Up-and-coming standouts from the NBA and the world will be featured on Friday night as part of the NBA's All-Star Weekend festivities in San Francisco. The 2025 Rising Stars annual showcase will take place at Chase Center, featuring four teams and highlighting the NBA's top rookies, sophomores and G League standouts. Amen Thompson (Rockets), Stephon Castle (Spurs), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Heat) and Bub Carrington (Wizards) are among those scheduled to participate. Yves Missi (knee) of the Pelicans is a late scratch and he'll be replaced on Team Mitch by Matas Buzelis (Bulls).

The event's four honorary coaches will be Tim Hardaway Sr., Mitch Richmond, Chris Mullin and Jeremy Lin, with three games on the schedule.

The Rising Stars 2025 is set to begin at 9 p.m. ET. Team Mitch is the betting favorite to win the mini-tournament at +140 (risk $100 to win $140) in the latest 2025 Rising Stars odds. Team Chris is +180, followed by Team Tim (+330) and Team Jeremy (G League) at +600. Team Chris is the 3.5-point favorite in the first game against Team Tim, while Team Mitch is -4.5 in the season against Team Jeremy. 

Before making any 2025 NBA Rising Stars Challenge picks, you'll want to see what elite NBA expert Mike Barner has to say.

Barner is one of the most respected voices in the industry, and his work has appeared in Sports Illustrated and on Yahoo, RotoWire and KFFL. He's also been featured on ESPN Radio. He digs deep into the data, examining team trends and projecting game outcomes. If there's anybody who can spot an edge in a matchup or identify a player in position to break out, it's him.

Barner's expertise has been on full display lately as he enters the All-Star break on an 80-52 run on NBA prop picks (+1836). Over the past five seasons at SportsLine, Mike has crushed sportsbooks with a 470-406 record, returning $2,329 to $100 bettors on against-the-spread NBA picks. Anyone following could have seen huge returns.

Now he has analyzed the 2025 Rising Stars Challenge from all angles and is delivering his picks for SportsLine. We can tell you Barner is fading Team Jeremy, citing a lack of experience. Instead, Barner sees value elsewhere.

However, he's identified a critical x-factor he says makes one team a must-back! You ABSOLUTELY need to see it before locking in any picks of your own.

So who wins the 2025 NBA Rising Stars Challenge? And what critical x-factor do you need to know about? ... Join SportsLine right now to get Friday's 2025 NBA Rising Stars Challenge pick, all from the SportsLine expert who has nailed several past NBA All-Star Weekend picks!