The NBA Skills Challenge (officially named The Taco Bell Skills Challenge), is a National Basketball Association (NBA) contest held on the Saturday before the annual All-Star Game as part of the All-Star Weekend. First held in 2003, it is a competition to test ball-handling, passing and shooting ability.
Until the 2022 edition, two participants raced against each other on identical courses by first dribbling between five obstacles while running down the court. Next, the player must throw a pass into an upright hoop. Then, the players must dribble back the full length of the court for a lay up. Shortly after, the players must dribble back down the court and hit a three pointer from the top of the basketball key. The match ends when the first player hits the three pointer. The champion was decided via a single elimination tournament format, with a guard and a frontcourt player guaranteed to face off in the final round. Frontcourt players were first allowed and invited to participate in 2016, and the event has since crowned centers and forwards as winners, beginning with Karl-Anthony Towns that year[1] and followed by Kristaps Porziņģis in 2017, Bam Adebayo in 2020, and current champion Domantas Sabonis.
Since 2022, a new format[2] was introduced. Under the new format, three teams will participate in a four-round competition. The first is a shooting round between. The second round is a passing challenge. The third round is a relay competition. The final round, between the two leading teams, is a half court shooting contest.
