NEW YORK – NBA All-Stars Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Joe Johnson of the Brooklyn Nets, Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers and Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves headline the field of participants for the 2014 Foot Locker Three-Point Contest (#FootLockerThree) taking place during State Farm® All-Star Saturday Night (#StateFarmSaturday) at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Saturday, Feb. 15.  The Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal, who will also be participating in the BBVA Compass Rising Stars challenge, Marco Belinelli of the San Antonio Spurs and Arron Afflalo of the Orlando Magic complete the field

State Farm All-Star Saturday Night will be exclusively televised on TNT.  The event also will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio and will collectively reach fans in 215 countries and territories in more than 47 languages.

Lillard, the 2012-13 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, also is participating in the Taco Bells Skills Challenge and Sprite Slam Dunk, becoming the first player to appear in three events during State Farm All-Star Saturday Night.  He also is participating in the 2014 BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge to be played Feb. 14, and the 2014 NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 16.

For the second consecutive year, the Eastern and Western conferences will compete during State Farm All-Star Saturday Night in an evening of challenges that will raise money for charity.  NBA Cares and State Farm will make a joint donation of $500,000 as part of the event, with $100,000 awarded to each event’s winning conference’s charities and $25,000 going to the charities of the runner-up for each event. The Eastern Conference will be playing for the American Heart Association and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF while the Western Conference will compete for Teach for America and Wounded Warrior Project^®. All-Stars Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and George, winner of the 2012-13 Kia NBA Most Improved Player Award, will serve as captains of the Western and Eastern Conferences, respectively. The charities were selected by George and Curry, the NBA, and State Farm.

The NBA’s best from behind the arc will take part in the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest, with the eight players competing in a two-round competition.  Each player will have one minute to shoot as many balls as he can.  The highest scoring East and highest scoring West competitors from the First Round will advance to the Championship Round. Of the two finalists, the one with the lower individual score from the First Round will go first in the Championship Round.  The player scoring the most points in the Championship Round will win the 2014 Foot Locker Three-Point Contest for his conference along with $100,000 for their Conference’s charities.

Five shooting stations will be set up around the three-point line, with four Official Spalding NBA game balls worth one point each and one Spalding NBA All-Star 2014 commemorative “money ball” worth two points at each location.  New to this year’s contest, each player will also be able to switch one of the five shooting locations to a full rack of five “money balls,” each of which will be worth two points.  This innovative element was first implemented in the 2009 NBA Development League All-Star Three-Point competition as part of D-League Dream Factory presented by Boost Mobile. 

2014 FOOT LOCKER THREE-POINT CONTEST PARTICIPANTS 

EASTERN CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS

   Participant, Team                                         Pos.     Ht.       Wt.

Arron Afflalo, Orlando                                   G         6-5       215

Bradley Beal, Washington                              G         6-5       207

Kyrie Irving, Cleveland                                  G         6-3       193

Joe Johnson, Brooklyn                                    G         6-7       240

                 WESTERN CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS

   Participant, Team                                         Pos.     Ht.       Wt.

Marco Belinelli, San Antonio                         F          6-5       210

Stephen Curry, Golden State                          G         6-3       185

Damian Lillard, Portland                                G         6-3       195

Kevin Love, Minnesota                                  F          6-10     243 

About Foot Locker

Foot Locker, the title partner of the Three Point Contest since 2004, is part of Foot Locker, Inc., a specialty athletic retailer that operates approximately 3,500 stores in 23 countries in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.  Through its Foot Locker, Footaction, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, SIX:02, Runners Point, and Sidestep retail stores, as well as its direct-to-customer channel, including footlocker.com, Eastbay, CCS.com, SIX:02.com, runnerspoint.com, and sidestep-shoes.com, the Company is a leading provider of athletic footwear and apparel.

About State Farm^®

State Farm and its affiliates are the largest provider of car insurance in the U.S. and is a leading insurer in Canada. In addition to providing auto insurance quotes, their 18,000 agents and more than 65,000 employees serve 81 million policies and accounts – more than 79 million auto, home, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and nearly 2 million bank accounts. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for renters, business owners, boats and motorcycles, is also available. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 44 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit http://www.statefarm.com or in Canada http://www.statefarm.ca.