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Rising Stars Challenge 2012: John Wall Picked 12th By Team Barkley, For Some Reason

Man, I don't even know. Here we were, figuring that John Wall would be among the first players selected in first annual Rising Stars Challenge draft. First, Jeremy Lin got added to the game, so whatever. Then, five players went off the board, including Wall's teammate DeMarcus Cousins, and Wall wasn't one of them. Then, five more players went off the board, including superstars like Paul George, Derrick Williams and MarShon Brooks, and Wall still wasn't one of them.

Finally, Wall was picked by Team Barkley at 12th, one spot behind Kemba Walker, currently toiling away on a 3-26 team. If you try to make any sense of what just happened, you're going to come up with nothing, so it's not really worth trying.

It's times like these where it's worth remembering two things.

  • It's an exhibition.
  • Perception isn't necessarily reality, unless Wall really views something like this as some sort of referendum on the organization, which would be kind of absurd.
But hey, if Wall chooses to take this snub out on the rest of the league, fine by me.
Here are the teams, with the players selected in order.

TEAM SHAQ (odd numbers): Blake Griffin, Jeremy Lin, Ricky Rubio, Greg Monroe, Markieff Morris, Kemba Walker, Landry Fields, Norris Cole, Brandon Knight, Tristan Thompson

TEAM BARKLEY (even numbers): Kyrie Irving, DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George, Derrick Williams, MarShon Brooks, John Wall, Gordon Hayward, Tiago Splitter, Kawhi Leonard, Evan Turner