{"id":595826,"date":"2026-02-11T02:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/595826\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T02:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:30:14","slug":"ajay-mitchells-2026-nba-all-star-weekend-replacement-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/595826\/","title":{"rendered":"Ajay Mitchell’s 2026 NBA All-Star weekend replacement announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 10, 2026, 7:00 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

\"Jan<\/p>\n

It’ll be a relatively quiet 2026 NBA All-Star weekend for the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>. Injuries have dwindled their participants of the weekend extravaganza to just one.<\/p>\n

The NBA announced on Tuesday that Ajay Mitchell will be sidelined from the Rising Stars challenge. He will be replaced by Zaccharie Risacher for Tracy McGrady’s squad.<\/p>\n

The four-team tournament highlights the league’s best rookies and second-year players. One team also consists of G League players. It will take place on Friday, Feb. 13.<\/p>\n

Mitchell has had a breakout season. He’s averaged 14.1 points on 48.7% shooting, 3.7 assists and 3.5 rebounds. The 23-year-old has seen his importance skyrocket to the point that he runs the bench lineup and helps Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as an off-ball scoring threat.<\/p>\n

Mitchell has missed nine straight games with an abdominal strain he sustained in OKC’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> on Jan. 21. The NBA’s injury replacement likely means he will miss at least the next two games as the Thunder cross the finish line to All-Star break.<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander will also miss out on the three-day festivities. He’s also dealing with an abdominal strain that will keep him out for at least five games. Holmgren will participate in Saturday’s All-Star Shooting Stars competition and Sunday’s 2026 NBA All-Star Game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 10, 2026, 7:00 p.m. CT It’ll be a relatively quiet 2026 NBA All-Star weekend for the Oklahoma…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[72400,7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,30882,72482,72492,72404,72487,72408,72444,72422,75234,72484,72445,72485,72406,73296,312,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-595826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-oklahoma","12":"tag-oklahoma-city","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-oklahomacity","15":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","16":"tag-sstssportsnbathunder","17":"tag-sstsnokc-thunder","18":"tag-tagajay-mitchell","19":"tag-tagbasketball","20":"tag-tagchet-holmgren","21":"tag-tagmilwaukee-bucks","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnba","24":"tag-tagnba-all-star-game","25":"tag-tagoklahoma-city-thunder","26":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","27":"tag-tagshai-gilgeous-alexander","28":"tag-tagsports-news","29":"tag-tagzaccharie-risacher","30":"tag-thunder","31":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116049649853901979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}