NBA Boilers: Zach Edey Teaming Up With Old Rivals in Rising Stars Challenge
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Former Purdue star Zach Edey will be teaming up with a few old rivals for the 2025 NBA Rising Stars Challenge. The Memphis Grizzlies rookie is sharing a court with former Indiana star Trayce Jackson-Davis (Golden State Warriors) and former Tennessee standout Dalton Knecht (Los Angeles Lakers) for the event.
Edey, Jackson-Davis and Knecht will all play on Chris Mullin's team for the Rising Stars Challenge, which is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 14 at 9 p.m. ET.
The rivalry between Edey and Jackson-Davis is well known, as the two played at Purdue and Indiana, respectively. The two played six times against each other, with the Boilermakers and Hoosiers both winning three games between the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons. Overall, Edey was 5-3 against Indiana and Jackson-Davis was 3-5.
Edey and Knecht don't have a rivalry in the traditional sense, but Purdue did play Tennessee twice during the 2023-24 campaign. The Boilermakers defeated the Volunteers in the Maui Invitational in November 2023 and won again in an Elite Eight matchup in March 2024, sending Purdue to the Final Four.
During his time at Purdue, Edey had some epic battles with both Jackson-Davis and Knecht, so it should be interesting to see how the three play together for the NBA Rising Stars Challenge.
Team Chris will play Team G-League in the first round. For those unfamiliar, here's how the NBA Rising Stars Challenge works, per NBA.com:
"In the Castrol Rising Stars mini-tournament, Team A will face Team B in the first semifinal (Game 1), and Team C will play Team D in the second semifinal (Game 2). The winner of Game 1 will meet the winner of Game 2 in the championship (Game 3).
"For each semifinal game, the winner will be the first team to reach or surpass 40 points. For the championship game, the winner will be the first team to reach or surpass 25 points.
"The winning Rising Stars team will play in the All-Star Game mini-tournament on Sunday, Feb. 16, competing against the NBA All-Stars."
Edey is having a solid rookie campaign with the Grizzlies. The 7-foot-4 center is averaging 9.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. He's also recorded seven double-doubles on the year.
After winning the National Player of the Year honor in back-to-back seasons in 2023 and 2024, Edey was selected No. 9 by Memphis in the 2024 NBA Draft.
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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