Boston Celtics two-way player Ron Harper Jr. appeared twice in the NBA All-Star Weekend festivities, but fell short of leaving a mark on either competition.
The 25-year-old participated in the Castrol Rising Stars mini-tournament on Friday and the Kia Shooting Stars competition on Saturday.
Harper Jr. started at shooting guard for Team Austin in the first game of the three-game mini-tournament, across from his brother, San Antonio Spurs rookie Dylan Harper, who started at forward for Team Melo.
While Ron Harper Jr. logged the second-most minutes of any player on Team Austin, he finished the game as its only scoreless player.
The G League star shot 0-5 from the field and 0-2 from three point range, and spent the majority of his time on the offensive end uninvolved and standing in the corner without the ball.
Both three point attempts were particularly rough. One came early in the game, when Harper Jr. dribbled into a shot and got blocked. The other attempt came on the second-to-last play of the game, when he took a shot several feet behind the perimeter with plenty of time left on the shot clock… and missed everything.
Dylan Harper got the ball on the next possession, took it at his brother, made him dance with a couple moves, and sunk the game-winning shot.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t all negative for Harper Jr. While his stat line was not glamorous, he did a lot of the unsung dirty work for Team Austin.
He posted a team-high 7 rebounds, including 3 offensive boards, and 2 assists, displaying excellent effort while battling in the trenches. He got a good tip that led to another rebound he was uncredited for, recovered a ball lost by one of his teammates, and got the game started by assisting on an alley-oop dunk.
Since Team Austin lost the game, it did not advance in the mini-tournament and Harper Jr. did not get another chance to shine.
During the Kia Shooting Stars competition, Harper Jr. and his team — which consisted of himself, his brother, Dylan, and his father, Ron Harper Sr., as well as celebrity passer 2 Chainz — also failed to progress past the first round.
The competition had four teams of three players shoot from seven spots, from a layup to an elbow jumper to a deep three-point shot from the logo, in an attempt to rack up as many points as possible over 70 seconds.
Team Harper finished the first round in third place, with 18 total points. Ron Jr. hit 3 of his 9 shots for 7 points, while his brother and father finished with 9 and 2 points, respectively.
They were in second place following their performance, but Team Knicks — the eventual winner — came next and immediately unseated Team Cameron for the top spot in the competition, pushing Team Harper to third.
Only the top 2 teams made the final round, so Team Harper was left behind and Harper Jr.’s participation in All-Star Weekend came to an end.
The Celtics’ next participant in the festivities will be Jaylen Brown, who will start for Team USA Stripes in tomorrow’s All-Star Game, which will feature a four-game tournament between two teams of U.S. players and one team of international players.
Team USA Stripes will play in games 2 and 3, which are slated to begin at 5:55 p.m. and 6:25 p.m. EST. The two teams with the best records will advance to an All-Star Championship game at 7:10 p.m. EST. The games can be viewed on NBC or streamed on Peacock.
