Former 49ers chosen for Celebrity Game at All-Star Weekend

Jerry Rice is coaching against Barry Bonds, while two-time Celebrity Game MVP Terrell Owens makes his triumphant return

After two All-Star Celebrity Game MVP awards in three appearances, people thought Terrell Owens would never return. But with the Golden State Warriors hosting the game this year, the 51-year-old Owens is coming out of Celebrity All-Star retirement to play for head coach Jerry Rice.

Two local sports legends are going up each other as head coaches of their celebrity squads. 2 Chainz is coaching Team Bonds alongside San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds, who usually one wore one chain. He may not be in the Hall of Fame, but the BBWAA can’t keep him out of the Celebrity Game!

On the other side, Team Rice is lead by San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice, along with coach Khaby Lame, the most-followed person on TikTok. Expect him to mainly stand on the sidelines, silently exasperated by the Celebrities’ antics.

Along with Bonds, Rice, and Owens, Bay Area sports are represented by forward Kayla Thornton of the Golden State Valkyries, who was selected from the New York Liberty in the WNBA expansion draft. She’ll also be playing for Team Rice.

Here are the rosters. Clearly, a young, worldly basketball blogger like myself knows who all these people are, but I’ll provide a quick explanation of each player.

Team Bonds

Kai Cenat: A YouTuber and Celebrity Game veteran. He’s the guy who says Patrick Mahomes looks like he’s running after the ice cream truck in the T-Mobile commercial with Snoop Dogg that has played during 50% off all commercial breaks during sporting events in the past year,

Baron Davis: Draymond Green’s podcast co-host. Delivered one of the NBA’s greatest dunks.

Rome Flynn: An actor/model/musician who won a Daytime Emmy for “The Bold and the Beautiful.” He’s six feet tall, roughly eight inches taller than Kai Cenat.

Allisha Gray: Atlanta Dream shooting guard and reigning WNBA All-Star champion in both the Skills Competition and the Three-Point Shootout.

Mickey Guyton: Country singer, 5’8”.

Tucker Halpert: One half of musical duo Sofi Tukkur and former three-year college basketball player at Brown University. Dark horse MVP candidate.

Noah Kahan: Folk-pop singer known for the song “Stick Season.” Kahan is 5’10” but does not appear to have a basketball background.

Danny Ramirez: Actor. Appeared in “Top Gun: Maverick,” and he’s about to play the new Falcon in “Captain America: Brave New World.”

Masai Russell: 2024 Olympic gold medalist in 100M hurdles.

Pablo Schreiber: Known for playing Nick Sobtoka in “The Wire,” one of the bad guys in “Den of Thieves,” and Master Chief in “Halo.” He is 6’5.”

Dylan Wang: Chinese actor and musician, who scored 18 points in last year’s Celebrity Game. As we all know, he’s best known for the song “Disco By The Lake” and the series, “Love Between Fairy and Devil.”

Team Rice

Matt Barnes: He was a Golden State Warrior two different times. He hosts “All The Smoke” with Stephen Jackson, became part of a meme by pretending to throw a basketball at an unflinching Kobe Bryant, and once had a fist fight with Derek Fisher.

Bayley: Professional wrestler from San Jose. Was the WWE women’s champion for 380 straight days.

Chris Brickley: Trainer and basketball “influencer.”

AP Dhillon: Indo-Canadian rapper. He’s six feet tall.

Druski: Comedian and actor, who’s been in a lot of NBA Google Pixel commercials.

Walker Hayes: Country singer known for hit song/Applebee’s commercial “Fancy Like.”

Shelby McEwen: Silver medalist in the high jump. Played college basketball. Olympic high jumpers are generally awesome in the Celebrity Game, since they can all dunk.

Terrell Owens: Still probably pretty good at basketball at 51. Might stand on the halfcourt logo after made baskets.

Shaboozey: Country star who also does hip-hop. 6’2” height is a plus, may be vulnerable to getting tipsy on the court.

Oliver Stark: British actor who is on “9-1-1.” He’s 6’2” and was in a show about martial arts, so he could be a threat.

Ultimately, we like Team Rice. They’ve got more people who have been basketball players, they’ve got a high jumper, they’ve got T.O. I also feel like this coaching staff will be more able to deal with the various Ruffles shenanigans on the court. Sorry, Barry, but Jerry has simply won more big games.