NBA All-Star Weekend: Larry Nance Jr. officially competing in the dunk contest

Larry Nance Jr. will be joining the Los Angeles Lakers’ Rising Stars trio for All-Star weekend at STAPLES Center. Nance Jr. has been officially named as one of the All-Star Dunk Contest participants, joining Aaron Gordon, Dennis Smith Jr. and Victor Oladipo for the rim-rattling showdown.

The #LetLarryDunk movement has been a strong one, with Lakers fans getting behind the leapingest-Laker this side of Shannon Brown since he joined the team. Nance Jr. has left quite an impression with his assortment of in-game posterizations, but putting together a memorable planned dunk is another beast.

The contest will go down Saturday, part of the “fun” night that includes the Skills Challenge (Spencer Dinwiddie, Kristaps Porzinigis, Lou Williams, Al Horford, Joel Embiid, Donovan Mitchell, Jamal Murray and Lauri Markkanen), three-point contest (Devin Booker, Wayne Ellington, Paul George, Bradley Beal, Klay Thompson, Tobias Harris, Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon) and dunk-off.

The action begins Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. ET on TNT, following up a night featuring Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram in the Rising Stars Challenge to open up the festivities on Friday.

The hype is real!