Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis will be one of eight participants in the Skills Challenge on Feb. 18, the Saturday night of All-Star Weekend in New Orleans.
And among his opponents will be 76ers phenom Joel Embiid, making it an unofficial battle for the NBA’s “unicorn” belt.
The annual competition tests the players’ ball-handling, passing and shooting — the skills that Porzingis possesses in such abundance, even at the outrageous height of 7-foot-3, that Kevin Durant was moved to label him a “unicorn” last January.
Embiid, at 7 feet flat, has displayed similar touch and mobility as a rookie after two years of rehabbing a foot injury and enduring countless punchlines about “The Process” in Philadelphia.
Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins and New Orleans’ Anthony Davis are the other big men in the field. The guards are: Boston’s Isaiah Thomas, Washington’s John Wall, Phoenix’s Devin Booker and Utah’s Gordon Hayward.
Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns, who went on to win Rookie of the Year honors over Porzingis, won the event last year.
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