All-Star weekend in New Orleans is a little more than two weeks away, and we’ll be getting official word on all of the events’ participants soon enough.
The reserves for each All-Star team will be announced on Thursday (though we already know Joakim Noah is in), and the fields for the dunk contest and three-point shootout will be filled in shortly thereafter.
Marco Belinelli is one name we can add as a definite for the three-contest, because he confirmed his participation himself.
From Sportando.net (via HoopsHype):Marco Belinelli confirmed to La Gazzetta dello Sport the reports that he has been named for the 3-point shootout contest in the NBA All-Star Game.
Belinelli will be the second Italian after Danilo Gallinari to be in the All-Star Game.
“I am happy because it is very important to me, my fans and Italy” said Belinelli. “It is going to be a step forward in my career. I go to New Orleans to win” added Belinelli.
Belinelli is second in the league in three-point shooting percentage at 46.7 percent, with a respectable (though not extremely high) number of attempts. His 152 shots from beyond the arc qualifies him statistically, but places him just 64th in the league in that category.
The league leader in three-point shooting percentage, by the way, will surprise you: It’s Kendall Marshall, who has lit it up from distance since joining the Lakers by hitting 47.3 percent of his threes on 74 attempts.
Kyrie Irving is another name we can almost certainly count on to be added to the contest list, considering the fact that he won it last year and wants to defend his title.