Portland Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson sees Rising Stars Challenge selection as a blessing

While it’s on a much lesser scale than some NBA records, Portland Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson’s number of selections to the NBA Rising Stars Challenge may be just as unbreakable.

Henderson won’t play in the game due to a right ankle sprain, but he was selected for his fourth appearance in the Rising Stars Challenge taking place during NBA All-Star Weekend on Friday at Chase Center in San Francisco. Henderson has been selected to the Rising Stars Challenge twice with his current club and twice before with the G League Ignite. Since the Ignite became defunct after last season, it would be tough for another player to reach four Rising Stars appearances ever again.

“[I ] was looking forward to participating in my fourth rising stars game, but will still be there to root on Team M, along with my teammates Toumani [Camara] and Bryce [McGowens].” Henderson said. “Four times? Yeah, it’s a blessing. Every single time I went, I prayed. Once I saw I got the invitation, I prayed every single time. So, it’s a blessing man, just to be able to do things like that. Obviously, four times nobody has probably ever done it, so [it’s a] blessing. That’s all I can say.

“A lot of people don’t get the opportunity, so it’s not like you can’t get fatigued. A lot of people don’t even make it this far.”

The 2025 Rising Stars pool includes 10 first-year and 11 second-year NBA players split into three seven-player teams and one seven-player G League squad that will play in the tournament. The winning Rising Stars team will have the privilege of playing in the NBA All-Star Game mini-tournament on Sunday against the actual NBA All-Stars. Henderson will be replaced by Denver’s Julian Strawther for Team M, which will include twins Amen and Ausar Thompson, Bilal Coulibaly, Toumani Camara, Yves Missi and Bub Carrington.

Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups wasn’t surprised that Henderson was chosen for a fourth time.

“Scoot has been playing with a little fire. He has been playing amazing,” Billups said.

Henderson sprained his ankle in Monday’s game against the Denver Nuggets and is out against Denver on Wednesday. He said he has had an amazing experience playing in the Rising Stars Challenge the previous three seasons, but the opportunity to be on the first-ever Rising Stars squad to play in the NBA All-Star Game mini-tournament is huge.

“That’s a fun thing to just see the Rising Stars going against the All-Stars of the league,” Henderson said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the Rising Stars and me as well.”

Henderson played for the G League Ignite for two seasons instead of playing a potential senior year in high school and freshman season in college. The Ignite was a player development G League team that the NBA disbanded in 2024 after four seasons. Henderson was selected as the third overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft and was the first point guard taken. After Henderson was drafted, the Blazers dealt their all-time leading scorer Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks on Sept. 27, 2023.

Henderson had a roller coaster rookie season as he averaged 14 points on 38.5% shooting from the field, 5.4 assists, and 3.4 turnovers per game while shooting 32.5% from 3-point range. This season primarily as a reserve, the 21-year-old is averaging 12.4 points on an improved 43.4% field goal percentage, 5.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game in 46 games. Henderson scored a career-high 39 points against Brooklyn on Jan. 14 and has seven games over 20 points this season. Improved from a season ago, the Marietta, Georgia, native is shooting 36.5% from 3-point range.

Henderson said he doesn’t feel the weight of being a high draft pick and is confident he will be able to build better consistency with his play.

“It’s just a consistency of knowing where I’m going to get my shots every single game,” Henderson said. “That’s something that I figured out recently and I’m like, ‘okay, this how’s going to be, this is how I got to go on about it and still try to reach my goals every single quarter.’ Just to go out there and play hard and get a few assists. That’s really my bigger picture.

“Just get guys open shots. I got the ball in my hand so I can take any shot I want. So that’s up to me. That’s something I got to do better at and that’s something I have gotten better as a mental note just to attack.”

Luckily for Henderson, he has guidance, a role model and a motivational story in Billups.

As a rookie guard for the Boston Celtics in 1997-98, Billups averaged 11.1 points, 4.3 assists and 2.3 turnovers per game while starting in 44 of 51 games. On Feb. 18, 1998, the Celtics impatiently traded Billups to the Toronto Raptors. Billups played for Toronto, Denver and Minnesota and battled injuries before finally solidifying himself as an elite point guard in NBA with the Detroit Pistons.

Known as “Mr. Big Shot,” Billups became a 2004 NBA champion and NBA Finals Most Valuable Player and had his No. 1 jersey retired by the Pistons. The four-time NBA All-Star also was named to the 2024 class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“The more you play, the more get familiar with it,” Billups said. “Every team plays different schemes. In this situation, it takes a while to learn it. You get to a point where you say, ‘I don’t care what scheme you are playing. This is how I play and you’re going to have to deal with that.’ That’s when you turn that corner.

“Games where he has played really aggressive and with a lot of force, he’s usually successful. When he’s struggling a little bit [or] he may be thinking a little too much, he’s a little passive, a little hesitant; he might turn it over a little here, there. When he doesn’t worry about that, he is pretty dangerous.”