Former and current WNBA and NBA players will face off in the shooting challenge
On Thursday, ESPN, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced that the first-ever NBA HORSE Challenge Presented by State Farm will begin on Sunday, April 12 at 7pm ET.
Newly inducted Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings and the Chicago Sky’s Allie Quigley will take part in the challenge alongside the Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young, the Chicago Bulls’ Zach LaVine, Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Chris Paul, Utah Jazz guard Mike Conley Jr., former five-time NBA All-Star Chauncey Billups and Celtics legend Paul Pierce. The contestants are split into two groups of four and the winners of the first two games in each group will move on to the semifinals. The semifinals and championship game will take place on April 16.
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The competition will be a classic single-elimination game of HORSE — with a socially distant twist.
The rules of the challenge read:
“The players will have to describe each shot attempt, specifying the type of score they intend to make before taking a shot, such as a bank shot or swish. Dunking is prohibited. The first player in each game to accumulate the letters “H-O-R-S-E” after failing to match five shots is eliminated.”
In a battle of legends, Catchings is set to compete against Conley Jr. in the first game and two-time WNBA 3-point contest champion Quigley will take on Paul, a 10-time NBA All-Star. Last season, Quigley averaged 13.8 points per game, shooting 49% from the field. In 2018, she stunned everyone in the WNBA 3-point contest, scoring 29 out of a total 39 points in the final round and breaking a record for most points scored in a WNBA or NBA shooting contest since the rules changed in 2014.
State Farm, the official event sponsor, will donate more than $200,000 on behalf of the participants to charities focused on coronavirus response efforts. This donation builds on the more than $74 million that has been contributed by the NBA Family to date to support coronavirus relief efforts through its NBA Together campaign.
The challenge will air exclusively on ESPN and will be streamed on the ESPN app.
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