{"id":473791,"date":"2026-02-14T04:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T04:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/473791\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T04:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T04:42:10","slug":"rome-flynn-repeats-as-nba-all-star-celebrity-game-mvp-leads-team-giannis-to-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/473791\/","title":{"rendered":"Rome Flynn repeats as NBA All-Star Celebrity Game MVP, leads Team Giannis to victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Rome Flynn earned MVP honors for the second straight year in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on Friday night, scoring 17 points to lead a team coached by Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> to a 65-58 victory.<\/p>\n

Actor-comedian Anthony Anderson coached the losing team, led by former 7-foot-6 NBA player Tacko Fall<\/a> with 20 points.<\/p>\n

The game brought basketball back to the Forum, home of the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>\u2019 \u201cShowtime\u201d era until 1999, when they moved 10 miles away to downtown Los Angeles. Now, it has a different sponsor name under Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> owner Steve Ballmer and is mostly used as a concert and entertainment venue.<\/p>\n

K-pop made its debut at the game with boy group CORTIS performing at halftime.<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama<\/a> tossed up the opening tip between Team Giannis\u2019 Jenna Bandy and Team Anthony\u2019s Adrien Nunez, who got control, was fouled and missed his first throw.<\/p>\n

Bandy was the only woman in either team\u2019s starting lineup.<\/p>\n

Team Giannis had a huge advantage in the paint with Fall grabbing most of the rebounds. His dunk made it a one-point game in the third.<\/p>\n

Chinese actor-singer Dylan Wang garnered the loudest screams of the night, especially after he scored back-to-back baskets in the first quarter for Team Giannis.<\/p>\n

Two of the oldest guys on the court were Phoenix Suns<\/a> owner Mat Ishbia (age 46) and Rick Schnall (50-something), who\u2019s part of the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> ownership group. Schnall fouled Ishbia in the first quarter, and Ishbia hit the free throws in a throwback to his Michigan State playing days.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Chargers star Keenan Allen hit a long shot from the red, white and blue line that was worth 4 points for Team Anthony. It launched a flurry of points for the wide receiver in the second quarter and he finished with 18 points.<\/p>\n

Mascots from the Hornets and Mavericks alternated as sixth men restricted to playing in the backcourt for a bit in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Sidelined since Jan. 23 with a calf strain, Antetokounmpo won\u2019t be playing in the All-Star Game on Sunday. <\/p>\n

But the two-time MVP was assisted by his brothers Thanasis and Alex on Friday. Another assistant was Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts.<\/p>\n

Former NBA player Jeremy Lin<\/a> credited Betts for an inspiring halftime speech. \u201cHe definitely knows a lot about basketball,\u201d Lin said.<\/p>\n

The game marked the start of All-Star weekend, followed by the Rising Stars game down the street at Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/p>\n

Beth Harris, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Rome Flynn earned MVP honors for the second straight year in the NBA All-Star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[76,49,48,75,459,82],"class_list":["post-473791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-arts","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}