Utah Jazz: Favors to join Hayward in Rising Stars game

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Jazz forward Derrick Favors has been added to the 2012 BBVA Rising Stars Challenge that will take place on Friday in Orlando during NBA All-Star 2012. Favors will join teammate Gordon Hayward on Team Chuck. The two will be Utah's first participants in the event since Ronnie Brewer and Paul Millsap played for the sophomore team during the 2008 NBA All-Star Weekend in New Orleans.

A 2010 first-round draft pick (third overall) out of Georgia Tech, Favors is currently averaging 8.1 points and 5.0 rebounds in 19.6 minutes per game this season. The 6-10, 246-pound forward has scored in double figures nine times this season, grabbed 10 or more rebounds four times, and registered a double-double on three occasions. On Dec. 30, Favors notched a new career-high, scoring 20 points while pulling down 11 rebounds vs. Philadelphia.

Favors and Hayward will be the sixth and seventh players in Jazz history to participate in the Rising Stars Challenge (formerly the Rookie Challenge), joining Bryon Russell (1994), Andrei Kirilenko (2002, 2003), Deron Williams (2006, 2007), Paul Millsap (2007, 2008) and Ronnie Brewer (2008).

This year, a new format is being implemented to a game that has historically featured NBA rookies facing off against sophomores. For the first time, rookies and sophomores will be mixed together on teams. TNT analysts Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal are serving as the general managers of the two opposing teams — Team Chuck and Team Shaq — having held a draft on Feb. 16.