The 2017 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game promises to be every bit as electric as previous year’s editions, which is to say it will be mildly entertaining in a cringe humor sort of way. The game, which airs at 7 p.m. ET on Friday on ESPN, is the unofficial beginning of NBA All-Star Weekend. That is entirely appropriate given the seriousness with which participants take the weekend’s events.
Here are the rosters for the Celebrity Game.
East Team
The East team will be coached by Jemele Hill of ESPN’s SC6. She’ll have help on the sidelines from Kyle Lowry and rapper Fat Joe.
The roster will star reigning Celebrity Game MVP Win Butler, the frontman of indie rock band Arcade Fire. Each squad will also have a current NBA franchise owner for the first time ever. Marc Lasry, the majority partner of the Milwaukee Bucks, will play for the East team.
The East team’s WNBA representative is veteran point guard Lindsay Whalen, a three-time WNBA champion, five-time All-Star, and the league’s all-time playoff assists leader. She’ll be joined by another flashy point guard: retired NBA player Jason Williams, better known as White Chocolate.
Perhaps the most exciting player on the East team is Oscar Schmidt, a 59-year-old Brazilian considered the best basketballer to never play in the NBA. He’ll finally have his chance to make a strong impression on America. (Sort of.) (Not really.)
The celebrities on the East team will be America’s Got Talent host Nick Cannon, social media personality Brandon Armstrong (a former D-League player), NBA 2K personality Rachel DeMita (a former D1 player), actor Ansel Elgort (Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars), 11-year-old actor Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things), radio personality Peter Rosenberg, and recording artist Kris Wu.
West Team
The West team will be coached by Michael Smith, Hill’s counterpart on ESPN’s SC6. Smith’s assistant coaches will be Draymond Green and Rocsi Diaz, the former host of 106 & Park.
The biggest name on the West squad is Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks franchise and one of the stars of Shark Tank. He’ll have lots of help from a father-son duo with real basketball chops: rapper Master P and his son Romeo Miller (né Lil’ Romeo). Master P made a couple of training camp rosters in the late 1990s, and Miller played on scholarship at USC.
The West team’s most decorated player, though, hails from the WNBA: two-time MVP Candace Parker. Interestingly, Parker’s L.A. Sparks beat Whalen’s Minnesota Lynx in the 2016 WNBA Finals under controversial circumstances. Parker took home the WNBA Finals MVP Award.
Parker will be joined by the retired Baron Davis, who figures to match up against J-Will to give us some fireworks.
The additional celebrities on the West team are 11-year-old actor Miles Brown (Black-ish), actor Tom Cavanagh (Ed, The Flash), singer-songwriter Andy Grammer (that song “Honey, I’m Good” from two years ago), Chinese actor Jiang Jinfu, actor Anthony Mackie (Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), comedian Hasan Minhaj (The Daily Show), and chef Aaron Sanchez (a judge on Chopped).
Be sure to check out our 2017 NBA All-Star Game guide for a full rundown of the weekend’s nominally more relevant events.