Jazz's Ace Bailey Earns Surprise All-Star Weekend Spot

Flagg suffered a mild foot sprain during the Mavericks' latest game against the Phoenix Suns that will sideline him throughout the All-Star break. Therefore, he won't be available to play in this weekend's festivities and needed another participant to fill his spot.

Enter Bailey, who stuck out as one of the few notable snubs upon the release of this year's Rising Stars roster, but now gets to travel to Los Angeles to showcase his talents on Friday night.

Ace Bailey Selected to Rising Stars Roster

Bailey will join Team Melo in place of Flagg, and join a pretty stacked group in the process––headlined by other top rookies like Jeremiah Fears, Collin Murray-Boyles, and his former college teammate Dylan Harper, along with second-year guys Donovan Clingan, Reed Sheppard, and Stephon Castle.

It's a well-deserved honor for the Jazz rookie, who, after a bit of an up-and-down start in his first few weeks of the season, has begun to find his groove as an appealing young scorer in Utah's backcourt beside Keyonte George.

In 48 games this season, Bailey has averaged 11.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.7 assists while shooting 44.9% from the field and 34.3% from three. However, in his past 15 showings, he's begun to turn a corner to become an even more effective scorer, averaging 15.4 points a night on 46.6% from the floor.

Now, he'll get rewarded––albeit a bit later in the process––by being one of the select 21 rookie and sophomore players to suit up on Friday night's Rising Stars Game, playing among some of the best young talents the league has to offer.

Bailey will also become the first Jazz player selected to join this year's All-Star festivities, as Utah failed to have any names picked for the Saturday night events, or to play in the All-Star Game come Sunday. In the event Bailey were to win the Rising Stars MVP, he'd become the first player in Jazz franchise history to ever do so.

The Jazz rookie and Team Melo will start off their Rising Stars action by facing off against the G-League unit of Team Austin in the first round of Friday's mini-tournament for a chance to advance to the final round, tipping off at 7 p.m. MT in the Intuit Dome.

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