstrate his skills. This will be his chance, so expect him to take the even more seriously than anyone other than Arcade Fire's frontman Win Butler, who has been campaigning for a spot for a while and has beaten Amir Johnson and Matt Bonner in three-point shootouts. He's the easy pick for MVP this year.

After the celebrity game, the Rising Stars Challenge will begin. The league has gone away from last year's format in which two assistant coaches picked teams among the best first and second year players and has instead gone with the much more interesting U.S. Team vs. World Team format featuring rookies and sophomores. This edition will have two returning players from last year, Victor Oladipo and Mason Plumlee, both representing the U.S. Team.

Michael Carter-Williams and Steven Adams, the latter of whom was supposed to suit up for the World Team, would have both fallen into that category two. Both of them, however, have pulled out of the game. Carter-Williams, who's been dealing with a sore right foot, will be replaced by his teammate, Robert Covington. Adams, missing the game due to his right hand, will be replaced on the World Team by the Rockets' Kostas Papanikolaou, who is actually a replacement for the man originally tabbed to play for Adam, Jusuf Nurkic of the Nuggets.

In a real game, the World team should be considered the favorite to win, as a core of Andrew Wiggins, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Adams and Rudy Gobert would be a terror on defense. Alas, the focus is on offense in these exhibitions and Carter-Williams, Oladipo and Shabazz Muhammad could go on a scoring binge. Regardless of who wins, the new format should draw more attention than the event has enjoyed in the past and that's the most important thing for the league as it attempts to promote its young players.