Wolves’ Okogie to play in Rising Stars game

For the second straight year, Minnesota’s Josh Okogie will play for the World team at the NBA’s Rising Stars game. The second-year guard out of Wake Forest is a native of Lagos, Nigeria.

In last year’s Rising Stars game, Okogie had 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting with four rebounds and four assists coming off the bench as Team USA beat Team World 161-144.

Since the format changed to Team USA versus Team World, the Timberwolves have had seven players participate in the game: Okogie (2019-20), Andrew Wiggins (2015-16), Gorgui Dieng (2015), Zach Lavine (2015-16), Shabazz Muhammad (2015) and Karl-Anthony Towns (2016-17). This year’s game will mark the fifth appearance in the last six contests by at least one Timberwolves player.

Okogie is averaging 8.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in his second season with Minnesota.

The Rising Stars game will be played Friday, Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. CT.