ANTHONY ANDERSON AND ELLA HENDERSON TO BE FEATURED AT STATE FARM® ALL-STAR SATURDAY NIGHT
“All-Star Saturday” logo, NEW YORK, Feb. 10, 2015 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today that actor Anthony Anderson and pop sensation Ella Henderson will be part of State Farm All-Star Saturday Night on Feb. 14 at Barclays Center. Ten NBA All-Stars will showcase their talents exclusively on TNT beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET., while Hall of Famers Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Nate “Tiny” Archibald, Bernard King and Chris Mullin will serve as judges for the 2015 Sprite Slam Dunk.
Anderson, star and executive producer of the new hit show “black-ish,” will join play-by-play commentator Kevin Harlan and analyst Reggie Miller to host Saturday night’s festivities. Alongside Anderson, Harlan and Miller will be TNT’s Sports Emmy® Award-winning “Inside the NBA” team of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. Smith, a former McDonald’s All-American at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, will also join Harlan and Miller as an analyst for the Sprite Slam Dunk.
International singer-songwriter Henderson – who first turned heads as a finalist on “The UK X Factor” – will entertain the crowd with her platinum hit single “Ghost,” from her debut album “Chapter One,” as part of the “Entertainment Series Presented by JBL.” With HARMAN serving as the Official Sound of the NBA, its featured brand, JBL, will serve as presenter of this year’s NBA All-Star Entertainment Series. HARMAN and the NBA previously announced that six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning pop icon Christina Aguilera, joined by the Rockettes, will tip off the 64th NBA All-Star Game on Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Superstar recording artist Ariana Grande will follow Aguilera and the Rockettes with a halftime performance that includes a compilation of her biggest hits.
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Ella Henderson
“Ghost”
Syco Music/Columbia Records
The judges for the 30th Sprite Slam Dunk all have strong ties to New York. Erving, an iconic dunker and three-time ABA MVP with the Nets, is a Long Island native and 11-time NBA All-Star. Frazier led the New York Knicks to two NBA titles and is in his 26th season as a Knicks broadcaster. Archibald, the only player to lead the NBA in points and assists in the same season, was born and raised in the Bronx. King is a four-time All-Star from Brooklyn, while Mullin is also a Brooklyn native who starred at St. John’s University in Queens before a 16-year NBA career that included five All-Star appearances.
In addition to being the title partner of All-Star Saturday Night, State Farm, together with the NBA, will donate $500,000 to refurbish 10 indoor basketball courts – two per borough – in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The court refurbishments are part of the seasonlong NBA Cares All-Star community efforts to reach one million youth across the five boroughs.
